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My Credit Card has been skimmed and I’m trying to figure out if I feel personally violated. I’m also thinking about what I could have done to prevent the skimming and what I need to do to protect my card from here on in.

Despite me being very careful with my card, a copy has been made and someone has been on a spending spree to the tune of $2-3,000. However my bank noticed the questionable transactions very quickly as they were all on the opposite side of the country, in Ontario. More importantly I’m not financially liable for fraud.

So, do I feel violated? Around 15 years ago I had my wallet stolen from a zipped coat pocket that was on the back of a chair whilst I was at a motorway service area. That was the first and only time I’ve suffered that kind of robbery and it didn’t feel good. When you add in the hassle of cancelling cards, changing bank accounts etc the whole theft thing becomes very time consuming as well as leaving a feeling of having one’s personal space invaded. Something personal had been taken without my knowledge.

This time it’s different. I still had possession of the card, nothing had been taken from me, except in some ways, part of my identity. Someone was using my name to make fraudulent purchases. In some ways that’s the thing that bites, the thought of my name being used for criminal purposes. That’s where I feel violated.

Could it be prevented?

The thing that’s really irritating is that the UK introduced chip and pin to credit cards nearly three years ago and the same system is only just starting to roll out in Canada. Chip and pin would probably have prevented the fraudulent transactions on my duplicated card as the user would not have my PIN. Okay, unrelated, but banks out here routinely apply account charges, do not offer interest on current/chequing accounts and cheques still seem to be widely used. I guess that the cost of fraud has to be recouped from somewhere and that generally means the customer. In other words, I have issues with the Canadian banking system as it seems somewhat lagging the UK standards for security. However, it’s all I’ve got to work with and so it’s one of those culture shock things that immigrants must go through.

Mind you, it even seems that chip and pin security can be compromised as this article in the Telegraph discusses. Having said that, the scam was a highly organised crime.

What can you do about card fraud?

What can be done to minimise the risk of having your card skimmed? Simply keep it in sight during personal transactions. I can only think of 2 instances over the last 6 months where I let my card be taken away to process and that may have been my downfall. Other things such as actually checking statements can help identify issues, but to me the best form of security is keeping the card in sight. Okay, online transactions are another matter and all I can add there is make sure that you’re on a secure site before punching in those valuable card details and of course, keep your PC malware free, especially windoze machines.

If you want more information on how to minimise the risk of card fraud, visit the Canadian Bankers Association.

Learn from my experience, not your own

What have I learnt from the experience? Well, despite being careful, it would seem that I haven’t been careful enough. The new card will not be leaving my view when transactions are made.

Despite me having the Ducati GT1000 for over 6 months I’ve not previously posted a pic of my summer cruise machine. So, here it is.

I’m not a hardened biker by any stretch of the imagination and how I ended up on a bike after many years of being a car only person is a bit of a story.

My only real experience of being on a bike came in my mid-late teens when I was a passenger on a friends bike a few times (a 250cc) and also had a go on another friends 50cc. To be honest I preferred having a car as I enjoyed comfort and music to the elements.

Fast forward to around 2002. As a one car family I was getting fed up walking and cycling around Maidstone where I lived at the time as Lesley used the car for work. Chatting with a friend brought up the idea of investing in a scooter for running around locally. Great idea! I decided to go for it and after some cursory research knew that the Peugeot Speedflight was the scooter for me. What I didn’t do was investigate the restrictions placed upon ‘new’ riders. As an existing car license holder I was able to ride a 50cc scooter around without taking a test, however I’d decided to go for the 100cc version of the scooter and this meant passing my provisional bike license theory test and taking compulsory training before I could even ride the bike and then, horror of horrors I had to run around with an ‘L’ plate.

I dutifully passed my theory and CBT and was able to buzz around Maidstone, and very enjoyable it was too. One nagging thought remained though. I was far too old to have ‘L’ plates. I would have to pass my full bike test to rid myself of the offending big red letter, but how?

I discovered CSN motorcycle training in Rochester and booked on to a short course on geared bikes to avoid being restricted to scooters (just in case). I decided to take the short course which would restrict me to a 33bhp machine for 2 years which wasn’t an issue as I was only riding a scooter. So, after a couple of challenging days on a geared 125cc I passed my bike test – the red L was no more.

It turned out to be a good decision to go for a geared bike test as less than a year later I needed to take the cheap commuting option which meant investing in a bike that would take for over 40 mph. I ended up with a Yamaha Diversion, a classic commuter bike. However, it was a 600cc machine packing somewhat more than the 33bhp restriction. The nice guys where I bought the bike provided me with a certificate of restriction, although the bike was left as was. This wasn’t due to me setting out to flaunt the law, the dealer simply thought that I’d be a careful rider as I wasn’t exactly in my youth. Correct. I am not a big risk taker on a bike. The bike eventually went after I changed jobs and went back to car ownership, but I have to admit that I enjoyed the fresh air freedom (in good weather) that bike ownership offered.

Fast forward to 2007 and I became a bike owner again. Yes, I had to retake my bike license again which meant theory, practical training and a full road test for a second time, just like with the car license. It was worth it as the summer was pretty good which gave me the chance to get out and reacquaint myself with biking. Why? Well, I have an aim to ride the west coast from Vancouver to, probably, San Diego within a couple of years and the Ducati is the bike for me to do it on. Okay, it’ll not be a Long Way Round or Long Way Down adventure, but it’ll be my adventure.

Watch this space.

Yes it’s been a long time. Yes, I said I would be more diligent with my blogging and no, I haven’t been anything like diligent.

However, it’s a new year and rather than make daft resolutions and promises to blog more frequently let’s just say that I’ll try.

Rather than dwell on what’s been I’d rather look forward to what is likely to be a very challenging year. I’ve decided to finish my MSc in Environmental Decision Making by completing a research project and dissertation. It’s something that’s been on hold since my first redundancy, back in 03, so I thought it high time that I kicked the grey matter back in to action. I have to admit to being both excited and rather terrified as I set out on this journey as I’ve not studied to this depth in the past. Having said that, once finished it’ll be the icing on the academic cake, so I’m giving it a real good go.

Back to the lack of blogging. I’m also trying out a neat application, ecto to try and make getting blog entries up easier as there’s no need to log in to my site to prepare posts. Again, we’ll see how it goes.

I’m not going to write anything on the amount of snow that the Lower Mainland has suffered over the last fortnight (at least 3ft) as it’s been well recorded and Lesley has some great pics over on her Picasa site so check out this set and this set.

So, a slightly belated Happy New Year to everyone and keep checking back.