I got a surprise yesterday evening when I noticed our yellow rose had not only leaves, but five blossoms or buds! I mentioned before that our roses were looking pretty dire at the end of the blooming season. They struggle with black spot and some were down to bare twigs -- including this yellow one. But since then many have produced a second round of leaves and some flowers, and I was glad to see this one bounce back. In the past it's been one of our hardiest and most productive roses but it's had a tough year.
We're going to pay closer attention to rose care next spring.
I got another surprise last night when I logged on to our bank account to send a routine payment. I was looking over our statement, as I try to do at least once a month, when I noticed four charges on Monday from Domino's Pizza. We never order Domino's, and we certainly didn't order it four times on Monday. So I began looking more closely at our past charges and discovered to my horror that we'd been charged by Domino's 12 times in recent weeks, a total of £360!
I fault myself for not being more on top of this, but we've been so busy with starting school and various other things that I just haven't watched the bank account closely enough. It all started August 19 with one charge of £27.96, and escalated from there.
Strangely, there seem to be no other suspicious charges. Whoever is bilking us is apparently just a pizza lover. ("Kids," Dave says, but I'm not so sure.)
Anyway, I called the bank and it turns out the perpetrator was using Dave's debit card number. We have no idea how they got it, but his card has been cancelled and the money is being provisionally refunded to us, pending an investigation.
I certainly did not need that little bit of excitement in my evening.
Here's more excitement I didn't need:
This pile of debris was sitting in front of an apartment building around the corner from our flat for days and days. There was a wooden pallet, some furniture, and lots of household rubbish. I finally reported it to the council -- along with two other rubbish/furniture piles on nearby corners -- and they cleared it all. I was so happy when I came home that evening and saw the area clean.
The next morning, I walked Olga and found:
SO ANNOYING!
I reported it again and allegedly this has been cleared too (I haven't been out to check yet) -- but this is one of several problem corners in our neighborhood so I'm sure it won't be long before there's another mountain of junk there.
Too bad there hasn’t been a cop around when that crap is being left on the street. That would drive me crazy. The yellow roses look great and are such a happy color. Someone hacked my card this past year and was ordering from Uber Eats, a few times a day.
ReplyDeleteI think people who live in that building are supposed to leave bagged rubbish there at certain times and days for collection. But it's not supposed to be there all the time, and certainly no furniture.
DeleteWhat a loss from your bank account! I check mine a couple of times a week just to be sure it matches what is written in my "budget" book. The roses are a beautiful colour. The piles of rubbish are very unsightly. I see piles around here fairly often but always small piles of small things.
ReplyDeleteI usually check it about twice a month, but this month I haven't been as diligent! Still, at least we caught it all within 30 days.
DeleteOn our local news there was a story where the homeowner was fined for leaving a cabinet on the pavement, the council said it was flytipping!
ReplyDeleteThat council is clearly more on the ball than ours is!
DeleteI hope that the fly tipping police are on to those piles of junk. Apparently it is an offence to leave donated items outside a charity shop if it is closed, so definitely wrong to leave all that.Must have been done in the night....there is a lot of stuff!
ReplyDeleteI have never seen any evidence that people here get cited for fly-tipping, and it happens all the time. It drives me crazy.
DeleteIt is weird that the thief has only focused on pizza. By the sound of it, you have got off quite lightly. Makes me wonder what's really going on there - a crooked individual or a much wider scam. It is the kind of activity that we all fear and it is a reminder to check our bank accounts regularly.
ReplyDeleteI agree -- I think we were very lucky and it is very strange.
DeleteI would imagine that is certainly kids somehow got Dave's bank card number. That first small charge was the test one! Those roses are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteYeah, exactly -- and when we didn't catch that they got bolder. I wonder if they really ordered pizzas or somehow submitted the charge and took cash from the till? (This is assuming it's an inside job at Domino's, though how they would have gotten Dave's number is a mystery.)
