Firstly let me say that I’m very happy that Financial Institutions monitor my credit cards for suspected fraudulent activity.  I think that it’s a wonderful service and that they should be congratulated for ensuring that we’re not ripped off by unscrupulous criminals.

But (you knew that was coming didn’t you?) they need to handle this exercise so much better.  Firstly, the 1300 and Sydney landline number did not match the contact phone numbers on the back of my Amex card.  The e-mail was sent from a “.co.nz” e-mail domain.  Alarm bells rang in my head – what if this is a scam?  I rang the Sydney landline number and was greeted with a recorded message stating that I’d reached American Express.  I hung up.  If I was a scammer, I’d answer the phone as if I was American Express as well wouldn’t I?

This morning, I rang the Sydney landline number for Customer Service that appeared on the back of my Amex Card.  After entering my card number and my mother’s birthdate, I was given my balance.  I then had to endure another 3 voice activated menus until I got to select the option I wanted…..”Speak to a Customer Service Officer”.  10 minutes of my life gone already.

After a short wait, I got through to a Customer Service Officer.  I told her that I’d received the e-mail and the SMS message but wanted to make sure that the numbers I was asked to ring were legitimate.  She told me that she had no record of those numbers belonging to American Express but I should ring one of them anyway.  I protested that I if I was going to run a scam on American Express users, I’d answer the phone number as American Express so that I could have the client give me their card number and verification details.  Wouldn’t you, I asked?  Apparently that thought had never crossed the mind of the Customer Service officer (who by now resembled someone so remote from anything to do with Customer Service) who once again suggested that I ring one of the phone numbers quoted in the e-mail.  Another 10 minutes of my life gone.

An hour later, my phone rang.  This is American Express Security.  I believe that you rang our Customer Service centre this morning so I thought I’d ring you to see if I could help.  If legitimate, that was indeed Customer Service and to be commended.  However, I advised the caller that as they were calling me from a blocked phone number, they could be anyone and I would not be sharing any of my personal information with them at this time.  As this was required before the Customer Service officer could discuss my account, we decided to terminate the call and I would ring back later. 5 minutes of my life gone

I rang the Customer Service number again and was put through to another Customer Service officer.  She asked me for my account number.  I asked her why Amex bothered to get me to input my card number into the Voice Activation System if she had to ask me for it again anyway.  She apologised and told me that it was a different system.  A different system to what? Isn’t it all Amex?  I did want to ask that but thought that I’d keep this part of the call as short as possible.  Finally got put through to the Security people.  Yay!  Only took me 20 minutes and 3 phone calls to get there (not counting last night’s attempt).  The suspected fraudulent charge was in fact legitimate.  I checked if the landline number quoted in the e-mail was legitimate.  She told me that it was.  I’ll make a note of that for the future if this occurs again.  I suggested that the Security office should circulate their phone numbers to the Customer Service officers so that they could verify that the phone numbers quoted in their alert e-mails were legitimate.  She did not sound enthusiastic about my suggestion.

In short, all I’m asking for (apart from a Customer Service officer to actually give Customer Service) is all Financial Institutions – not just AMEX, provide a way for their customers to check that a phone number contained in an e-mail is legitimate.  It’s not that hard it’s……Customer Service!  As I said earlier, I’m very happy that they monitor my accounts for suspected fraudulent activity and I hope that they continue to do so.  All I want to ensure is that the person that I contact about it is a person working for that Financial Institution and not someone ready to scam me.

I will remain vigilant and not give out my personal information to someone unless they can verify themselves to be legitimate.  I urge anyone who can be bothered to read this post to do the same.

BY Austin Carr

How does Facebook Places stack up against Foursquare? It’s a question many have wondered since the world’s largest social network jumped into the check-in game. We know Facebook has nearly 700 million users–but certainly nowhere near all of them are actually using the company’s location-based service. Meanwhile, Foursquare has continued to goose growth, boasting recently that usership has doubled since the launch of Facebook Places.

Today, however, we finally have some insight into the usage of check-ins on Facebook and Foursquare. Thanks to data released by Wildfire Interactive, we now know the top 10 most checked-into locations on Facebook Places. Like Foursquare, tourist and travel hubs dominate the chart–international airports, Disneyland, Times Square. But how do these world-famous designations stack up in terms of check-ins on Facebook and Foursquare? We took a handful of these destinations for our global comparison–from Boston and Las Vegas to London and Rome.

Read the Full Article

Overview: She talks, he doesn’t listen. He replies, she’s already decided. She suggests, he forgets. Lines are drawn and love is a battlefield. Let Kim and Xavier, veterans of countless couplings, guide you through the warzone in this brutally honest, scathingly funny and downright sexy show about relationships.

