Credit Card Maxxed Out - By Some Other Bastard

Take care with your credit card people. I've just become the victim of credit card fraud. Whilst walking with my colleagues at lunch time I received a phone call from a private number, which in itself was a bit weird, and the guy was from the bank. He mentioned that a couple of strange transactions had taken place on my credit card and asked if was I aware of them. I asked him to call me back in ten minutes time when I would be in the office and could hear him better.

Back in the office I checked my credit card statement and found two purchases for AirAsia flights. These, in fact, weren't the purchases that had set off the bank's credit card fraud mob. There were another couple of transactions that maxxed the card out and happened late at night on the Monday and so weren't on the statement yet. Glad to see that the bank was monitoring it properly. Card was stopped immediately. Luckily the card wasn't linked to any automatic debit payments otherwise I'd have a real headache.

Now, I'm a careful bloke when it comes to money. And doubly so when it relates to my credit card. I've had a credit card for 17 years and keep a written record of purchases and the receipts so that I can check every statement off. In 17 years I haven't had a fraudulent purchase occur. Four cases in a two week period after that is certainly not a coincidence. I keep the statements and receipts for a period of two to three years then shred them. Anything with my address or contact details is shredded and not just thrown out. I discourage mail in my letter box as it is quite easy to steal to obtain personal details. When at a restaurant I go with the credit card to make the payment not trusting the waitstaff to handle my card by themselves. You're not supposed to reveal your PIN to anyone and I haven't. This annoys my wife even though she has no need to know anyway.

So how did this happen? Hm, could have been from any number of shops which have credit card/EFTPOS facilities where I make purchases from. I make purchases online but use HTTPS Websites. It's possible that the credit card details are stored in cookies on my computer but I don't think that my computer has been compromised as I have an up-to-date antivirus package and firewall. Still possible though for a virus to get through. The Websites visited may have some code installed, by others, that allows them to copy credit card details. Could have been a skimmer in the shops - McDonalds had a big problem with that recently and I refuse to use my card there. Somebody in a shop may have just copied the card details down when they had an opportunity. Plenty of ways when you think about it.

I'm sure the Australian Federal Police would be most interested in who took the flights on AirAsia. If you were a criminal, and not too stupid, you certainly wouldn't be booking a flight for yourself with stolen credit card details. It's probably gone to a third party who's using fake ID in any case. Maybe I'm just giving the crims too much credit.

Be careful with your credit cards and who has access to the details. Be vigilant with checking your statements. Use secure Websites. Report any fraudulent activity to your bank.

Reminds me of a joke.
Frank says to his mate, "You know, Ted, some bloke stole my credit card a few months back."
"Really?" said Frank. "That's terrible. What are you gonna do?"
"Well, I think I'll let him keep it. He spends less than my wife used to."

Speeding P-Plater

One would consider a probationary driver exceeding the speed limit by 60 km/h to be rather foolish and unworthy of being entrusted with driving on the road for the safety of other road users with immediate effect. There was a report in the local rag back home recently of an 18 year old p-plater from Adelaide, some 270 km away, who was caught driving her father's BMW at 140 km/h in an 80 zone. Consequences of her actions were a $692 fine and disqualification from driving for six months. The police allowed her 24 hours to drive home before the driving ban came into effect though.

What were they thinking? At the rates of knots this young woman travelled at she only needed two hours before the car could be parked in the garage at home. Get her off the road. I dare say that daddy wouldn't have been too impressed either. But he's lucky that it was in South Australia and not Western Australia where we have hoon laws. That car would have been impounded by the police had the offence taken place over here.

I was relating the story to a colleague and he informed me that his daughter had been caught exceeding the speed limit by 25 km/h on Saturday and her car was impounded. He didn't think that speed was such a bad thing if the driver could handle the car at such speeds. To consider this thought think about a young man that he knows who has a CAMS (Confederation of Australian Motor Sport) licence which allows him to be a race driver. The guy is only 16 and has a learners licence and so isn't allowed to drive on public roads by himself but can run around a race track at over 150 km/h. Maybe there are some drivers who would be much less of a danger to others on the road as they have been taught to drive instead of taught to pass a driving test but I can't condone excessive speed when the roads are full of idiots who don't know how to handle vehicles properly.

Love the fact that the local paper brings to life the misdemeanours of ordinary people. It's not something you read about in the big smoke and it does make you think that perhaps the system is working. The consequences of criminal behaviour is punishment. I'd like to see this in the large daily newspaper here too.


Crime Report from Border Chronicle

Chinese Criminals and Cricket Villains

Chinese criminals and cricket villains - they'll all related. I'll try to explain.

Stern Hu, a Rio Tinto executive, currently stands accused of bribery and corruption in China. He has allegedly bribed 16 steel mills in China into giving away secrets relating to the iron ore industry and seriously jeopardised the wealth of China as a whole. Just how is that related to cricket? Well, I have the distinct feeling that there will be 16 executives in China willing to “go into bat” for Stern Hu. Just as long as Andrew Strauss isn't fielding in the slips for them. I understand that China uses the death penalty to punish white collar criminals along with blue collar criminals. The 16, at least, involved will be doing their utmost to convince the authorities that Stern Hu hasn't done anything wrong at all. Maybe only to save their own skins if nothing else. It is also well known that the Chinese authorities send the bill for the bullet to the family of executed criminals.

Speaking of criminals that also ties in with the cricket currently. Just ask any dinky-di Australian how he feels about England captain Andrew Strauss at the moment and his claim to have taken a catch to dismiss Aussie opener Phillip Hughes although replays indicate that the ball hit the ground. He didn't even have the sportsmanship to ask for the umpires to send the decision upstairs to the third umpire for review. I have to say that the umpires made the decision on the ground though and didn't feel the need to get a second opinion. But with another wicket falling to a no-ball and a third top order batsman for Australia being given out caught when he didn't hit the ball it was almost a criminal outcome for the match for England to win. It's not so much sour grapes. We have the technology and we should be utilising it. If there is a catch then the third umpire should immediately review the video to see if the bowler overstepped the line. There would be ample time to recall the batsmen if something had been overlooked. Ricky Ponting must have been livid with the decisions that went against Australia. Perhaps he has a short memory though. Didn't he do things that antagonised the Indians when we last played in India? Is Ricky feeling tired or stressed? Maybe he'd feel better if he took his Swisse Ultivites.

Executives bribing Chinese companies for state secrets and England cricket captains doing anything to win a game of cricket. They'll all criminals. But the wrong guy might end up getting shot for his behaviour. He he.