DeleteThat is so odd that they only used Dave's account to order pizza. This is a good reminder to check bank accounts frequently. I am guilty of not checking myself. I am going to check today!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a good idea to keep watch over them! I think I saw that first charge weeks ago and just assumed Dave bought a pizza for his students. But he says he never did, and when it happened over and over we knew something was up!
DeleteI'm neurotic about checking my bank account and credit card, and up to now I've been lucky, the only person using them. But we do have a new lot of tipping going on, same house again, reported again. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good neurosis to have!
DeleteMike checks our banking regularly, but I'm always worried about our Amazon account - we both order so many things with that card, & it's tied to our Apple Pay - it would be easy to slide in smaller charges that we wouldn't notice. (This is NOT an invitation to hackers! Ha!)
ReplyDeleteAt least with Amazon it's easy to look at previous orders.
DeleteIt sounds like kids who hacked the card because it's Domino's pizza; had it been a better class pizza place ... ?
ReplyDeleteI'm amazed that people will just pile trash on the sidewalks. You'd think they'd call a service to pick that stuff up.
Yeah, exactly! Dave said, "We would never order Domino's -- we're gay!"
DeleteWent through a similar situation a few years back with a single charge to the tune of $300 on my debit card. It was then that I realized that there were several problems with debit cards. There is no pin associated with them when using like a credit card so it is only a 16 number lucky guess. At least over here, it can take several months to get your money back and there are no guarantees like credit cards. I never used my debit card as a credit card because my credit card gives me a 2% refund on every single purchase. So I cancelled my debit card and got an ATM only card which as its name implies, only works at ATM's and continue to use my credit cards with their much better guarantees for all my purchases.
ReplyDeleteMy credit card has no PIN, my debit card does. I don't use my debit card online because it's a direct opening to my bank account!
DeleteIn our case, the bank was quite forthright about refunding the money, or at least promising to. And my credit card is American and I don't like to use it here because it incurs extra charges for overseas transactions.
DeleteBoud - The difference is you don't need the debit card pin when using it as a credit card. All you need is the number. But a credit card requires either a pin, chip or signature to be valid, in person or online.
DeleteSteve - I disliked the provisional part of the refund, especially when my checking account is essentially my living expenses for the next few months. But I understand your situation is unique. I wonder how hard it is to apply for a British credit card or a credit card in any foreign country? That is something I have never thought about.
I am ashamed to admit that Glen keeps on top of all the finances around here. And he is like a dog sniffing for a bone when he does it.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's good! Someone needs to pay close attention. I also discovered we've been paying £6.99 a month for NOW TV, and I was sure I cancelled that ages ago. Argh!
DeleteThat's a lot of pizza. I'm glad the bank is looking into it and you'll be refunded. As for the garbage, sigh. People are pigs and a lot of people don't clean up after themselves.
ReplyDeleteIf it really even IS pizza. I wonder if it's some kind of cash-back scam, where they charge the card and take cash out of the till. (If the perpetrator works at Domino's.)
DeleteIt's a little stressful when you discover someone has been spending your money.
ReplyDeleteI'll say!
DeleteThat kind of fraud has happened to me twice now and then I had one more fraud incident where I got a call from the bank asking me about a certain charge. It turned out that phone call was also fraud. The bank told me they never call people. Fortunately, I caught the phone call fraud before the call ended. When they asked me to read my account number to them, something clicked in my brain and I knew something wasn't right.
ReplyDeleteThose roses are beautiful. What a nice surprise.
Interesting! Yeah, I am immediately skeptical of anyone who calls me about financial matters.
DeleteYoiks on the pizza thing. I use my debit card way too much. Here, some places are now charging extra if you use a card, to recoup the fees the bank charges them. With that and the fraud part, I'm trying to consciously do differently. Not all places will allow you to pay with cash, however.
ReplyDeleteAs to the trash...it should be fairly easy to figure out who's leaving it at the curb, shouldn't it?
I think if a place won't let you pay cash, they should be legally prohibited from charging more to use a card.
DeleteOh, no! I didn't mean that. The places that charge extra for using a card ALWAYS take cash. Some places want it done 'cashless' though.
