Aug
16
2010
Archive for the ‘Commentary’ Category
Aug
5
2010
On “Greed” and Capitalism
Author: RobertinSeattleI recently joined a new Facebook page called Create the Good that the AARP started to put a social network approach to helping others in big and small ways by connecting people and causes. They posted a link to a recent article about how Bill Gates and Warren Buffett were encouraging the other billionaires in America to pledge half of their wealth to charity. You can read one piece about that on Huffington Post – click HERE to read the post.
Well, it didn’t take very long before the wealth re-distribution trolls came out and tried to rain on the parade. Here are some of the comments that I couldn’t help finally answering personally. (Honestly – WTF is wrong with some people?!!)
A friend just sent me this very old interview (Thanx, Mike) from the Phil Donahue Show in 1979 with the late, great economist, Milton Friedman (check out that snazzy pink jacket!). Somehow I don’t think this was quite the answer Donahue was looking for but I do suspect he was enlightened. And under that clip is another short piece from John Stossel on Capitalism.
Jul
22
2010
My Credit Card Fraud Part 2
Author: RobertinSeattle
OK – so here’s the deal: As you may have already read in my previous post (click HERE to read it), my bank canceled my VISA debit card immediately earlier this week and has begun the chargeback process to reverse the fraudulent charges on that card. Most of the money has already been returned to my account after some serious paperwork.
I checked my account this morning and lo and behold – another strange charge against my account. This one was from ThinkGeek.com. While I may not have given this purchase too much thought normally since I do order a lot of electronic stuff online (and OK – I’ll admit it: I’m a geek), I didn’t recall ever buying anything from these guys. So with a few minutes in between business calls, I decided to call the toll-free number included in their transaction posted to my online banking statement this morning. Turns out they had already shipped the item out: a hand-held game controller for $112.08. Which I definitely didn’t order (I don’t play video games). I provided the credit card support lady enough information to convince her that I was the owner of the card without her having to divulge any details of the account holder. When pressed a bit, she was kind enough to tell me that the order was being shipped to an address in West Virginia.
Armed with that information, I decided to look back a few days and call the folks over at Cabelas.com which is an online outdoor recreation company. I got patched through to the credit card department quickly and went through the same process of identifying myself to the woman on the other end of the line. Again once she knew I was who I claimed to be and very likely the actual owner of the VISA card; she did tell me that we’d need a subpoena to get them to provide deep details on the account using my card information (things like the shipping address as well as the originating IP address for the order). However, like ThinkGeek, she did let me know that the $75.94 charge was for a pair of hiking sandals and that the order had once again already been shipped. To Pennsylvania.
Separate shipping addresses would indicate that this is likely a trans-shipment scam. Internet card thieves steal, buy and sell database collections of card information that include your card number, your name, your registered address and phone number, and sometimes even the special CSV number that’s supposed to provide extra protection for your card (NOT!). So the thieves have all of my personal contact information as well as my card numbers and they can easily set up accounts at various online merchants pretending to be you. Then all they have to do is go back into that account and set up a new shipping address and have goods shipped to that new address right inside the merchant’s system. The giveaway was the fact that two of these products were being shipped to different addresses in different states. And if any of you have read some of those Make-Money-at-Home spam messages that we all get 24/7, you may have run across the ones that try to recruit people to work from home re-shipping stuff for UPS and FedEx. “Their warehouses are bursting at the seams and they need you to handle the overflow. All you have to do is receive the packages and then re-ship them to the addresses we provide you and you’ll get paid $3 – $5.00 a package!” Who can pass that up, right?
Well, those packages generally end up overseas in places like Nigeria. I remember meeting FBI Agent Dale Miskell who worked on Internet Fraud, particularly a lot of those overseas Nigerian scams and trans-shipment fraud. He talked extensively about how many people they caught each time he and his team went over to Lagos, Nigeria and how more scammers just keep popping up in a country where the median income was $2300 a year. Internet fraud seems to have become a way of life for many of the semi-computer literate poor who have easy access through the many Internet cafés everywhere. The sad thing is that this type of fraud is rampant, easy to do and hard to stop and there are few resources properly set up to report and track them, let alone stop them. Calls to the local FBI office were pointed to the website for the Internet Crimes Unit (IC3.gov) and I have yet to hear back from a human being.
