Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

Is your credit card in your possession?

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That question is pretty much never followed up with good news. This time was no exception, or should I say the good news was that a charge of almost $1,000 to my credit card made by some jagoff that is in no way authorized to use it was declined by the card issuer due to its suspicious nature.

Thank you, Citibank Fraud Protection people. They were right on top of this, and when I remarked that the time frame for receiving my replacement card seemed a bit long, they immediately offered second day air delivery at no charge. Yay for a good customer service moment.

I’m very much aware of the rules for safe credit card use. Statements are fully destroyed upon reconciliation. New solicitations (I really don’t want any more credit cards) are fully destroyed upon receipt. I do make a fair number of online purchases, but only from known sites that appear to be secure.

I’m posting this mostly to vent about thieving jagoffs and to remind everyone that even if you are knowledgeable about credit card and information safety, and do everything possible to keep your information safe, it’s still possible that someone, somewhere, will get to it despite your best efforts.

I’ve had something like this happen before. I doubt I’m being targeted since the last time was several years ago. The circumstances were very similar. A large-ish charge was made to a store in a foreign country, probably over the phone since my credit card was still physically in my possession. The charge did go through that time, but was promptly reversed upon my phone call to customer service.

Since then, fraud protection has been stepped up quite a bit, at least by the credit card companies I use. I’ve had a couple of legitimate purchases questioned because they were larger purchases made out of state, while on vacation. Considering what just happened, I’m good with a little bit of suspicion now and then.

Note to self: Remember to make posts public or get that automatic posting thing working! It’s not a big deal this month, but next month is the “real” NaBloPoMo and it would not do to miss any postings, especially if there’s actually a post written, but not made visible!

(NaBloPoMo | October ’09: 7 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 229 of 274)

Dear charities that I sometimes donate to…

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I don’t want to sound like a giant jagoff, but I just want you to know that there is only so much I can donate each year to the various causes that I support, including yours, no matter how many times you phone me or mail me.

I don’t much like talking on the phone in general. I especially dislike talking to anyone trying to part me from my money, even for a good cause. When I ask to be taken off the phone list, please do it without trying to make me feel guilty about it.

Particularly if you are a nature or environmental charity, I am also not getting a good feeling from the huge amounts of paper you waste in the attempt to guilt me into donating more. Did you note that I donated online last time? As in no paper involved on my end except for the single sheet I printed out to reconcile my tax records? And that I gave you my email address as well as a postal address, so you could easily avoid sending me all that paper?

Please know that I believe in the power of individual giving, and that I will donate to my chosen causes to the best of my ability. But please. Make it easier for me to think you’re spending everyone’s donations wisely and not on overhead.

Thank you,
Your occasional donator

(NaBloPoMo | October ’09: 5 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 227 of 274)

It’s all blurring together

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I’m working on a couple of personal projects right now and not enjoying myself at all. The particular tasks I’m working on are way too similar to what I do for a living: image creation and modification, proofreading, and page layout. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that my enthusiasm isn’t at a fever pitch if I’ve been doing the same things all day and then more of the same all night.

It’s self-inflicted, so I suppose I should not complain. The reason I do this type of project is that I feel it’s the only real way I can contribute to most of the organizations I’ve belonged to. There aren’t very many clubs and organizations that don’t need flyers, programs, advertisements and various other printed pieces to keep things (whatever those things may be) in motion, and for the sake of effective communication and a polished image, the job really shouldn’t be left to someone with good intent but no communication or computer skills.

On the one hand, I’m happy I can help “my” groups by producing printed pieces with all of the words spelled correctly, and at least somewhat professional-looking (and by that I mean at least they are totally devoid of Comic Sans and cheap-ass clip art). On the other hand, I am so freaking sick of InDesign and Photoshop and especially stupid Microsoft Word which everyone insists on using and whose most recent version simply served to lower my productivity to levels that cannot be detected by the unaided human eye, that I just want to walk away from volunteering for anything even remotely related to document production ever again.

I’m sure I’ll get over it in a day or two, but for now, thank you for listening to my rant.

(NaBloPoMo | August ’09: 25 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 213 of 274)

A case of mistaken identity

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My last name… my husband’s last name… is quite common. It has been in the top 10 most common names in the United States through the last 3 census periods. So perhaps the surprising thing isn’t that I’m having a problem with a case of mistaken identity, but that it’s taken this long for one to affect me.

I am well aware that there are many people who share my name, and unfortunately, it seems that quite a few of them are deadbeat jagoffs. When we applied for a business line of credit a few years ago, each of my partners and I received a document listing bad debts incurred by people with the same or similar names. One of my partners has a fairly uncommon surname and his document had one, count ’em, one listing of someone who was not him. Another partner’s document had a few more listings, but still quite short. Our prez has a surname that is usually in the top 100 most common names, and he had four or five pages to check. I had a dozen pages, listing many deadbeat jagoffs who shared my name, but were not me. A dozen pages, with over 100 listings. We all signed off on our sheets to certify that we were not the deadbeats on their lists, and I really haven’t thought about it often until now.

Apparently, the most stupid, careless, non-detail-oriented skip tracer in Chicago decided that my information was the closest match for someone sharing my name who is fifteen years younger, of a different race, and who was being evicted for non-payment from a property in a neighborhood I have never lived in. The property owner and their lawyer did not seem to find this a bad match, and are attempting to collect that jagoff deadbeat’s debt from me and/or my company.

The attempt will fail, as it is not exactly difficult to prove that I am not the scumbag they are looking for. But it is still a pain in the ass for me, my company and our lawyer as we have to waste the time to address it and make sure that their stupidity doesn’t affect me or the company in any way.

This is not a case of identity theft (obviously that was the first thing I checked out), just a case of mistaken identity. For that, I am glad. But I still don’t understand how my information would have been considered even a remotely possible match to this person’s. Even just the information that would be considered public record would show me living in the same place (nowhere near the address in question) for 19 years and married to the same person (who does not share the same name with the scumbag’s husband) for 16 years. I’ve tried to be responsible in all of my financial dealings over the years, as has my husband, and my credit report reflects that. I am still seriously pissed off that anyone could even consider that I am that deadbeat piece of crap.

Yes, I am being judgmental, because it’s my name and reputation that are being trampled on.

UPDATE: Following a discussion between our company’s lawyer and the property owner’s lawyer, everything has supposedly been straightened out. The court order documenting this will be forwarded to us on August 12. Hopefully end of story!

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 22 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 179 of 274)

Jagoff spammers: die, die, DIE

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Not that jagoff spammers would have any clue about etiquette, but honestly, why would this subject line make me do anything other than delete the email immediately:

scumbag_spammer

Hell, if an email with that rude-ass subject line came from someone in my address book, I’d still delete it unread for being jagoff-ish.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’09: 17 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 174 of 274)