Dangers of Credit Cards in the High Tech Age

I used to work for a Hi Tech company that has a product that conducts financial transactions and guarantees a 99.99% success rate.  How do they do it?  Through many layers of security and ingenuity.  While thinking about the lengths this company scales to provide an excellent product, I was thinking about the security of my own credit cards.  I'm guessing that most of you carry at least one credit card and a debit card.  My bank has strongly urged me to use my debit card only as a credit card -- mainly because the protection offered through credit cards is much more solid than debit cards directly tied to a checking account.

While working at that company, we used to spend time researching types of attacks and fraud that was leveraged against supposedly secure networks and databases.  Look on the Internet and it is easy to find headlines such as, "Email error disclosed 3,000 contractors' pay rates to 800 contractors working for Royal Bank of Scotland" and  "Log-in credentials and personal information for 20,000 people acquired by hacker and exposed online."  So we know there are people out there that want to steal your credit information.  What are some of the ways that they do it?

One way I will call the switcheroo.  MSN describes this with a toy store scenario.  Sally, Simon  and Bud walk into a toy store.  Sally and Simon roam the aisles, while Bud waits in line to check out.  When Bud is at the register, Simon comes running up to the clerk, screaming that his wife has fainted.  As Sally and Simon distract the sales clerk, Bud switches the credit card reader at the register with a modified one of his own.  For the next week or so, the salesclerk unwittingly collects credit card data on the modified reader until the trio returns, takes back the modified reader and restores the original terminal.

Another situation can occur at a restaurant or basically any situation where you give your credit card to an employee and they take it out of sight.  At the end of your yummy meal at Bill's Diner, you give your waitress your credit card to pay the bill.  She takes your card to a back room and runs it through the restaurants register and then she pulls a small golf ball sized device from her apron and runs your card through it too.  This device is known as a skimmer.  It can store information from many credit cards.

You have probably seen this next scam in the headlines of national news.  A person goes to a gas station and places a special kind of skimmer either over  a credit card reader on a gas pump, or they open up the pump with a special key and replace the reader with a skimmer.  Lots of gas stations now have seals placed on the front of pumps to give some since of security if they are not broken, however, these seals do not prevent the over the existing credit card reader skimmer.  The skimmer then communicates with a nearby laptop using Bluetooth.

The last two forms of thievery include hacking and phishing.  If you are like me, you at one time had a manager who loved to fill your email in box with all kinds of get rich quick schemes, photo essays and do this or else your will receive an Inca Dinosaur curse.  With the hacker, they try to get you to install malware on your computer by compromising a popular website.  When you visit that website, a small program is installed on your computer.  This program can capture keystrokes or search your hard drive for sensitive information.  Particularity are public computers in libraries and Internet cafes.

Phishing is similar to hacking except the small program is sent to you via email.  "Look at this adorable picture of kittens," says one e-mail.  Or they talk about looking at the weekly performance report.  Regardless, don't click on that attachment!  Once you are infected, you will not know.  These programs hide and only relay information to the "home base."  So all you need to do is make an online purchase, give your credit card number, and the number also gets sent to our devious hacker.

So what can you do to minimize or prevent these kinds of things from happening to you?  Quoting from Janna Herron on MSN.com:

1. Set up mobile alerts for your phone if your financial institution provides the feature.  That way, you can be aware of unusual activity as quickly as possible.
2. Regularly monitor your accounts online, so you can identify fraudulent transactions faster.
3. Avoid public computers.  Don't log on to your email if your bank corresponds with you there.  It might be wise to set up a separate email account just for your finances and checking it from safe locations only.
4. Avoid doing business with unfamiliar online vendors.  Stick to established merchants and websites.
5. If your information has been compromised, notify your financial institutions and local law enforcement, which will contact the Secret Service if necessary.  Also make sure you notify any of the three major credit card reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, to setup a fraud alert on your credit reports.

According to the government and financial institutions, every minute, 20 people are subjected to identity and credit card theft.  In 2009, they reported that more than 11 million people nationwide were victims of credit and debit card scams that resulted in unauthorized charges of $54 billion.

I have had my credit card company call me up on a few occasions when they thought a purchase looked fraudulent.  Thankfully they were not, but it is nice to have a bank looking out for you.  Also, one time our Bank contacted my wife and said they were going to send her a new card since her current one had been compromised.  We both didn't know what had happened, but were glad to be covered.

