[plug] Security starts at home!

[Michael Hunt]

Yep I can tell you heaps of similar stories like that. In fact most of my
friends in West Africa said to me that you never use a credit card in any
West African country unless it is an emergency and then you only use it to
make that transaction and then ring up and cancel the credit card. My friend
went to fax a purchase order through to a supplier at the local post office
(in some villages in Niger this is the only place that has a telephone) and
was told he would have to wait outside while the clerk faxed the order
through. Thinking that something suspicious was going on he barged into the
back room where the fax was and found the clerk faxing his own order through
for 1000's of dollars worth of motorbike parts using my friends credit card
number !!! Another friend in England had the same thing happen to her as
your friend. It appears someone robbed a service station and took of with
all the credit card slips in the till. This seems to be a new trend I was
told becuase it is much more profitable than just grabbing the cash.

Michael Hunt
Wishing I was back in the warmth of West Africa !!!!!


----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Foster" <fostware at iinet.net.au>
To: "Plug Mailing List" <plug at plug.linux.org.au>
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2001 10:11 PM
Subject: [plug] Security starts at home!


> Just to bring perspective to the list...
>
> A friend was even more paranoid about her credit card details than me - ie
> "Yunno those people get hackers *ALL* the time..." Well, turns out that
> being a technophobe regarding credit cards, a Claremont man tried to order
> $1500 worth of camera equipment with her number over the phone. Bank
> reckons it's off a credit card slip or something.
>
> Shows you that the weakest link is not the technology.
>
> Craig Foster
> FostWare Enterprises
> fostware at iinet.net.au
> Ph / Fax (08) 9349 5931
> Mob 0402 126 293
>