Are you aware of the Karmic Wheel, or heard the expression bitten by his own pet snake? Well if you read my fabulous compilation from a few weeks back, Starbucks, Monty Burns and #BestMoneyStories, you would have read about the security break in Starbucks’ Card and App system, and how folks were having their accounts hacked and money taken from them, remember that? Wish I had, because this week my phone threw up this interesting message:
“Your $100 card transaction has gone through”
My reaction was, “What the F*ck!”, and yes my account had been hacked, and someone was attempting to syphon money off my credit card, via my Starbucks card for nefarious usage (no doubt). Luckily the good folks at the Starbucks hot line, fixed it all up with great alacrity (word of the week for me), and my finances are no more worse for wear. I suppose this suggests I should (on occasion) take my advice, or stop drinking expensive coffee.
Looks like 4 million federal employees (in the US) have had their personal data hacked, and the authorities involved are pointing the finger at China. Not a great week for privacy this week, sorry folks.
My Writings for Week Ending June 5th
The finals in the NBA and the NHL are finally here, and then it will all be over (until September):
- I decided that after reading the original Financial Post article, and then the follow on from LSM insurance that I had to say something about More Invasion of Privacy (for Reward Points), this is even more wrong than the Car monitoring gadgets for lower rates, and I am astounded if any person signed up for that program. If you have, please drop me a line, I want to interview you.
- Barry Choi claims that even though there are many more consumers whose Cell Phone contracts have expired, thanks to Happy End of 3 Year Cell Phone Contracts Day!, there are less good deals out there. Is anybody else seeing this?
An interesting tweet:
Lazy Hazy Crazy Money Ideas
The Blunt Bean Counter continues on his a bit morbid, but still important topic with Financial & Tax Planning for the Terminally Ill – Part 2. Barry Choi wants to help us with How to Deal with a Financial Emergency, which is kind of like planning for being terminally ill? Robb from Boomer and Echo, goes for the classic financial story (with a personal angle) in My RRSP and TFSA (Or the Parable of the Twins), who did the right thing?
Mark from My Own Advisor, steps out on a limb with his Why living off your dividends or distributions works, as he thinks this is a controversial point of view. I think it is a viable plan, but may not be possible for a lot of folks (you have to build a fairly large nest egg to live off the dividends from). Mark from Second Career Search continues his commentaries on Managerial Ideas in large corporations with What is Behind Obscene CEO Salaries? Unfortunately at the end of it all, you can guess the reason.
Seems the folks in the UK need to get educated about Malware as One Quarter of the PCs in the UK are infected with it. What is worth than Malware? Ransomware, is the answer. There is new Android Ransomware that claims to be FBI porn warning, and then locks your system.
Michael James wrote a commentary on my post last week about Frustratingly Correct Financial Answers, but his commentary took me to task (kind of) with The Wrong Investing Goals, but I am OK with that. Speaking of interesting investing news, evidently the CRA wants to know how a Former trader amassed $1.5M in his TFSA, I’d like to know as well.
Smart Phones Show
If you want to learn more about Smartphones, this is the Video Podcast to watch:
2015 Random Thoughts
- January 2nd Random Thoughts on 2014, Welcome to MMXV and #BestOf
- January 9th Frigid Temps, Plunging Oil, Paris and #BestThisWeek
- January 16th Canadian Economy on the Edge, Frigid Temps and #BestThisWeek
- January 23rd Looser Money, Plummeting Loons and #BestThisWeek
- January 30th CLBs, Weak Loons, Tax Time, Superb Owls and #BestThisWeek
- February 6th Superb Decisions, Gas Going Up, Rugby and #BestThisWeek
- February 13th RRSPs, Valentines, 50 Shades of Debt and #BestOfThisWeek
- February 20th Lent Begins, Freezing Temps, Apples and RRSP and #BestOfThisWeek
- February 27th RRSPs, Saint David, Right Arm and #BestOfThisWeek
- March 6th Illness, K-Cups, Interest Rates and #BestOfThisWeek
- March 13th March Madness, Taxes, Friday the 13th and #BestOfThisWeek
- March 20th Spring has Sprung, Ten Years, The Madness and #BestOfThisWeek
- March 27th Death of EPost, More Madness, and #BestMoneyStories
- April 10th Senators, Retiring Rich and #BestMoneyStories
- April 17th Playoffs, Tax Time, Beer tax and #BestMoneyStories
- April 24th RRIF Allowances, Bursary Changes, Budgets and #BestMoneyStories
- May 1st Tax Extensions, Golf Season, Bank Fees, May Day and #BestMoneyStories
- May 8th Alberta Valium, Mother’s Day, Che Guevara, Pay Day Loans and #BestMoneyStories
- May 15th Starbucks, Monty Burns and #BestMoneyStories
- May 22nd Coach Money, CPP Up 18 pct, Losing $15B and #BestMoneyStories
- May 29th Easy Money, Better Cell Deals, Dirty Football and #BestMoneyStories
My Twitter feed is where I re-tweet many great articles by some of my featured writers (and make the occasional odd or off colour commentary on life (in 140 characters or less)). I am also on reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest , Flipboard, Instagram and other Social Media sites (look for the BigCajunMan userid) as well. If you have social media accounts, don’t forget to vote for my posts (see the nifty dashboard on the bottom of each article, where you can cast your votes).As they say in Quebec, vote early and vote often!
Wow, I hadn’t heard about the Starbucks accounts being hacked. I’m glad mine wasn’t touched as I had a large balance on my card because I bought a really big gift card for 40% off.
That will teach you for drinking expensive coffee! 🙂 Glad things worked out.
Thanks for the mention!
Mark
Yeh, convenience can be expensive
It might be, but at least if you do like it and continue to buy it, own some of it or maybe one of the companies that benefit from it… my PBH-T stock thanks you for your habits. – cheers.
It wasn’t my intention to take you to task. It just struck me that the answers you gave that are very correct for the way most people think about investing were not correct for the way I invest.
That Starbucks hack has been going on for some time. I understand that people who get a coffee or two at Starbucks each day through the week often end up with about $300 missing from their bank accounts each month.
Thanks for the mention.
No worries, I appreciated the mention. As for the Starbucks thing, the young man I spoke to was very polite, and it struck me that he had done this before (i.e. refunding money and resetting accounts).