ATM'S AND GAS PUMPS ARE THE EASIEST TARGET FOR SKIMMERS. HOW DOES THAT MAKE SENSE? aka The Skimming Scammers

Last night my husband sent me a local news alert on credit card skimming at ATM's and Gas Pumps.

I posted it to Facebook because I think it's something we all need to be aware of.

I watched it, and found  SOMETHING odd.  October was the time that all banks had to send us money, the money  spenders chip cards to prevent fraud. The banks sent cards so now we should feel more secure because the information on them is hard to steal. They sent cards, but didn't change their own machinery.

 EXCEPT:

Certain merchants still don't have the readers because they are usually very large companies and it takes time and money for the conversion. Okay, we all understand.

I looked on line for information related to this, but mostly, the searches brought up self congratulatory information from the banks patting themselves on their backs for sending out their new cards.

What I found was, that if the merchant didn't upgrade, they became partially responsible for any loss that might get caught. The banks would be sharing the liability. They used to be completely responsible.  Hmm. So the bank sends you a chip card and they are partly off the hook?

The reason I watched the video was because it hit too close to home. Literally.
The bank branch the thieves actually targeted was the one I use. Great. They  used the front door. Who would even think of the entrance as being compromised?  Not little old me.

I'll try to attach at link at the end so you can watch the details.  There are also some U tube vids on the subject. Please educate yourself and loved ones.

Since merchants aren't  the easiest targets, anymore, the thieves are now attacking mostly ATMs and Gas Station Pumps.

Why don't they  (banks and oil companies) have to put in chip technology? I couldn't find anything legal about them having to change. Maybe they do and I couldn't find it. Maybe they don't, and if not, why?

I find it odd that the two industries that make it possible for you to be ripped off are banking and oil. Two of the wealthiest industries in the world. Well, maybe not odd. Not even surprising actually.

Shouldn't they have the money to protect us? The desire? It makes little sense.

I also found out that the Secret Service is involved in trying to catch the skimming scammers.

The only thing I found out was that if you check your statements regularly and find a charge that's not yours, and file a dispute within 60 days you have a chance at getting your money back. I was just thinking. What if they steal your information and wait five months? Does that make a difference? Harder to track down? Too damned many questions for which I have no information.

Although the video shows ways to check the ATMS, the gas pump skimming technology is harder to find.

POSSIBLE THEORIES:

1.  They don't give a shit about us, the consumer.  That's not a theory. It's a fact.

2.   The banks are making more money off of this. Someone steals your data, you don't catch it. You are out of time and luck.
3.   You catch it within 60 days, but the merchant is now partly responsible. The bank pays less. The bank makes more.

4.   You don't catch it, or  even if you do, during the investigation the bank is paid for the transaction on its credit card. The bank makes money during that time. Banks make interest even if we don't. They  also don't care if you spent it, or a Russian Nigerian cross dresser.

5.  It's bad enough we have to pump our own gas. Of course that became risky because the attendant took your card. That is a no-no now.  The only way to be sure we aren't getting skimmed and scammed is to walk to the inside of the station and pay there, with chip or cash. Hmmm. How lazy am I?  Do I want to get in line while someone orders a burrito? Hell no. I want fast, so I'll gamble. And I've never done that before. I don't know how. Do I leave my car at the pump and go inside and say? What? What do I say? If I fill it up, how will they know how to charge? Do I have to go back inside again?


The Big One

  Somehow, the banks and the oil companies have pulled off their own big scam. We are going to pay and they are not. They will increase their profits and we will lose eve more or our hard earned money.

   Let's face it. The cards are stacked against us.

POSSIBLE SOLUITION

  Start sending emails to banks and major gas stations complaining about the lack of security and demanding chips technology at those weak link points.  See what they say. I'm going to do it and see what type of response I get. Public pressure from millions of people may help us. So, even if you don't ask people to read the blog or post, inform your friends. And write letters.  It's your money.  It's my money.  It's your uncles who you stand to inherit from if there's anything left.  Not theirs and we need to take a stand. Now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzopT8aqSEY        



I'll check to see if it plays. It doesn't. You'll have to copy and paste. I don't know why, but it's better than getting ripped off.  Good luck soldiers.

Why do computer printers get wonky, even long after they've been set up and working???????? if you listen, you'll hear me SCREAMM !!

Just a string of symbols for expletives won't cut it.  So, God Damn Fuck Shit.

My accountant is coming Monday and there is only one more document I need.

From my bank. I, just over an hour ago, went on line and found it is now ready and I downloaded it.  YAY. I won't have to cancel the appointment.

