Over the last few weeks Kaiao and I have been purchasing items to prepare Makai for our long voyage. Items include a life raft, foul weather gear and a SSB receiver (to receive weather reports while traveling). To our dismay we received a phone call last night indicating that our credit card had been compromised and a purchase was made in Columbia for a modular building. Fortunately our credit card company has fraud protection and called us immediately. We cancelled the card and are now awaiting a new one to come in before we travel.
Here are a few tips to help minimize your chances of this happening to you:
- Check your accounts frequently and ensure you or an authorized user purchased the item or service
- Shred all statements before disposing of them (or switch to electronic statements)
- Ensure companies are legitimate before initiating phone orders
- Only enter a credit card number on a secure site (must start with https://)
Luckily our bank will cover the fraudulent charges and will pursue legal action, however not all banks will do this. Make sure that your bank has fraudulent protection to ensure you will not pay out of your pocket for expenses you didn't make!
Well, that was an "odd" one. Is there a "message" here? Thank goodness it seems no real damage was done. As my big tea mug states: "It's All Good/It's All Good". It's just that we can't always figure out "Why" it's so darn good :( . At least not at first, anyway. But, eventually. Do you think you should ask your card company if you should check on &/or put a freeze on your credit reports? Just for the record: we've had 3 (three!) credit cards over the past couple of decades or so, and every single one of them--every single one!--has been hacked. The program "60 Minutes" (www.60minutes.com) has some very interesting investigative reporting on this huge, back-market "industry" that has close ties with Eastern-European countries that don't like the US very much which you can watch online on your laptops. We became very interested in the dynamics of this criminal network after becoming its victims. Well dears, count your many blessings, go do something fun to get your minds off this a bit and give yourselves some perspective, [and you might "Speak softly and carry a Big Stick" as FDR used to advise :) ], and know that our prayers from Molokai are with you all. "Moloka'i pule o'o"---so that means they're EXTRA powerful. XOXOXO PS: There's a little pile of mail here for both of you. I feel some of it may be important (insurance, military, etc.). Could I forward it on: c/o General Delivery; Wilmington, NC + ZIP?
ReplyDeleteA hearty congratulations on completing your commissioning passage. Just got the link from Mike. Henry
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