DeleteOh, OK! Yeah, we have "cashless" places here too -- particularly for small purchases like coffees and that kind of thing.
DeleteI guess that second person was just waiting until all the trash was picked up in order to make room for their pile! I'm glad you go to the trouble to report it since I'm sure many folks just walk past and ignore it.
ReplyDeleteI don't see how anyone could ignore that. I could barely get around it!
DeleteI need to monitor more closely too! It's too easy to get numbers these days. I remember being told not to use debit cards in restaurants or at gas stations, but don't they require a pin number to use? Credit cards seem like they would be more prone to fraud. Glad it's taken care of! We have a corner on a local street that is also a dumping ground. SO frustrating!
ReplyDeleteThey don't require a PIN when you're using them like a credit card for low amounts. So at a gas station or restaurant you can just swipe or touch them (if they have a contactless chip). Here we only need to use a PIN if the transaction is above £100.
DeleteThere is something valiant about yellow roses
ReplyDeleteThey are certainly persistent, thank goodness!
DeleteHow scary. At least it was "only" 360 quid. I would love to be a fly on the wall when pizza dude tries again!
ReplyDeleteCouncils around the world need to work out a way to address illegall dumping. Raising the costs to take stuff to the tip just makes it all worse.
Yeah, that's the problem. It's hard to dispose of furniture, especially in the city -- we need to schedule an appointment for pickup and pay an extra fee. There should be a better system.
DeleteLeaving trash on a city sidewalk would bring a hefty fine if they can locate the offender.
ReplyDeleteWatching bank records is an ongoing task. My card number was stollen along with many others and the bank notified me, quickly providing a new card. The bank told me they have a dedicated fraud dept. to deal with the high volume of fraud. They watch every transaction and if they see something out-of-the-norm they put a stop on the card.
I assume there's CCTV watching that corner, but who knows whether anyone will take the trouble to watch it and find the offender. Police here are so overburdened I suspect this offense is low on their list of priorities.
DeleteI'm glad you found that discrepancy on your bank account and were able to get it corrected! You're positive Dave hasn't been secretly binging on Domino's Pizzas?!? ;)
ReplyDeleteHa! I accused him of that but he swears not! (And I think his waistline would show it.)
DeleteGosh, I wonder how these fraudsters got his bank card details?
ReplyDeleteAnd since August ... so maybe he called a business and paid over the phone?
A mystery. Thank god it wasn't bigger sums.
Yeah, who knows? Maybe a skimmer on an ATM or a restaurant or food delivery order he made. It's anyone's guess. I am very thankful it was only pizza!
DeleteI wonder if Dave's debit card number was captured by a skimmer on an ATM, (cashpoint in England I believe) I hate the fact that one has to watch for that. Curious, is dumping trash on the sidewalk a thing in London?
ReplyDeleteCertainly possible! (In fact I just said that to Liam above.) I always watch for skimmers but to be honest I have no idea what one looks like or how easy they would be to detect.
DeleteThe amount of fraud in the world is disheartening. I got scammed once, my credit card company was not helpful, so I quit using their card. That showed them! I have a debit card, can't remember the password, so Jim always has to get cash.
ReplyDeleteYou probably should iron out that password situation, just so you have a backup card if needed. :)
DeleteSomeone must know where all that junk is coming from. Speaking of fraud, I just got my new card from my second back account that was invaded a week or so ago. Damned hackers!
ReplyDeleteThat corner is right off busy Finchley Road, so it could just be someone pulling over and unloading a truck. Or it could come from one of the units in that building. Who knows?!
DeleteI am trying to think and I cannot remember if you can just order with a card number without the CCV numbers. Possibly. That was a lot of money to disappear from your bank account. Banks here are scared that the English bank regulation over scams like you experienced will be imposed here, and so have become really tough, as I discovered.
ReplyDeleteLooks like someone is moving and purging. Pity they can't dispose of it appropriately. I'm glad you found the banking issue and hope everything is well remedied and soon. How very odd -- pizza loving swindlers! That rose is a stunner!
ReplyDelete