Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Karabiner]

I have learnt that cormorants are members of the crow family.

The Romans called them sea-ravens.

[kinboshi]

Baddum-tsh

I'm here all week, try the horse.

[tikay]

I have learnt that cormorants are members of the crow family.

The Romans called them sea-ravens.

Something else I never knew. The list seems to grow by the day.

Weird, the older we get, the less we know. When I was in my twenties I knew everything.

Even in the miniscule world of blonde, I see so many things every day which make no sense at all. Probably best not to mention them though.

[tikay]

Taken by an Astronaut this afternoon, and tweeted

Prestwick (bottom left) to Glasgow (right-centre), with Loch Lomond (centre-right) and Inveraray (top left I believe)

Click to see full-size image.

Great photo Rich, thanks.

I had not realised until I went up there on holiday recently just how huge Loch Lomond is. I was en route to Ratagan, up by the Isle of Skye, & decided to stop over at the Cameron House Hotel, right on the banks of Loch Lomond.

So tranquil, total peace & quiet, hard to believe it was just up the road from Glasgow.

The Hotel was proper grand, & a bit pricey, but really delightful, they did not even have music in the Restaurant.

Highly recommended.

I have some of my own photos which I'll try & find, but there are from google. As you may have guessed.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

I had a bit of bad earlier in the week, but it all turned out OK in the end.

I was a bit miffed at the time, but I spoke to Tom, & as ever, he put it in context.

With hindsight, I owe Karl Marhrenholz a good drink, were it not for him the problem could have been much worse.

I owed Karl a few quid, £90 or whatever, for some staking action.

I logged onto my Online Banking, & immediately noticed something was wrong. There were ELEVEN payments, all on the same day, to Wonga.com, each for around £300, & one payment to O2 for £30. I have never dealt with either company. The Wonga Payments were attributed to London NW1, & the O2 from Slough.

This was 0730 one morning when I discovered it, & I rang the bank - NatWest - immediately.

They asked a bunch of reasonable questions, then said they would all be refunded to me by 6pm that day. In fact, the "Fraud Refund" was in my bank just over two hours later, except they missed two, later corrected & since refunded.

They also warned me there there were NINE more payments not yet showing on my Account, all of them to Wonga.com. Two were for around £300, the other seven were each for......£1. (Admin fee or somesuch?).

These have not yet been refunded, but NatWest have promised me they will be.

Two more have appeared this morning, each for £305.50, but they are dated Feb 26th, so are part of the same batch I suppose.

When I rung the Bank, they immediately cancelled my Debit Card, & said they would send me a new one. Not received it yet, but I guess it will arrive in a day or two. Until it does, I'm officially poor, no cash in my pocket, no way of paying for stuff. Happy days in some ways, it's been a while since I was totally boracic. Quite a reality check that. Tom offered me an emergency loan, until the new card arrived, but I rather liked the idea of eking out the few quid in my pocket. I had planned to play the DTD £300 today, but the thought of borrowing money to play poker is just too horrible. Guess I could sell my action at about 0.45. I'm sure Flushy would buy at that price.

Must be said, for all the bad publicity they get, NatWest handled it wonderfully, & their Fraud people had excellent personal skills. We are not exactly calm & reasoned when we discover some random has nicked £4,000 from our Bank Account, but they handled the convo, & whole palaver, with great empathy & understanding.

I would not have discovered it for a while if I had not gone Online to pay Karl, so I owe him thanks too.

Knowing my luck, I bet he wins the Tourney now, & I get a nice payback.

Its good to run good.

[Tal]

You can go to a branch of your bank with a statement and some ID with your address on and they should allow you to withdraw from your account.

[tikay]

You can go to a branch of your bank with a statement and some ID with your address on and they should allow you to withdraw from your account.

Thanks Tal, but I'm happy being frugal for a few days, it will do me no harm.

I have some Credit Cards too (it was a Debit Card that got hacked), plus a dormant Access Card I suppose I could use, but I think I'll just wait till the new card comes.

I'm off for a 50 mile + walk shortly, too. How exciting - me, walking.

Don't worry guys, I'll take my camera with me.

[DaveShoelace]

Can't you sell acorns to tourists and tell them they are Robin Hood's lucky acorn?

[AndrewT]

More common than you think.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/features/wonga-account-fraud

[kinboshi]

You can go to a branch of your bank with a statement and some ID with your address on and they should allow you to withdraw from your account.

Thanks Tal, but I'm happy being frugal for a few days, it will do me no harm.

I have some Credit Cards too (it was a Debit Card that got hacked), plus a dormant Access Card I suppose I could use, but I think I'll just wait till the new card comes.

