As we have officially moved into summer, everyone should have their spring house cleaning tasks completed. Also, yard clearing should be checked off. Lastly, don’t forget to complete a financial housecleaning.
My youngest has completed her first University degree. She plans to take a gap year to decide whether we need more than three lawyers in the family (her parents and older sister) or if she is the smart one and should do something more sane. This means I currently have zero children on the family payroll. The cost to your financial bottom line is exponentially exceeded by the joy children bring, but noting the financial savings helps to offset the realization you are an empty nester (if you are in that group that actually likes your children).
The older daughter graduated last year but I just terminated her connected credit card when new cards with new expiry dates arrived in the mail. Although she started working full-time last fall, I had not had a chance to make sure she had moved any payments to her own wholly owned credit card. Before that time, I just hoped payments I did not recognize were hers if they appeared to have a US connection (where she attended law school).
Upon reviewing the credit card history, I realized a recurring payment for something I did not need nor know that I had approved. I missed some fine print for some US service I used once to check my credit rating due to an in-person fraud. It had unknowingly become a recurring payment, perhaps ironic. Avoid like the plague all those free trial offers that automatically start charging you if you forget to cancel. You agree to be billed forever, before you even try it, forget about it, and forget you need to cancel it. Free, these days, means expensive. I just want to pay to try it once.
I googled the “provider” of another recurring payment and the top find was “may be a scam”. Apparently, I am not the only victim, and the scammer must have been thrilled to find out they could not just scam me, but recurrently do so. My credit card provider advised that the only way to get rid of the fraudulent recurring payment was to cancel my card and wait for another one (and hope all the other recurring payments did not cut me off).
Credit card companies appear so resigned to fraud that the big-ticket folks like Netflix have arrangements with the credit card companies to get grandfathered over to the new card so they are not hassled, like I was, by my card cancellation. I was advised the fraudster was likely overseas, so would get off with no repercussions, as those real-world borders that do not exist online effectively prevent law enforcement. We need cloud-based law enforcement.
Every day, online fraud has become a cost of business that we, the consumer, pay for. The credit card company may give you a refund, so you think you are not a victim. No wonder interest rates are so high.
Credit card companies must make more money by allowing certain fraud than preventing it. The more tools we have to potentially detect and prevent fraud seem to be instead used by nefarious sources to increase it. We, the consumer, effectively subsidize the fraudster’s way of life. The saying “watch after those pennies and the dollars will look after themselves” should apply in the world of online fraud.
Donna Purcell, KC, (aka Lady Justice) is an Alberta lawyer and Chief Innovation Officer with Donna Purcell QC Law. If you have legal questions, contact dpurcell@dpqclaw.com or visit www.dpqclaw.com/.
