Boohoo!

I was so excited to reach home to finally take dinner and indulge in my Twilight addiction, amongst others, when I got an auto-generated SMS from my payee-bank.  The SMS says,

Banks in UAE have reported incidences of ATM misuse. As a precaution we strongly urge you to immediately change your ATM PIN at the nearest XYZ Bank in UAE.

Imagining the long queue, I wanted to change mine through the net. Incidentally, I’ve done e-banking only once since I got here. I totally forgot my password. I had no choice but to join the sort-of-reunion/ United Nations Day in one of the branches. Expats & locals queued in all the ATMs of different banks. It took me more than an hour to reach the finish line, err, the machine. I felt almost collapsing, since my taking dinner was delayed by more than a couple of hours.

Personal information including passwords of a substantial number of customers spanning across a number of banks operating in the UAE was stolen. The same is being used to create fraudulent cards in the US, predominantly. The fraudsters are using such card and associate information to make online purchases and withdraw cash from ATMs in the US.

The most recent incident is reported by an expat cardholder from Dubai:

“My debit card was copied either at the Marina or at Al Wasl Spinney’s ATM and then used many times in Egypt for a total value of Dh15,000 (US$ 4,084) in various transactions, in shops such as pharmacies and sports stores.”

She can’t recall which bank’s ATM she used since she uses several banks’ machines.

I had my share of conducting ATM fraud audit years back. This happened in the Philippines, too. But not too publicized. No matter how strict the controls are, nothing is impossible with evil minds.

I almost backed out on immediately changing my passkeys when I heard my tummy growling. I may change it early in the morning tomorrow. Thinking that my accounts are not that fat enough to be the targets. But I can’t undermine any risks. I realized, too, that I have exposed myself to concentration risk. ( I’m beginning to talk jargon here.) I just wish to say that I should have strategically maintained my accounts. It’s expectedly bad timing that they also reduced by 50% the withdrawable cash per day. To panic is human, people want to zero out their balances as horribly as possible.

Reminds me of the oldies who don’t want to keep money in the financial institutions. But, to put such in a safety deposit box or wherever at home. Technology has two faces, like the other things in life. While in queue, I did wish that I brought a copy of New Moon. So, that I’ll look like a nerdy fiction gal there. Heehee. In general, banks here are tellerless. You can imagine the crowd at the ATMs today.

Since I didn’t want to make myself feel miserable and get impatient, I had to regale myself. I carefully observed each person. Comparing physicals, voices, smell, whatever. I finally found my worth when a man asked me how to execute the process of changing the PIN. Another inquirers came. Finally, I’m not bored. It’s a general conclusion that majority don’t really change/ don’t know how to change their PINs upon card’s issuance. My irritation didn’t come out when I see those taking ages to change theirs. If I’m in their shoes, I might be lost, too.

I hope this electronic robbery will be stopped soon. I can’t help but think of the bloodiest robbery in the Philippines that happened this year. This sophisticated electronic robbery is lesser evil.

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Looks like this one was not a case of ‘copying’. I hope she learned her lesson.

For those who have been following my post on plagiarism in Philippine Star, I got a copy of Mayenne Carmona’s apology that appeared in her column last weekend. Big thanks to Bette, one of the readers of this blog, for sending these to my email this afternoon.

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Last week I wrote about the indicative plagiarism that happened in Philippine Star. Afterwhich, I sent an email to the editor and provided the link to the original article in New York Times, for them to compare the obvious ‘copying’ made by one of their writers, Mayenne Carmona. Till date, the editor never responded through an email. However, as I was checking the online version of the related article since then, I am relieved that it was already taken out/deleted since last week.

I don’t mind not being responded by the editor. But the mere fact that they deleted the article was more than an acknowledgment of their shortcomings (rather than saying a big fault by the editor, the writers are presumably writing in good faith) and irresponsible writing.

Until yesterday, I got a comment from Bette, one of the readers of this blog. She wrote,

because of this post, inabangan ko tuloy if she will say something. aba! last sunday, she wrote a very short apology in her column. you might want to check it out.

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On July 7, I shared about the article published in NY Times titled Whom Not to Marry. This post generated a number of comments/reactions. That was actually one of the most emailed posts that week.

Over the weekend, I read the ‘almost’ same article in a Philippine broadsheet. In the Lifestyle Section of Philippine Star, Mayenne Carmona had a post which was titled the same, ‘Whom Not To Marry’. The title is not the issue. But she wrote all the same points written in NY Times with a little pinching of salt of the ’story of her divorced friend’.

Okay. Give her the benefit of the doubt. Let’s pretend that’s purely concidental (oh, wow).  But, check the closing statements:

In NY Times article, July 6 issue:

“After I regale a group with this talk, the despairing cry goes up: ‘But you’ve eliminated everyone!’ Life is unfair.”

In Philippine Star article, August 2 issue:

“How am I going to find a new husband?” sighed my newly divorced friend. “He just about eliminated everyone! Life is not fair.”

I am wondering if the lifestyle editor of Philippine Star is aware of this indicative plagiarism. To the writer, I think there is a double whammy there. Father Pat Connor is a 79-year old priest and not 70.

As we, or as most bloggers do, we do put a link back to or mention the source of our article and photo, whenever applicable. Well, that’s very basic, especially if you are writing for a broadsheet.   Will it hurt to mention the source? If yes, then don’t plagiarize.

Oh well, I don’t think my post is aptly titled. Should I delete indicative? You may check the above links to judge.

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