Credit card fraud !!!

This is a true story.

This happened to me and I am writing this so that you all can be aware of such fraud happenings around us everyday.

In today’s world internet is blooming and so is online business. One can find almost everything one needs for day to day life through online shopping. I myself buy lots of electronic goods and accessories through online stores. Booking of railway tickets and LIC premium payments are made using credit card or net banking facility.

Couple of months back, I had to purchase one software for my official use and hence I used my credit card to pay the same in USD. That particular website through which I made the purchase was associated with Paypal and the payment gateway was through Paypal website. So I had no choice but to register with Paypal. I used my ICICI bank credit card (my first credit card). Paypal has the policy to first register the card on their website which includes 16 digit card number, name of the card holder, date of expiry of the card. This is a mandatory step and being an IT techie I don’t like to register such details on any websites but was forced to enter it as per Paypal policy.

The payment was successfully done and when I tried to delete my Credit card details which had got saved in the Paypal website, it did not allowed me to do so. Upon calling their Help Centre, I was being told that once the payment is successfully cleared from my credit card bank, then only I can remove the details which will normally take 48-72 hours. Now this was ridiculous and not acceptable at all. But again I was left with no option and had to remember to login on the Paypal website after 2-3 days and delete the details.

As usual, I am quiet forgetful and forgot this too. And just few days back I received two SMS on my cell and even emails mentioning that there were two transactions of 50$ each from my credit card thru Paypal website. I got shocked on receiving such acknowledgements, as no transactions were done by me. I logged into the Paypal site and saw details of the 2 online payment done to some company in China. I immediately called up ICICI bank customer care and informed them about the illegal transaction and asked them to stop the payment ASAP. Then next step was to call Paypal Help Centre team and I was informed to file illegal/fraud transaction complaint online through the website only. Though this happened on a weekend and luckily I was at home so I could do it immediately. If I had not reported this fraud immediately then my money would have got debited from my card and then nothing could have been done.

After seven working days, from the time the complaint was filled with Paypal, I finally got the confirmation from Paypal that the transaction was illegally done through some other country and I was not liable to pay anything. This gave me a sigh of relief (although the amount was not big but why I should bear the amount which was fraud). This time my immediate step was to clear my credit card details and delete my profile from Paypal. I also deactivated my old credit card and in-return ICICI issued me a fresh card with new card number.

In India, there is no provision if any such frauds happens with you wherein your insurance company pays back the amount to you if it is an illegal transaction.

But thanks to the technology (sms, emails) which helped me from becoming one more victim of fraudulent cases.

Never ending list of Holidays ….

Just few days back on 2nd October was “Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti” and a public holiday for all schools, colleges, government offices as well as most private offices. Did you really celebrated Ganhiji’s birthday with a traditional birthday cake? What is the importance of Gandhiji’s birthday in our day to day life? I personally have no answer to any of the above questions :-|.

We are just happy that we got a holiday and a day off from your daily routine. But do you ever stop and think how this impacts the productivity of our country? Can you imagine losing one more day of production? Does it not affect the growth and progress of our nation? And that too in a country like India, the only country where we celebrate so many festivals and birthdays of our leaders as compare to any other country in the world.

Person who is employed is happy to get such paid holidays and he will enjoy the benefits too. But what about people who are daily-wage earner? Is it not a loss to them on such public holidays? These are the people who earn money on daily basis and one day of “No production” means no earning on that day. It means they are denied of their bread and butter that day :(.

Let us also not forget some important services like Police, Army, Fire brigade, Hospitals, Call centres and such similar services who are working round the clock for 365 days. They are not close and we cannot afford it if they stop working and enjoy such public holidays. Such holidays for the rest of the people means an opportunity for enjoying long weekends, one or two paid holidays along with Public holidays and holidaying out of Mumbai. If you recollect I had mentioned the same in one of my earlier post Hum Hai Hindustani too.

I don’t think Mahatma Gandhi wanted us to stop working and enjoy a public holiday on his birthday. Rather he would be happy to see us all working hard, as he himself used to. With all due respect to all our freedom fighters and great personalities of our country, we need to think whether we are really justifying the holiday we get on these occasions of birthdays or death anniversary? I would not like to get into this deeply as this can hurt someone’s sentiment. These are just purely my views that it is high time we gave a thought to the quantum of holidays we enjoy ….

What did you do on this day? Do you agree with my views? If you do agree or don’t agree, I would love to hear from you.

Disclaimer: This is a personal web-blog. The opinions expressed here represent my own. This post is not aimed for offense at anyone!

Ways to reach The Almighty!!!

I wanted to write this post many days back but my work and then my school reunion pushed it back further.

India is a diversified country with people following many different religions, but after all The Almighty, Creator of the Universe is one. There are two categories of people, one are the believers who have faith in God and the others the non-believers. It is like “You believe it or You don’t believe it”; never be in a ’50-50′ category. I am a person who has strong belief in God, and while writing this post I am leaving those people aside who do not have faith in God.

There are so many ways to connect with God and it differs from people to people and religion to religion. Pooja, Prayers, offering Prasad, Mannat, fasting, donations, sacrificing a living being and the list is endless. People have their own ways to express their faith.

I also have my own way to say Thank You to God for what He has given to me. My way to reach God is by way of fasting, sacrificing what I love (not living beings but my like for food) and yes very rarely ‘Mannat’ too. Many of my friends have asked me what do I get doing such things? God has given us to eat then why do I fast? Why do I sacrifice few things which I like the most? Am I bribing God? Well, my answer to them is that I get mental satisfaction in doing so. If one has mental satisfaction then that person can achieve what he or she wants. There is nothing like bribing or offering to God. Infact I am no one to offer things which are created and made by Him. Today, the type of life we live, it is very difficult for us to visit temple for prayers everyday. So to compensate on this I make a point that once I leave my home in the morning, I am continuously saying my daily routine prayers.

Then there are other ways like walking barefoot while going for darshan, sacrificing living beings (which I do not approve at all and am totally against it), some do self talking (with positive notes), and there are some who donate in temples, ashrams, etc.

There is a solution to all problems and solution is within you. You need to find out the right path to any issues in your life. God is always with everyone whether you believe in him or not. He does not differentiate between people. For Him all are same and He equally loves everyone. He will not give more or less to people depending on how much they worship him. We have to work hard in our life overcoming all the hurdles which come along.

It is for peace of mind that we try to find different ways to reach Him. Don’t stop yourself, just go and do what you feel is the best to Thank Him.

God is the ultimate truth of life. Have belief in him and just say to your self “All is Well”.

(I am sure many of you will not agree with me, but I would like to see your comments on this as well.)