June 7, 2004
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the worst thing happened to me this weekend
Sunday 4pm
after dragon boat practice i got a call from this guy who claimed to be the customer service rep. of my bank - he asked if i had made withdrawals at a branch of HK$20,000 (that's US$2,500) in the last 20 minutes, as that was flagged as an abnormal transaction activity in their security system. i panicked - there's no way i'd withdraw that much money EVER and definitely not within the last 20 minutes as i was paddling. He asked me to check if my card was in my wallet - it wasn't. Then he asked if i want to cancel my card right now for security. He asked for my name and particulars for verification, then said he'll jump off the line while I key in my pin number into the phone for final verification. Music came on, exactly like what happens when you do phone banking when they put you on hold. I canceled my card and hung up. Everything felt so legitimate...
Monday 9am
got into the office and read email from my friend describing exactly the same scenario. shit shit shit shit. heart pounding, i went on line to check my bank balance, but by then some HK$90,000 (US$11k) have disappeared. I was in shock. i ran to the police, filed my report, and froze all my assets at the bank. I kept kicking myself for how careless i was. The ironic thing was, despite all that withdrawal made from my account, HSBC (bank) never called me to vet those transactions!!! and i got tricked into giving away my pin on the phone as the fraud called under the pretense of checking an abnormal transaction activity on my account!
so yeah, expensive lesson learned. 1) never leave your belongings unattended 2) never give your pin number away on an unsecure line. age old wisdoms i know. don't remind me i still feel immensely stupid
but something good did come out of this. they say that it's in times of distress that you realize who your friends really are. it's true. to all my friends who called to check on how i'm coping, offered their sympathy and help, told me a dirty joke to cheer me up, checked on the internet for any precedence for my case, bought me "de stress drinks", and my boss who called up our internal system security team to get in touch with the HK police, a heartfelt thank you. don't know where i'd be without you
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i went hiking a few weekends ago and Ai Ling helped me take this picture with her camera phone
waa - flowers that look like turtles...
Comments (4)
that sounds like the worst thing ever. is there a chance you will recover any of the money?
sometimes when i whistle i can pretend that my lips are made of kool-aid and that chewing up crackers and spitting them back out will give me immeasurable power. it never seems to work, and it usually makes a mess but what fun! i also like to teach stuffed animals multiplication. one time this stuffed paddington bear got into a math contest and he got last place! that sure made him upset. i bought him some ice cream (which he didn't even eat) and some movies about wrestling. man he sure was sad.
i am a dork.
hope everything works out for you. you are a magical wizard made of fudge(a good thing).
bff!
stel! that SUCKS!!! i'm so sorry to hear that....will you be able to get your money back? how were they able to take out so much in so little time? ack!
are you doing ok? what's the process for getting the funds back? i have so many questions!!
but don't worry stel...it happens to the best of us. don't be so hard on yourself. it's been so long since we chatted! i miss you!
Poor kid...that must really be a tough pill. But on the bright side, after reading that I am convinced that if you fell for that scam then you may well be naive enough to fall for my transparent charms, and will now begin to woo you in earnest.
wow... that's a crazy store... if it's any consolation, I would have fallen for the same scam too.
I hope you will be able to get the money back...
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