Sunday, March 25, 2007

FRAUD

So tonight I had an interesting discussion with a very authoritatively voiced man named Greg, from the Westpac Bank of Australia Credit Card Fraud Division. (Who apparently maintain office hours well into Sunday evening.)

They had contacted me earlier this month about some questionable transactions on my card, and as I hadn't told them I was coming to China, I assumed that they were merely a little concerned that Ben Shaw of 51 Sutherland Street Brunswick 3056 Melbourne was making credit card transactions in Beijing.

'Twas not so. In fact what had happened is that earlier this month, somebody had used my credit card details to register with an apparently dubious charity called the Islamic Relief Fund. Now I'm all for people being relieved of their religion, but I much prefer the 'haughty arrogant atheist' approach to anything that costs money.

Anyway, they didn't try to spend any of my credit, but they did get my credit card details from somewhere which is a little worrying. The prime suspect is the helpful online movie viewing software that my boss absolutely insisted I install when I first arrived and was naive to the potential dangers of Chinese Spyware. After a few weeks of rapidly declining performance, and the realisation that all of my shortcuts were now pointing to places elsewhere than they were supposed to, I reinstalled windows, changed all my passwords etc. Apparently I was not thorough enough.

My chief concern now is I'm one of these enigmatic 'lists' that the US government maintains, and that I won't be able to enter the US. Which would suck. I really want to see it before its gone.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dude, the US is and has always been overated. Check out their adorable, funloving, peacekeeping neighbours (see the way I spelt that Yanks) to the North. And as for movies, that's what piratebay.org is for...

Anonymous said...

The internet will lead us all to our doom, you have been warned.

Anonymous said...

Dude, the US is here to stay. When Australia was over-run by man-eating koala bears and kangaroos in 1973, who do you think came to your rescue? Americans!!!

On a more serious note: Nuts to people who think the US is in some kind of rut. History will show we were doing just fine all along.

Ben said...

ahhh okay. By the way, despite living there two years, and claims that my kiwi accent has been somewhat Australianified, I am most definitely a New Zealander.

Anonymous said...

bro, it wasnt me. i dont understand islam or the U.S. nor do i want or need to, certainly