Some Justice

posted by Jaitu at 18:23

Not just the title to one of my favourite tracks of the early 90's by Urban Shakedown but an apt title for my first post in a couple of months.

Regular readers of RTDL2 (if such people exist) might remember my tale of criminally poor fashion sense. A couple of weeks ago a story ran in the press stating that the public could no longer report such crimes directly to the Police and that they would no longer be investigating unless the Banks involved reported it to them.
I was pleasantly surprised therefore to get a phone call a few days later from Dagenham CID. It turns out they had confiscated a personal computer during an investigation and that my credit card details were amongst hundreds of others held on it. They asked if I had seen any unusual activity and I told them the whole sorry story. When I mentioned the name Tim Chuk the officer responded, "That's the Fella."
At the end of the conversation the Police apologised for taking up my time to which I replied that it was fine and I was glad to hear something was being done about it to which he added " eventually".

Anyway, You Tube won't let me embed the Some Justice clip so here's the link again and a few choice morsels to bring back some memories. I still have all of these on 12" vinyl except the last one which was one of my absolute favourites and which I foolishly lent to someone I am no longer in touch with.

Everybody do the jumpy two-step now.

Sonz Of A Loop Da Loop Era - Far Out


2 Bad Mice - Bombscare


The Night Writers - Let The Music Use You

Tim Chuk, J'Accuse!

posted by Jaitu at 09:28

I received today the sixth or seventh letter from my credit card provider regarding transactions made on my last card to be ripped off. The last five (or six) were lists of one or more transactions showing payee and amount and with an attached statement for me to complete and return. All I had to do was 'delete as appropriate' to show whether or not they were made by me and whether the card was in my possession at the time.

I had a problem with these apparently simple letters. Firstly the way they were worded made no provision for the possibility that some of the listed items were genuine while others were fraudulent, it was an option of *all* the listed transactions were genuine or *all* the listed transactions were fraudulent. As most of the letters dealt with single transactions this was fine but one of them had a list of four, two of which were mine and the other two fraudulent. The second and more fundamental problem with the letter was that it didn't actually make sense.

The statement was worded "I can confirm that I, nor anyone with my authority, has authorised the following transactions." Now, if you remove the bit in commas you get "I can confirm that I has authorised the following transactions." Surely there should be a 'neither' in there? As it stands the statement is largely useless.

So to today. This morning I have received another letter, this time a little different. This time there were photocopies of sales vouchers for me to check and then a statement (with a 'neither') to fill in and return. The thing I find interesting about the sales vouchers is that they contain the delivery name and address in full. It might be that these are also falsified to a degree but if they are genuine then Tim Chuk of Wellington Drive, Dagenham, Essex should be thankful that I am not a vindictive chap. He will also have to use someone else's credit card if he still wants more Roberto Cavalli sunglasses. The italian, for it was a foreign vendor, tracking note shows that UPS delivered the goods on the 26th January. If you ask me they'd make him look like a twat anyway.

Nine and Three. Two. Two. Jack.

posted by Jaitu at 20:57

I found out this evening that my credit card has been ripped off for the second time in six months. It seems I've bought goods from two opticians, the Carphone Warehouse and Vodafone and booked a trip with National Express. I should hope that amongst the data that will have been caught during these transactions is enough information to find whoever was behind them.
The thing that frustrates me most about this process is that the banks fraud prevention office get in touch fairly promptly to check on unusual spending patterns, stop your card, a new one is issued and that is the end of your involvement.
I want more.
I want them to get back in touch with me after a week or two and say "You know how your card got scammed a while back? Well it happened here." I mean it's happened twice now (and I count myself lucky that it's only been twice) and I don't know whether some information from the first time, had it been available to me, could have prevented it happening this time.
I'm not stupid with my cards. I don't let them out of my sight, I'm careful about the places I use them and websites that I buy from. So, I want to know how and where these transactions were made possible. I have other cards but this, naturally, was my primary one and I'll have to update any payment accounts with details of the new one when it arrives.
It's a great fat pain in the arse.
Still, the coach trip might take my mind off it. I hope I'm going somewhere nice.