Essential MTB gear...my helmet, water bottle, gloves, and iPod.Thursday, November 16, 2006
Its on me...
Today (well yesterday to be precise), I became the victim of some pretty high tech credit card crime. Got a call at around 4pm from my bank, asking whether I had just used my credit card - the answer to which was no, why. "Well sir, when last did you use it?". Truth is that I last used in on Sunday 12th Nov, to buy some groceries. Holding the guy on the phone, I quickly logged into my bank account to pull a credit card statement, and sure enough, starting yesterday, there were five transactions, ranging in value from R75, to over R5000 - everything from Nando's Chicken burgers, to CD's and furniture - a total of over R10,000.
I'm not really annoyed at the amounts, as I know that the bank will refund the fraudulent transactions, but I am very irritated at the audacity of how it was done.
I suspect, and after talking to the credit card division at my bank, I'm fairly certain that my card was skimmed at a restaurant, and the details obtained from it were used to create a duplicate card. If the transactions were internet based, then this would not be the case, but because the card was used in store, there was definitely a duplicate card present at time of transaction.
So, looking further into it, I have narrowed it down to 4 possible restaurants - and I suspect that it was the one that K and I had lunch at last Saturday. Reason being, is that we know for sure that another restaurant in the complex has suffered the same fate, as they were investigated by a bank that a friend of ours used to work at.
If there's a lesson to be learnt, wherever possible, when paying for your meal make sure that the waitron brings a hand held point of sale to your table before handing over your card, or accompany them to the POS if there is no hand held available.
I'm not really annoyed at the amounts, as I know that the bank will refund the fraudulent transactions, but I am very irritated at the audacity of how it was done.
I suspect, and after talking to the credit card division at my bank, I'm fairly certain that my card was skimmed at a restaurant, and the details obtained from it were used to create a duplicate card. If the transactions were internet based, then this would not be the case, but because the card was used in store, there was definitely a duplicate card present at time of transaction.
So, looking further into it, I have narrowed it down to 4 possible restaurants - and I suspect that it was the one that K and I had lunch at last Saturday. Reason being, is that we know for sure that another restaurant in the complex has suffered the same fate, as they were investigated by a bank that a friend of ours used to work at.
If there's a lesson to be learnt, wherever possible, when paying for your meal make sure that the waitron brings a hand held point of sale to your table before handing over your card, or accompany them to the POS if there is no hand held available.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
POTD: 15 Nov 2006
The view from the 6th hole at Observatory Golf Club, looking back towards the clubhouse. Not the greatest round that I've played to date, but still good to get out into the sunshine and fresh air. Notice the Jacaranda trees in the distance - the Kensington/Observatory area is full of them, in full bloom at the moment, blanketing the streets and lawns with their purple flowers.POTD 14 Nov 2006
Interesting choice of name for your business.I spotted this in Edenvale yesterday, Greenvale Road.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Another week down...
Well, I haven't exactly been able to play as much golf as I wanted to. Been rather busy with other 'stuff'. Have spent quite a bit of time swimming over the past week - bit of cycling too. Now that I have the time, I'm spending some of it in the gym - not that work should ever have been an excuse not to go to gym, but its just much easier now. Have also been running around sorting out the admin surrounding our trip to St Anton in December. Organising visa forms, collecting itineraries for application purposes - photos, train tickets...
Went and saw Frank's new place on Friday evening - he has a nice little place that he's recently moved into - with a massive communal garden - really nice.
Didn't really get up to much else this weekend - other than watch the Springboks lose to Ireland. Having said that though, I did take great pleasure in seeing Argentina pull off an historic victory over England. Lets hope SA can do the same this coming weekend.
Currently reading: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. I've just started, so will give you an update once I get into it.
Plan for the day: Try and get a round of golf in, before I need to make my way across town for my squash game this evening.
Went and saw Frank's new place on Friday evening - he has a nice little place that he's recently moved into - with a massive communal garden - really nice.
Didn't really get up to much else this weekend - other than watch the Springboks lose to Ireland. Having said that though, I did take great pleasure in seeing Argentina pull off an historic victory over England. Lets hope SA can do the same this coming weekend.
Currently reading: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. I've just started, so will give you an update once I get into it.
Plan for the day: Try and get a round of golf in, before I need to make my way across town for my squash game this evening.
POTD 13 Nov 2006
The view from the Westcliff, where K and I went for our anniversary dinner the other night.Monday, November 13, 2006
Sunday, November 12, 2006
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