Til next time,
Bill 

Trust

I was sent an email today that had a quote that hit me with a ton of bricks, "Trust one who has gone through it."  This is a quote by Virgil, who is remembered as one of Rome's greatest poets.  However, I have to think that he was part psychiatrist.  With deep sayings like the above, he must be much more than what is on the surface.

I was thinking about trust the other day so it was in the back of my head when I saw this quote.  I recall reading John Huntsman Sr's book, "Winners Never Cheat."  In a nutshell, this book discusses how he made billions by striking deals with a handshake.  That's all it took.  Millions and billions of dollar deals with a single handshake.  He discusses shaking on one deal, and before the deal was finalized, the stock of the company he was buying shot skyward on news of the acquisition.  Now John had a deal at a set price, and the seller wanted to renege on the deal, but John stood firm.  What he actually ended up doing was paying a premium for the company, but this illustrates the trust that John Huntsman Sr used in his business dealings.  (I would highly recommend reading his book if you get the chance.)

In today's world, trust is not what it used to be.  Today, most business deals cannot be completed with a simple handshake, rather they entail boatloads of lawyers, business analysts, and months to make happen.  I have seen it in industry.  A good friend was working on a project for a customer.  He was a part of a small team that was trying to keep it that way.  The customer trusted this team to complete their project.  They were trying to keep it away for the myriads of executives within this consulting company.  However, the executives found out about it and they all jumped in skyrocketing this project to unheard of complexity.  The original manager of the project quit in favor of another company.  The project continues, growing out of control.  However, the customer is hanging in there, wanting to receive the final product.

Trust can be a simple as two boys at a swimming pool.  The first jumps in and finds that he can stand on the bottom with his head above water.  He asks the second boy to jump in -- that he will be OK.  The second boy jumps in and trusts the first that he will be OK.

After college, I started my work career at a large computer company.  I spent over 10 years there.  After leaving, I spent a few years at various companies, having to leave each due to financial problems, bad management, and loosing contracts.  In a lot of the cases of moving from one company to another, I engaged a recruiter, an expert in finding me a new job.  I had to place blind trust in this recruiter to represent me and to get me interviews with various companies.  I also had to trust that when I didn't get a job I interviewed for, that the feedback I received would be valuable.  However, in most cases, the feedback was worthless.

In my personal dealings, I have tried to exhibit trust with my fellow man.  In some cases it works well, in other cases I end up on the short end of the deal by trusting someone.  Maybe you can have a better chance of trusting someone by looking their facial expressions.

Is it possible to know if a person is trustworthy by looking at their face?  Granted, each and every one of us have a built-in ability to know right from wrong.  I had a friend, and I say had since this person is no longer my friend.  This friend came to me one day and promised me the world if I would only invest with his friend who owned this fabulous company.  He promised me an unreal amount of return on my money.  And since I knew for a fact that this friend had made a killing in the stock market, and happened to be worth a good sum, I took his word and trusted him.  I gave him a portion of my retirement money to invest.  Fast-forward a few years, after receiving a few dividend payments, I stopped receiving monthly statements and other promissed paperwork.

I called my friend up, but all I got was his voice-mail.  A little while later I read about a Ponzi scheme, where they were investigating my friend's friend.  A little but later, my friend's friend was arrested.  Needless to say, I lost all the money I had invested.  I also lost a good childhood friend, a friend who, himself, may be headed to prison.

Today I keep my retirement in as reputable places as I can find.  Hopefully bad things don't happen here, but I have to trust them, since one business has been in business for over 20 years and has done my taxes for half that time.

So how can you build a circle of trust around you both in your personal life and that of your career?  How can you know that you can trust the politicians that you chose to vote for?  I live in a small suburb of a larger city.  A few years ago a few spots in our city council were up for re-election.  One of the incumbents (that I trusted) decided not to re-run.  So, that opened up the reality of a new member of the council.  Several candidates went door to door to expound their virtues.  One gentlemen came by, looking rather hip and with the "in crowd."  As I chatted with him, I thought, "How would I be able to ever trust this man?"  But I did some research, discovered he was well educated and had quite a resume in business and technology.  I took a gamble and voted for him.  I even campaigned for him.  I trusted him!  Lucky for me he has be a great asset to my city's government.

So is the safe thing to do to not trust anyone?  I hope not.  We just need to have a little faith in our decisions to trust, but that is for another post.

Til next time,
Bill

It's The Small Things...

What makes a person happy?  I could put a variety of things here, each would probably be different for each person.  For one it might be a snow storm, for another, a nice rainy evening, for yet another, a sunset or a hike through some mountain fields.