I'm off for a 50 mile + walk shortly, too. How exciting - me, walking.

Don't worry guys, I'll take my camera with me.

Dormant Access card?  Access stopped existing over 15 years ago!

Hope you get it all sorted ASAP.  Any idea where or how they got your details from for the Wonga fraud?  Also is it true the old bloke in the advert is modelled on you?

[Tal]

The O2 one was likely the tester. If your card has been cloned, they tend to try it out in case you've reported it stolen and cancelled it already or to see if not whether you would notice a small amount being taken out.

Similar thing happened to me a couple of years ago. Only difference is I don't have much, so I would know if somebody walked past my account from the slight breeze they'd leave behind, let alone actually withdrawing money from it.

[Machka]

I had a bit of bad earlier in the week, but it all turned out OK in the end.

I was a bit miffed at the time, but I spoke to Tom, & as ever, he put it in context.

With hindsight, I owe Karl Marhrenholz a good drink, were it not for him the problem could have been much worse.

I owed Karl a few quid, £90 or whatever, for some staking action.

I logged onto my Online Banking, & immediately noticed something was wrong. There were ELEVEN payments, all on the same day, to Wonga.com, each for around £300, & one payment to O2 for £30. I have never dealt with either company. The Wonga Payments were attributed to London NW1, & the O2 from Slough.

This was 0730 one morning when I discovered it, & I rang the bank - NatWest - immediately.

They asked a bunch of reasonable questions, then said they would all be refunded to me by 6pm that day. In fact, the "Fraud Refund" was in my bank just over two hours later, except they missed two, later corrected & since refunded.

They also warned me there there were NINE more payments not yet showing on my Account, all of them to Wonga.com. Two were for around £300, the other seven were each for......£1. (Admin fee or somesuch?).

These have not yet been refunded, but NatWest have promised me they will be.

Two more have appeared this morning, each for £305.50, but they are dated Feb 26th, so are part of the same batch I suppose.

When I rung the Bank, they immediately cancelled my Debit Card, & said they would send me a new one. Not received it yet, but I guess it will arrive in a day or two. Until it does, I'm officially poor, no cash in my pocket, no way of paying for stuff. Happy days in some ways, it's been a while since I was totally boracic. Quite a reality check that. Tom offered me an emergency loan, until the new card arrived, but I rather liked the idea of eking out the few quid in my pocket. I had planned to play the DTD £300 today, but the thought of borrowing money to play poker is just too horrible. Guess I could sell my action at about 0.45. I'm sure Flushy would buy at that price.

Must be said, for all the bad publicity they get, NatWest handled it wonderfully, & their Fraud people had excellent personal skills. We are not exactly calm & reasoned when we discover some random has nicked £4,000 from our Bank Account, but they handled the convo, & whole palaver, with great empathy & understanding.

I would not have discovered it for a while if I had not gone Online to pay Karl, so I owe him thanks too.

Knowing my luck, I bet he wins the Tourney now, & I get a nice payback.

Its good to run good.

More importantly did Natwest tell you how the fraud was carried out?  Why won't it happen again?

My guess is someone got hold of your debit card and got the details off that.  

All the more worrying at it would mean it's someone you know or someone you've given your debit card to recently.  

Eaten out at any restuarants lately or bought petrol by debit card at any petrol stations you don't usually go to?

[tikay]

More common than you think.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/features/wonga-account-fraud

Jeez, that has scared the life out of me.

Thanks Andrew.

[tikay]

You can go to a branch of your bank with a statement and some ID with your address on and they should allow you to withdraw from your account.

Thanks Tal, but I'm happy being frugal for a few days, it will do me no harm.

I have some Credit Cards too (it was a Debit Card that got hacked), plus a dormant Access Card I suppose I could use, but I think I'll just wait till the new card comes.

I'm off for a 50 mile + walk shortly, too. How exciting - me, walking.

Don't worry guys, I'll take my camera with me.

Dormant Access card?  Access stopped existing over 15 years ago!

Hope you get it all sorted ASAP.  Any idea where or how they got your details from for the Wonga fraud?  Also is it true the old bloke in the advert is modelled on you?

Just had a look, the Card no longer says "Access", but it was originally, & I still pay a few Direct Debits via it, so it is still "live".

It was the first "plastic" I ever had, back when credit cards were first invented, 1980 something I seem to recall. Had the same card ever since, but have not used it, those DD's apart, for yonks. I seem to have 4 or 5 cards, I'm not entirely sure what they are all supposed to do, I mostly use the Visa Debit Card these days.