CASH CACHES AND FRAUDULENT FIENDS

It was the night before the night before Christmas and all through the house... Well, although it was very dark outside, it was not technically night yet as it was only 17.30h, and it was slightly noisy. We were planning all the things to do between Christmas and new year's... anyway back to the story... when... the phone rang. It was an 0800 number. Feeling rather generous, I took it fully expecting it to be telemarketers calling about insurance, tax redemption services, unsecured credit loans. You know, the kind of people who are so annoying you pity them for having that job. What I was not expecting was a call from my bank's fraud department telling me that they believed me to have been the subject of fraud. Someone had managed to get my card details and charge up enough to wipe my savings clear out!!! After confirming that the transactions were unauthorised and with much to-ing and fro-ing, the one thing that became clear was that I could not use my cards and was therefore cashless at Christmas. Just like that. Now, I am not one of the Madoff millionaires [or rather ex-millionaires] with funds invested here, there and earning hundreds of thousands. I don't have a penthouse in New York or a country house in the Shires. I do take the bus and underground so I am not 'downscaling' from cabbing it everywhere. Nevertheless, I had a taster of what it must feel like to come up to Christmas all full of plans and programs, cushioned in the 'knowledge' that while it may be bitterly cold in the economic outdoors, you are safe inside because at least you have something tucked away safely; only to find out someone took it away. Oh sure, one can always argue about contributory negligence or reckless indifference or even, as I have seen in some Madoff related blogs, comeuppances [as if it was criminal of the Madoff investors to have been conned]. All that is not only besides the point, it is rather presumptuous of the proponents. It made me think, deep down, we really are the same. And, there really is no such thing as a victimless crime. THOUGHT FOR THE DAY The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware. - Henry Miller