I had an experience, recently, that typifies how a small act of kindness made a real difference in my life.  My family makes a yearly pilgrimage to Provo, Utah to attend one of the largest 4th of July celebrations in the country.  Called Stadium of Fire, the show is both patriotic and entertaining, culminating with a fireworks show that seems to get bigger and better each year.

This years show featured David Archuleta and Braid Paisley.  David put on an awesome performance!  When Brad Paisley took that stage, the crowd went wild!  Brad performed a great collection of hits: humorous, serious, and for, "those in love."  At the end of the performance, and mind you, I had no idea when that was going to be, since Brad had told the audience, "We're going to play as long as they will let us tonight!"  So, he was playing a song called "Water", when, during the solo at the end he left the main stage and walked up on a platform that separated the two giant video screens at the back of the stage.  He continued his solo, and then the song ended and so did the Brad Paisley portion of Stadium of Fire.

Shortly after, my oldest son asked me if I had seen Brad Paisley's dramatic exit.  I replied with, "What?"  My son went on to say that after climbing up on the platform at the back of the stage, he waved good bye and jumped into the water that was displayed on the lower video screen.  A large splash was displayed on the bigger top video screen.  Then, when the splash has dissipated,  you could see "Brad" on the lower video screen swimming away until off the screen stage left.

I had missed this dramatic exit since I was attending to my youngest son, who is at the "me" age, which I am sure a lot of you will agree is their whole lifetime!  I am not a country western fan, but this evening Brad Paisley may have converted me.

After the Stadium of Fire had ended, I got to thinking, would there be any way that I could see a video of Brad's dramatic exit?  I checked YouTube and found a video, but it abruptly cuts to fireworks, thereby missing the complete Brad Paisley dramatic exit.  I had known that Stadium of Fire has been broadcast to all viewers of Armed Forces TV around the world.  I checked their schedule and found a rebroadcast, only problem, how do I get access to the channel?  Come to find out that you don't, only military installations have access.

But, wait.  I bet they make a DVD of the production to give to Stadium of Fire officials for review, etc.  I just happen to have a very good friend on the Stadium of Fire staff.  I contacted him and he did some checking for me and replied that they couldn't distribute a DVD of the show due to copyright agreements.  I was done, defeated.  I'd lost this endeavor.

A day later, I found this e-mail in my trash box.  It was from somebody that I didn't know.  I opened it and it asked why I wanted a DVD of the Stadium of Fire.  I looked up the name and came to find out that it was the Executive Director of America's Freedom Festival at Provo, none other than Paul Warner himself!

After discussing my wish with Paul, he explained, that under contract with the entertainers, he was unable to provide me with a DVD of the show, but invited me to his office to view it.  I setup a date to return to Provo.

A few weeks later, I met Paul in his deluxe office, one that reminds me of a successful law firm.  I could tell instantly that Paul was a very kind and generous man.  His is a full time job of planning a yearly event that brings much happiness to thousands of people.  Comprising scores of events, Stadium of Fire is but one, but easily the front-runner of the bunch!

(Paul Warner is on the left.)

After exchanging greetings, we went into his board room which contained one of the largest HD Televisions I have ever seen.  He loaded up the DVD and located Brad Paisley singing "Water."  We watched the whole song.  At the end, Brad walked up on top of the stage that split the two video screens.  Continued jamming on his solo and then lowered his guitar to a waiting stage hand, but the lower video screen showed as he lowered the guitar that it had fallen in the water and sunk to the bottom of the screen.  Then Brad waved to the audience and "jumped" into the water.  Well actually, jumped off the back of the stage hopefully into some sort of cushy landing spot or the arms of a big burly stage hand!  The lower video screen showed him sinking into the water while a giant splash was displayed on the top video screen.  Then, Brad swan off stage left on the lower video screen.  The effect was awesome!  The timing perfect!  I was amazed!

As a kind of bonus, Paul let me stay and watch the half-hour fireworks display (which was good, but couldn't touch that of the real show!).  When I was ready to leave, I thanked Paul again and he rewarded me by giving me a tour of his building and answering some questions about the show.  Lastly he gave me a shirt that was given out during this years freedom run, which was a part of the 4th of July celebration.

I have been quite busy lately.  Lots of work and play, so not a lot of posts recently, but this one act of kindness, this one small thing really made my day, the day I was able to see Brad Paisley's dramatic exit!