I remember at a very young age being quite particular about the choices I made. I’m not talking big choices; these choices were the minutia of daily life. I felt that the small decisions I made would have drastic impacts on my later life. For instance, if I walked along a sidewalk and there was a crack, which side of the crack would I place my next footfall? Maybe the right side would bring happiness and fortune and the left would doom me to a life of misery.

So it’s no surprise that I identify personally with chaos theory, fractals, and the butterfly effect.

Tonight, I was unwrapping Starbursts and came across two strawberry flavored candies. I felt very strongly that the candy on the right was the one I should open, but for whatever reason I opened the one on the left. The entire time, I felt that I was doing something terribly wrong, that this choice had doomed me to a terrible fate.

The candy was tasty, but I still have a nagging feeling that I will pay a terrible price.

Your personal data is like Pandora’s box. I had hoped that our case was just a matter of someone getting a couple of card numbers through nefarious channels, but I fear that our personal data is now being passed around the criminal underworld like currency.

The other night we got a phone call from these jerks fishing for our data.

I fear this is just the opening salvo in a long frustrating war for our credit, and unfortunately the bad guys have the high ground.

Thieves suck ass.

Last week, someone on teh intarwebz found both the wife’s and my debit/credit card numbers and started racking up charges. Fortunately, I had been looking at our checking account daily to see whether Bender Ball would credit our account for their own little scam. We called our bank immediately and out of over $700 in total charges, only one for a little over $200 actually posted, which should be reversed some time this week. While I’d like to blame Bender Ball, the fact that the thief found both our debit/credit card numbers (which are different) at the same time leads me to believe that the thief found them elsewhere, possibly at Amazon.com where we both have made purchases in the past.

This could have been far worse.

I may be in the minority with this lesson, but for anyone else still that minority, here’s some advice: don’t ever, EVER use a debit/credit card that’s linked to your checking account on the internet. While it may have the same fraud protection as a credit card, any fraudulent charges are still going to post to your checking account until you are aware of what’s happening, and by then your account may be cleaned out. And it’s not a question of whether it will happen to you, it’s a matter of when.

The wife and I have discussed what to do, and while it scares the crap out of us, we’re going to use a credit card for all transactions from now on, including gas and groceries, and pay off the balance each month. I’m really apprehensive about this, since it opens the door to racking up more charges than we can pay off, but I think it’s the “best worst” solution.

And if you’re not paranoid enough, here are some articles about credit card skimming:

• Gas Station “Skimmers” Steal Your Credit Card Info When You Pay At The Pump
• Reader Finds Card Skimmer On Bank ATM

Well I’m preaching to the choir here but I guess the more bad publicity for these jerks, the better.

We fell for the marketing and bought a Bender Ball a few months ago. When we ordered, I am positive that the order page said nothing about enrolling in a monthly DVD program. It’s more prominent now, but had we seen it, we never would have bought it. And unfortunately, we made the mistake of charging to a card that’s linked to our checking account.

A month after receiving the product, we received a package containing more DVDs. I was confused and checked our account, and sure enough they had dinged us for $30.86. We immediately called their “customer service” line, cancelled our “subscription” (which we did not knowingly enroll in) and returned the DVDs.

This month, they dinged us again for $19.99. I called them up and they said they haven’t received the return, that it takes 6-8 weeks to process returns, and that the $19.99 was a balance from the $30.86 from last month. If they ever get around to crediting our account, they won’t credit shipping and handling. So far, we’re out over $70 for a $10 product.

Lessons learned:

1. Do not use a card that’s linked to your checking account to make purchases online. Or for that matter, use only physical checks. While our card comes with the same purchase protection as a credit card, there is also the possibility that unauthorized charges will overdraft the account.
2. Check for scams before making an online purchase with a company that you have not done business with. (google their name + scam or complaint).

A man walks into a bar.

He went to the hospital where he received several stitches and was treated for a concussion.