 Much to my dismay,  when I hit print, I got nothing. No sound of the machine warming up, no annoying pings, no drawer slowly inching its way out.  Initially, not even an error message.

For some reason, Adobe Reader hasn't been my friend lately. I think that may be due to having Windows 10 on one search engine and not on the other that I use most of the time. Of course, I know nothing much about technology so it's not a shock that things don't work. And what Ijust wrote may be complete nonsense with me using words that I hear about computers, but using them incorrectly.

So, I tried in the "engine "that uses Windows 10. No luck there either, in printing.  Except that I did finally get an error message that I've never seen before. A weird message about Acrobat not being able to read *a something about the statement.* I have no idea what they were writing about.  It had letters and all sorts of things I couldn't comprehend. There was a place on the page that asked if I wanted to convert the file. Of course I couldn't find the "file" they wanted to convert. I kept trying. It kept asking. Then,
it wouldn't let me convert from Acrobat to PDF,  which I thought was the same. Or at least I think that it,..... Actually I'm not even going to bother to finish this sentence. I'm clueless.  Possibly Adobe knows I'm Jewish and that I don't really want to convert.

Anyway. I kept trying. I even put in new Black ink, which I almost needed, but I was waiting until the paper came out striped. *(AD) If you put ink in every time they tell you it's low, you are losing about 1/3rd to 1/4th of the ink you have left. Bunch of robbers.

For some reason, although my Epson printer isn't on a network, I believe it thinks it is because it's wireless,  and I have about 4 different options to choose from to set as my default printer, even though there is only one printer.  What the hell is that about?  * Advice from me to you.   Don't call Epson for  help.

The child who helped me last time, had me uninstall and reinstall it a year ago and that did not help and  he couldn't understand why. That gave me a lot of confidence in them. At least he spoke English.

I don't remember how I worked it out, so it worked, but it did. ( I may have had a computer tech come in then. I don't remember). 

I will no longer call or email for help. What they do is pour water on the drowning.

This goes for most sites that now, for help, give you a list of possible things you can do, and they are never ever what I am looking for. Then, they ask if it helped. I hit no. They ask why. They never get back to me. I assume this would be much the same as writing a letter to Santa, the Easter Bunny or someone who is dead.

Lastly, I went to the control panel and chose the same network that has been working for the last few months. I reset my Wi-Fi password.

You got it. I didn't get it. Nothing, nada, zilch. No printing. Only the same old error message that at least I was familiar with. 

Then I remembered, "When all else fails, pull the plug".  So I rebooted.  As the computer roared to life, so did the printer. At the same fucking time. I hadn't even logged in and it was spitting out one, no two copies of what it absolutely refused to do before.
 Thankfully I was able to cancel  more copies or I would now have 7 of them.


MY THEORIES as I have several of them:

• Printers are stupid and although I said that stupid could be fixed, I was obviously wrong when it comes to machines.
• The manufacturer's build in defects to drive us crazy so after a while, even though the printer isn't all that old, we can't stand looking at it and buy a new one. Usually, just after you have purchased a complete set of ink cartridges at over $90.
• Printers have defective memories, like mine. They can only remember things from the past, so current information is considered an error.
• My personal electronic energy field messes with all types of electronic devices. When something electronic stops working, if I leave and my energy field follows, it will work for the next person who uses it.
• Seriously. There are days when I really can't take it. I know that life doesn't go smoothly and I am blessed in many ways. However, I believe that time is a precious commodity that shouldn't have to be wasted on fixing what should always be working.  THAT'S IT! I'M DONE. 

 

 

WHY IS OUR HAIR SO LINKED TO OUR SELF ESTEEM AND SEX?????

 

 

 

Kama Sutra Look at all that long lovely hair.

 

 

 I had my hair straightened today, well, now it was yesterday, for the first time in 8 or 9 years. Instead of going through that expensive, time lengthy, bore me to tears, treatment, I've been flat ironing my hair instead.  It works nicely.  Well, maybe except in Florida.  It kinda limits has some  limits.

If I do anything outside in the humidity or rain, it poufs out and or frizzes and ripples.  If I go into the pool for a dip, I have to wrap my hair around my head like a Sikh would  his turban.

Ridiculous. I know. That, however, seems to have become the adjective I've adopted for me and my theories.

Don't laugh. I'd rather be ridiculous than redundant,  or redonculous. That's not a real word, [at least not one in my old dictionaries,] but I like how it sounds. I also don't mind being recumbent.