Here’s a summary on an ABC documentary on one Nigerian scam sting:
And here are a couple of pieces from MSNBC and USA Today- click HERE and HERE.
Even those little transactions need some scrutiny and I’m now realizing how many people typically glance over small amounts on their statements which was one reason it took the FTC almost five years to bust a ring that defrauded over a million cardholders of well over $10 million by hitting each of them up for one-time transactions under $10. (You gotta read the details in this FTC announcement – click HERE.)
I suspect that I’ll probably be seeing even more details popping up on this particular hack and my closing advice for this post is to keep reminding everyone to check your bank and credit card accounts frequently. More to come…
Jul
20
2010
Why You Should Check Your Bank Account Regularly
Author: RobertinSeattle
I was trying to pay for a new health insurance policy last night and the site kept telling me that my payment wouldn’t go through even though I knew I should have had enough in there to cover it. So this morning, I finally went to my online banking to look over my recent transactions. What first caught my attention were a couple of small 76¢ fees for Service Fees for International Transactions. Then I found the two transactions just a little bit further the same day for $76.21 to a flaky British online dating company called Friends Reunited. (!!!) A quick Google search showed a lot of complaints against this company for… unauthorized transactions! Three more pending transactions were at the top of the list for exactly $75.76 apiece and they probably wouldn’t have completely posted until tonight. I also found an earlier transaction to Cabelas.com on July 14th for $75.94 and – like the other five later transactions – I’ve never done business with them either. Ever. (Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them for reading.)
I ended up calling my bank’s service center and they immediately canceled my VISA debit card. They also instructed me to head over to my branch this afternoon to sign some affidavits acknowledging that these were not transactions that I had authorized. The money should be returned to my account in the next day or two and my new card will probably arrive early next week. HomeStreet Bank rocks!
Tonight I also sent e-mails out to several online merchants that I’ve recently been ordering stuff from to alert them to the possibility that their transaction servers and databases may have been hacked or compromised.What’s interesting to note is that the transactions were all probably kept intentionally under $100 (although smaller transactions under $10 each would probably have been a lot harder for most people to bother checking on their accounts.) And these wannabe thieves were obviously not all that sophisticated since they may have had better luck not trying to shove several transactions through at a time.
I’m posting all of this just to alert as many people as possible to be aware that this can happen to anyone – both consumers and merchants. Keeping an eye on your bank transactions regularly is the best way to guard yourself against it quickly. I doubt if we can ever completely out a stop to online thievery but we can keep making it harder. Pass this along to your friends – this is a new one that’s starting right now.
Jul
17
2010
Our Neighborhood Cat Burglar
Author: RobertinSeattleAs featured on local KING5 News:
Jul
4
2010
Crises of Capitalism: A New Look
Author: RobertinSeattleFrom RSA Animate – one word: WOW! Thought provoking!
Jul
1
2010
Online Anagram Generator
Author: RobertinSeattleOh crap! It’s Friday coming into July 4th weekend and I just discovered this addictive time-waster! Check out the anagrams you can make out of anything you toss at it. I can’t believe there are 66,669 variations for RobertinSeattle! Click HERE to check out the Internet Anagram Server.
Jun
29
2010
iPhone vs. Android
Author: RobertinSeattleJun
27
2010
BP Oil Leak from PBS
Author: RobertinSeattlePBS has been hosting the live video feed of the BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico along with a running meter of the gallons of oil leaked:
Jun
26
2010
From Toronto: G20 Summit Folly Blues
Author: RobertinSeattleFrom my old friend, Thach, back in Toronto:
Tak Bui/ Vocal-Mandolin-Guitar, Kathleen Howes/ Vocal- Guitar, Kathy Montgomery/ Vocal-Banjo-Bass
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