I'VE BEEN HAD...

It's great to be home and begin to catch up with family and friends. I satisfied quickly my yearning for a good hamburger and corn on the cob: my daughter served it the first dinner after we arrived to visit her!

Then I got a cold water shock the next day when I received a letter from my bank, claiming that someone had hacked into my bank account. All of a sudden, I'm seeing bills for airline tickets to Bahrain, deposits to another bank account, not mine, and other expenditures far away from my base of operations---to the tune of over $5000.00! By the choice of air destinations, sounds like some Arab is enjoying the good life at my expense.

One really feels violated, financially raped. I'll get my money back, I am assured by my bank, but it will probably be over several months. Plus all the bullshit you have to go through---changing bank account numbers, advising social security and all the people with whom you have financial dealings.

This happened to me on a slightly smaller scale three years ago when someone got my American Express card number and had a ball in Brooklyn NY and the Long Island suburbs. Amex was quick to get on the ball and I was reimbursed.

This internet world is wonderful but, as we are all discovering, fraught with dangers and perils from the many cheats and vultures preying out there in the nether world. A brave new world---but also a vicious one at times!