 

I have been distressed about my hair since I was 12.  The styles then, were bouffant, but you still needed straight hair for it to stay nice and look right. Of course, thin straight hair probably wasn't so hot either, but I don't think at that age I had a whole lot of empathy for straight haired girls. Or anyone for that matter.  I learned to deal with it. Not well, but back then, I didn't have much choice.  *(AD) I did a home hair straightening at around age 17. It looked great for a day. Then I washed it and it was like someone had poured a bottle of glue on my head.  Hello short hair. It grew back.  Then I used to blow dry it with the contraptions we had then, that had a hose and a shower cap bonnet> I would dry my hair while it was wrapped around my head with two ginormous rollers as anchors at the top. Since my hair was thick, I had to repeat this procedure  in the other direction. This process took about three hours.

  Every day,  before leaving for school, I would dial the weather on the phone to check the humidity. If it was humid, I would wear a hat and tuck my hair under my coat or jacket. I was 16 and very insecure. Surprise! Thinking on it now, it may have been a coping mechanism due to the loss of my sister and my parent's marriage falling apart. And that too, is another story for another day.

 

 

More Current History

 

It was watching the Oprah show, that I first learned about the art of Japanese hair straightening.  OMG!   I was so psyched I couldn't contain my joy.  Unfortunately I had to. My hair was fairly short and I  had to wait several  really long months to grow my hair enough so it could be straightened.  But I did it. I even went for two consultations with places in Manhattan that Oprah had mentioned. I think I felt quite "chic" going to Oprah's actual suggestions.

And then I had it done. That, was a nightmare, but the results were worth it.

It felt weird at first. Seeing myself  with a smooth head. I felt shorter. It looked like something was missing. However,

I got used to it  and haven't been a frizz head since. I've either had it straightened or worn is super short, or ironed it.

 

LESS CURRENT HISTORY

 

When I was 15 the only way you could iron your hair was if you had an iron, an ironing board and a willing friend. It was rather dangerous, painful and not so effective. So I gave that up.

Me at age 14 and 18.

An Aside:

 

I also have flat feet. It's kind of related. I couldn't get comfortable high heels and got back problems and bunions from pronating. High heels are sexy, like hair.

 

FLIGHT OF FANCY

 

A few years ago, in this age of miracles, I began to wonder: how different would my life have been,had I had my mother's beautiful thick, straight hair and her high arches instead of dad's waves and flat feet.

 

 

Dad is on the bottom left, Mom is on the top right. Of course her hair was permed.

I  tried to believe that I would have had much more self esteem and so therefore my life would have been so much better.  I told you before I could be shallow. Given the skills my parents had, though,  I still would have felt like road kill regardless, but fantasies offer a taste of what could have been. In looking at this fantasy, I realized that I certainly was not alone with my concerns about my hair.

 

And so I began to think about how EVERYONE seems to have  concerns.

 

 

THE QUESTION: WHY AND HOW LONG HAVE HUMANS BEEN OBSESSED ABOUT THEIR APPEARANCES, ESPECIALLY WITH THEIR HAIR?????

 

From Wiki 

 

Throughout times, people have worn their hair in a wide variety of styles, largely determined by the fashions of the culture they live in. Hairstyles are markers and signifiers of social class, age, marital status, racial identification, political beliefs, and attitudes about gender.
In many cultures, often for religious reasons, women's hair is covered while in public, and in some, such as Haredi Judaism or European Orthodox communities, women's hair is shaved or cut very short, and covered with wigs.^[3] Only since the end of World War I have women begun to wear their hair short and in fairly natural styles.^[4]

The Venus of Brassempouy

Paleolithic

The oldest known reproduction of hair braiding lies back about 30,000 years: the Venus of Willendorf, now known in academia as the Woman of Willendorf, of a female figurine from the Paleolithic, estimated to have been made between about 28,000 and 25,000 BCE.^[5] The Venus of Brassempouy counts about 25,000 years old and indisputably shows hairstyling.
In Bronze Age razors were known and in use by some men, but not on a daily basis since the procedure was rather unpleasant and required resharpening of the tool which reduced its endurance.^[6]

Ancient history

In ancient civilizations, women's hair was often elaborately and carefully dressed in special ways. Women coloured their hair, curled it, and pinned it up (ponytail) in a variety of ways. They set their hair in waves and curls using wet clay, which they dried in the sun and then combed out, or else by using a jelly made of quince seeds soaked in water, or curling tongs and curling irons of various kinds.^[7][8]


So, we crazy beings have been doing our do's since time began. Pretty interesting if you ask me. Even if you didn't ask me. How would I know? You never write, you never call, you never comment. Therefore, you'll get what I want until you let me know what you want.

