Credit card fraud

25th is my pay-day. I usually don't care so much about the pay-day or my saving account status, but this month I checked it because I have an investment plan for this autumn (I'm a bit hooked on the play of funds & shares for a little excitement :-) Will blog about it some time!)

Sogu Kuala Lumpur 153 euro 20 Aug, 2005
Jasco BDR Puch 245 euro 20 Aug, 2005
Sogu Kuala Lumpur 98 euro 21 Aug, 2005

When I saw those lines on the page of my saving account status, firstly I asked myself,
- "Have I been to Malaysia recently?"
20th Aug is just a couple of days ago....
- "No, I was in Sweden on 20th Aug."
And secondly thought,
- "Did I do net-shoppings in Sogu K.L.?"
- "No, not at all."
And thirdly ,
- "OK, I was there 3 years ago, maybe the cost of my shoppings there were withdrawn now 20th Aug"
- "no, no, no,,,, that's silly. "

And then I finally realised,
"Oh, no!! This is a Credit Card Fraud!!".

I immediately called 24 hour service of my bank and blocked my card.

Afterwards, I talked to a colleague whose card was also abused some time ago, and in his case he didn't notice the strangeness for 3 weeks and the fraudster kept on making purchases 3 to 4 times/day, almost everyday for 3 weeks until he blocked his card and the total sum of the fraud soared to more than 10,000 euro!!

In my case, I only found the cases dated 20th and 21st Aug so far. Considering money transactions sometimes take a couple of days, there is a possibility that "my" fraudster might have been enjoying his/her shoppings with my card until 26th Aug when I blocked it, and the purchase reports haven't been shown yet on my account status on the net, and I'm fear this could be the case.

Anyway I'll leave this nasty happening behind me for now and set off on holiday again. I'm on my way to Budapest! I'm so excited about this first visit and also to see a friend of mine I haven't seen for 10 years!!

Are Swedes cold and boring? - my insight on Sweden (1)

Already!? autumn scenery (last week taken)

Lakeside at sunset

What and how much do you know about Sweden?

You have probably heard some of the names of Sony Ericsson (where I work at! well, it's actually headquatered in London though), Ericsson, Ikea, Volvo, Tetra Pak, H&M, Abba, Bjorn Borg etc.

What I knew about Sweden before arrining here were Viking, aurora, ice Hotel, vodka, hight taxe rates and a strong welfare state, and my images of Sweden were the girls are beautiful (which is true), people are tall and blond ( for some peole yes but not everyone), suicide rates are higher (not sure if this is really true : but it is locally said so too) and pornography is widespread ( not ture - unfortunately, Joaquim - : we sometimes confuse nakedness with sex, Swedes are simply nature oriented and less prudish, I think).

Chatting with, for example, taxi drivers who are often immigrants from warmer climates, they quite sometimes say Swedes are cold, boring people, who don't know how to have fun.
From my point of view, I feel that to describe Swedes as cold is absolutely unfair. They are very warm, kind and sincere but it takes time to get to know them.
People's life, even everyday life, seems to run on the basis of organized plans and agreements. Here is an extreme example, but some people make their holiday plan 1 year ahead on where to go and what to do, and book flights for next year!!
I wonder how successful "lastminutes.com" is in this country (he he...).
A lot of planning certainly bring you securities, but at the same time impromptu surprises might be missed in life, which I personally appreciate to be happened.

(to be continued)

Protagonista in Tango?

Last weekend I danced Tango outdoors just beside the seawater of Oresund strait in Malmo, Sweden. To be honest, I am not really much of outdoor dancing by several reasons - e.g. it looks too healthy for my very personal and almost illusional image of Tango (for me Tango is something related to "black & white""mysterious""bitter" and I like that special atmosphere, not many places serve this ambience though.. ), but the outdoor dancing turned out to be very enjoyable and I liked it a lot. I felt dancing with some sea breeze and sea smell in the sun somehow made me feel as if I was a protagonista in a dance film or something (sounds silly?). Anyhow this is arranged by Steve, who is well know in Malmo/CPH by his dance of course and his social skill and network. And all ladies love to dance with him, he is so popular. Everyone of us appreciates your effort for keeping this on. Thank you.

Early bird

What can I say, but life is good today. Things started out pretty good. One reason of this is that I woke up early this morning -- woke up at 05.30am (usually at 07.30 or later), did some private stuffs home, got prepared and I started my work around 08.00 (usually at 09.00 or much later sometimes)!! The point is I got extra 2 hours in the morning when my body and mind were very fresh after sleep. I could do a lot in this 2 hour free time, that 's what I found today... but I am not sure if I can do this again tomorrow morning.... I sometims have insomnia and extremely low blood pressure, my alarm doesn't work properly---- (Yeah, just excuses, hi hi...). I will try to get up early and will have another good day tomorrow too! (if my alarm works properly - still excuse... )

By the way the picture shows my office. I spend more than 8 hours a day in this space. It's small, but I like this room. I sometimes decorated the window with flowers, but not today (Hey guys, why don't you send me some flowers!!).

（Ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ　ｔｅｘｔ　ｂｅｌｏｗ）
日 本の皆さん、お元気ですか？Ｂｌｏｇを始める際に、英語で書くか日本語で書くか大変迷ったのですが、どちらか一方を選ぶのではなく、欲張って両言語で書 けばいいんだ！という簡単な事にこれまで気付かずにいました（冷汗）。それを教えてくれたスペインの裕子ちゃん、ありがとう！おそらくメインは英語になる かと思いますが、たまには日本語でも書くようにします！よろしく。