And then there was Fraud...

Since arriving in London, I had heard countless stories of people being done by fraud, mainly involving their cash or credit cards. What the dirty little sods do is put a card-reader into an ATM, then disquise it in some way so that it can't be recognised. Each time a person puts their card into the machine, the reader gets the details and saves them for later. What is unclear to me is how they then get the PIN. Shaun suggested that they may have had a camera set up in a sneaky spot to steal the PINs. Either way, I knew something wasn't right, but still went ahead and used it.

Today, Renae gave me a call and told me that she had had £500 stolen from her account as soon as she'd used this particular ATM in Wimbledon. Sure enough, when I checked my transactions, there had been £260 worth taken out of various ATMs in places that I had never been to. Shafted!!!!

Called up the Fraud department at HSBC and registered my report. Going to take at least a week to get a new card, and they won't give me any money until the "investigation" is complete. Bastards! Apparently this happens so much over here that you can get special accounts that have "fraud insurance" on them. Might look into that option.

Spoke to a mate about why it's so common over here once. He suggested that the Pound is the most valuable currency in the World, so it's well-worth going through all the effort to steal it. Makes sense really. Why go through all that trouble back in Australia, to steal Australian Dollars? Maybe a Kiwi might think it was worth it... :-)

Ah well, just goes to show, follow your gut instinct. If your gut says, "This ATM looks dodgy", listen to it! Just another "experience" of living in London...

UPDATE: Thanks to Glen McGregor for this article on how the scam operates.

Premier League, Contracts, and Work Permits

Has been a while since my last Blog entry, simply because I haven't had a lot to blog about. I could bore you all with how wonderful Renae is, and how much fun we're having together, but I won't. Instead I'll bore you with other stuff...

On Saturday I went to my first Premier League match, Bolton vs. Arsenal, at Highbury (Arsenal's home ground). For those that have NFI what I'm talking about, the Premier League is the biggest League in the UK (maybe even Europe?), and it is VERY difficult to get tickets to the games. Luckily, Shaun knew some guys who were Bolton members, so managed to get us some tickets. What made it even better was that we were sitting with the Bolton fans who are notoriously louder than the girly Arsenal fans. To top it off, I was seated right on the edge between the two sides, so got to hear all the best of the banter that each side had to offer. It was quite an experience - difficult to put into words actually. The atmosphere was electric with all the chants going on. The way it was all co-ordinated was awesome. And when Bolton (who were the underdogs) scored the first goal, it went absolutely off-tap! Unfortunately Arsenal scored in extra time so it ended being a 1-1 draw. Was an amazing experience though. Definitely recommend it, even if you aren't a big football (soccer?) fan.

Last week I was offered another year at British Land. If accepted, this would take me up to April next year, which is when my Visa expires and would have to come home. As it now stands, I have decided to apply for a UK Work Permit, which will allow me stay on here another 5 years, and then apply for Permanent Residency. Not sure if I will get it or not, but it is definitely worth a try. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time and I've barely even scratched the surface exploring Europe yet. Basically, I'm not ready to go back to Australia, so have decided not to! Of course, it could all go tits-up and I'll have to go back, but I'll keep you all posted on how it goes.

Best sign off and get to bed now. Tis Valentine's Day tomorrow and Renae told me I should get my rest...

Till next time...! :-)