^{I just looked up the words hair and sex. I will only say that there did not appear to be any scholarly research on the subject.  There was mention of body hair which I will only touch upon , (or not) in trying to understand its evolutionary need. Things that didn't help us survive were shed along the way.  From what it looks like, a lot of that was full body hair. At least for most men. I'm not sure if I'll be able to find any research on this subject. If not. I'll just make it up. Using my extensive knowledge of psychology, people and bullshitting.}

 

              WIKI AGAIN

A special case of natural selection is sexual selection, which is selection for any trait that increases mating success by increasing the attractiveness of  potential mates.^[124] Traits that evolved through sexual selection are particularly prominent among males of several animal species. Although sexually favored, traits such as cumbersome antlers, mating calls, large body size and bright colors often attract predation, which compromises the survival , this survival disadvantage is balanced by higher reproductive success in males that show these hard-to-fake, sexually selected traits. 

 *  me, not Wiki.   Hard to fake. I like that. Wigs, comb overs, liposuction, penis extensions, face work.  No wonder we're producing so many individuals who could not actually survive on their own. Example. Man, aged 38, still living at mom's. Enough said.
Hmm..... They seemed to focus on the attractiveness of males. And, if you remember your biology, males of all other species are the more colorful and attractive of the two sexes.  It's only in humans that things got reversed.  Why did that flip?  Is it possible that  this is what happens to the species who has can think and has opposable thumbs.  Which you really, really need if you're combing or braiding your hair.


WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS MEAN OR HAVE TO DO WITH THE PRICE OF EGGS?

^{Nice pun and idiom. I'm patting myself on the back but you can't see me.}

 

 

^{America was built on Puritanical principles. Although we went through the sexual revolution in the 60's and 70's, I am old enough to be clueless about today's youth culture and their actual practices and attitudes about sex and reproduction. However, they still seem to be quite keen on hair.}

 

^{"I'm having a bad hair day"}

^{Given what you've just read, you might now understand why this is really an important, statement and not just some flippant remark.}

 

^{ACTUAL FACT}

^{I don't know if you realize that the first thing an individual notices about someone they meet, or see, is their gender. Not race which you might think would be first. Not even age.  It seem to register, almost unconsciously.}

 

^{It seems that we need to know how to classify this individual by their sex.}

^{This appears to be instinctive.}

 

^{Back to evolution and survival. I'm a cave man. I see you across the horizon. Are you friend or foe? I must know if I am to get out of this situation alive. Can I tell from the distance? I suppose if you are hairy all over and have facial hair and head hair, I better gear up.}

 

  ^{Hair, Dok*, stick with hair. I seem to have digressed upon the Serengeti.}

 

 ^{Hair is a symbol of virility and sexuality.}

^{Way back when, when I would have been decorating an actual cave, not just a man cave,  we were probably lucky to live to  be 20 or 25. Hair was therefore vital to passing down one's jeans. No, I meant  genes.  oops. I mean in having children before you died. That is of course assuming you can't have children after you've died. Well, you can now, but you couldn't then. Unless those ice age people were smarter than we thought.  As you can see. I can't stay on topic for long.}

^{Attraction to the opposite sex was vital. And apparently still is. (That is kind of funny. Like it never stopped being vital.)} 

 ^{Our hair was probably one  of the ways to tell whether we had a disease or were in someway not a good choice to pass on our genetic code.   *(AD)  {Not that that was what the man was thinking. Not consciously.  He was still like probably, ooh, there goes a piece of meat. I'd like to  give it to her.  Let me club her on the head and see if she puts up a fight. }}

 ^{Like glowing skin ( not from radiation) or uneven features or things that made us look different from everyone else.}

 

^{Listen  and look at the commercials. "Your hair will look healthy and full and  feel silky  and glow and bla bla bla."}

 

^{For men, balding is the ultimate enemy. I'm not sure why curly and/or frizzy hair is "unsexy" on men, or when bald, but not balding, became a turn on for women.}

^{Obviously there were cultural factors long ago that have changed.}

^Alas,

^{No matter how old we get, we still think of ourselves in such a way as to want to be seen as attractive, if not sexy.}

^{Hair seems to be the crowning glory of that symbol.}

^{The hairstyles change over the millennia. But the fact remains, that hair still rules.}

^{*Dok is how I spell Doc.}

 

^{PS.  I was born in 1949.  If I was being reincarnated , I did not take the future into account. Wavy hair was in and if that's why I chose it, I hope I learned from my selection.  If we are allowed a glimpse of the possible futures,  next time around, I'll pay more attention to hair and feet.  Please don't judge me.}

I could still fit in my dress, 16 years later. It was Halloween.

^{PPS  Here are two pix of the straightened hair. It looks shorter than I thought it was. Oh well. It's hanging.... straight.}

would you believe, I posted the pss and forgot to post the pictures? Yeah. I'd rather not believe it either.