How many times has it happened to you where just when you think you’ve got skills and are on top of your game, some fool somewhere on the other side of the planet has to go and burst your bubble?
Well I had this exact experience when I stumbled upon this video on YouTube:
Believe it ’cause it’s true…
I had a really good time at my first 27 Dinner last night, where I was also a speaker.
Despite the fact that I arrived rather frazzled after my car wouldn’t start due to a flat battery and I was dragged to the stage to do my presentation the minute I arrived, the Stormhoek Sauvignon Blanc I quickly necked assisted me greatly in calming renegade nerves.
Cheers to Mike and Dave for a great event and to the cool people I met for the first time and the others I caught up with. There were many whom I unfortunately missed last night (Tyler you geek), but I’m greatly looking forward to doing the rounds at the next dinner. Thanks also to Justin for the very cool Afrigator limited-edition shirt. It wasn’t 50/50 but 30/50 is a decent middle of the road Justin ;-)
My presentation entitled “Bullardgate: A case study in disaster management” is available as a pdf download sans bells ‘n whistles…
As human-beings, we always think things only happen to “other people” until they actually happen to YOU!!!
That was the wake-up call for me this morning when I noticed a bunch of strange amounts being charged to my account.
On further investigation it became apparent that “someone” had been fraudulently making payments on my petrol card, which as of today, totaled over R800!!!
I immediately phoned my bank and had the offending card cancelled. It looks like I will eventually be reimbursed – after cutting my card up into tiny little pieces and signing various affidavits – but the inconvenience of being without a card and the trust I’ve lost in the system will remain with me for a while.
I still have so many questions such as: How was this possible when the card was in my possession at all times? Where did the “scam” where my details were originally stolen take place? How should I protect myself in future so that this doesn’t happen again? And why did the merchants accept an unauthorised signature in the first place… why why why?
UPDATE: FNB phoned me back within seconds of me turning my current petrol card into pretty confetti. It seems that the offending card was not in fact my current petrol card, but an earlier one that was linked to a credit card that I cancelled months ago. The petrol card had gone missing, but I assumed it would be made invalid after I cancelled my credit card.
This effectively means that most of the “How & Why?” has now been answered, but I’m still confused as to how the old card found it’s way into a criminal/s hands, who only started using it a week ago, and why that amount was allowed to be charged to my new account in the first place when it deleted over a month ago?
Things have been very busy for me over the last couple of weeks (evident by the sporadic blog posts) as the official launch of The Times draws ever nearer.
There are now 4 blogs on The Times blog network (Bullog, The Unknown Soldier, Les Ma-ada, and The Wild Frontier) and this number will continue to soar with one or two surprise additions along the way. The blog network is just the start of things to come, however, and I’m particularly excited about some of the other things we have up our sleeve which are sure to make the South African media landscape a whole lot more interesting.
On a slightly different note, I have been asked to speak about The Times and the Bullard fiasco at the upcoming 27 Dinner in Jozi this weekend, which also happens to be my first 27 due to missing the previous two for various reasons. Bullard’s blog has done pretty well over the past 10 days since its inception and according to Google Analytics has racked up over 10 000 page impressions with around 4 000 unique visitors.
Web traffic to sundaytimes.co.za has also spiked a number of times over the past two weeks and I don’t think it takes a brain surgeon to realise that it’s as a result of the “Bullard Effect”. Now if only he could send some of that traffic this way ;-)
Mail & Guardian (red) Vs. the Sunday Times (blue) [source alexa.com]
Like him or hate him, you can’t deny that you read him!!!
This morning Bullard launched a range of bladges on his blog – Bullog – after the overwhelming response he’s received from the public.
Different bladges are available to reflect your personal views of Mr. Bullard, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get one now!!!
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