Kim Hope has performed stand-up and solo shows across Australia and internationally. She last appeared at the 2007 Melbourne International Comedy Festival in her highly praised solo show, Rollercoaster. Kim can also calculate how many trips to Ikea HE has to make to equal one guilt-free night with the boys.

Xavier Toby is a stand-up comedian and writer. His debut novel Alpha Male is set for publication in 2011. Xavier knows that whilst SHE can pore over underwear catalogues for hours, if HE does, there’s silent breakfasts for a week.

Firstly, let me declare an interest – Xavier is my nephew and the writer of this show.

A group of us headed to Rosati in Flinders Lane to view the 3rd preview show. I found the show genuinely funny. Kim and Xavier were on stage for about an hour and in that time discussed male-female relationships in a forthright and natural way. The two have a great rapport which is evident in the way they connect on stage. The Gold Room at the Rosati only holds about 70 people so the atmosphere is very intimate which I thought added something to the show.

The humour was ribald at times but never in a really smutty way. There is some obscene language but it’s all within the context of the show and isn’t done gratuitously. While you wouldn’t take your kids – make no mistake; this is an adult show – you could take your parents….Xavier did (and his girlfriend, uncles and aunties )!

I thoroughly recommend the show. I’ll go back in a couple of weeks to see the show once they’ve got into their groove!

If you’d like to find out more about the show and to book tickets – go to the Comedy Festival site

While I loved the show, the service at Rosati left a lot to be desired! The place wasn’t packed yet the service was slow. I know it’s the Comedy Festival but when someone at our table ordered an Irish Coffee and was served a Bailey’s and Milk, you don’t really feel like laughing

As a result, I’m going to look at amalgamating some of them.  The first two that I’m merging is my TobyNet blog (this one) and PetersJokes.  All the existing URL’s will be set to point to petertoby.com which will now become the primary web address for my all my “stuff”.

I think that merging these sites will make things easier for me to manage and I’ll be more likely to update the info with news and jokes.

Seriously though, I’ve started walking about 3 Kms every second day to help build up my fitness – and to lose a little weight.

I’ve raised $850 in donations so far which is very good but more is needed. It’s a great cause, so pleas contribute.

I’ll post updates about the fundraising and my trip here.

And in third place... Chrome over takes Safari.

Google Chrome last week unseated Apple Safari for the first time as the third most used internet browser in the United States, according to new figures.

“This is quite a coup for Google as they have gone from zero to almost 10 per cent of the US market in under two years,” StatCounter chief executive Aodhan Cullen said.

Globally, Chrome remained in a solid third place with 9.44 per cent of the browser market and slowly closing the gaps with second-place Firefox, which had slightly more than 31 per cent, and IE with 52.78 per cent.

Read the Full Article

6/2 Fyans Street, YARRAVILLE – For Sale by Sweeney Estate Agents – Yarraville YARRAVILLE.

The voice on the phone mentioned my name on several occasions and asked me confirm if I was me by pressing 1. I did that and the voice progressed to asking me to confirm my birth month and year. I hung up at this point.

If the call was legit, surely in the current climate of banking scams the Commonwealth Bank wouldn’t have a robotic voice askingyou to confirm personal details? That would be totally moronic in my opinion.

Should my scam senses be correct however, be aware that this may happen to you!

UPDATE: It seems that the Commonwealth use this automated message. However, there was nothing on file and my daily limit wasn’t reduced which is normal practice. I told them that scammers would be onto their practice of automated calls to get personal info. Dumb arse bankers!!

FURTHER UPDATE: Received a call from a real live person at the Commonwealth .  It appears that I’ve had lots of online transactions on my Credit Card in the past 24 hours.  Having been paid yesterday means that I had a few bills to pay and also a couple of iTunes apps   I told her that the automated system doesn’t work for me as I will never give my personal details to it and I believe that those who try to scam bank customers would have a field day with this.  Why make it easy for these people to get their customers’ personal details.  Which bank??

My recovery from my heart attack seems to be progressing nicely.  Lots of new medications to get used to!  I’m also trying to stay awake long enough to do some walking.  I’m progressing nicely and hope to work up to 30 minutes a day sometime next week.  For me, the goal is to walk to Gloria Jean’s in Williamstown, have a coffee and then walk home again.

I was referred to the Respiratory specialist due to my nagging cough.  She diagnosed me with having a bit of Bronchitis and so prescribed some antibiotics to accompany the rest of the medication I’m taking.

The good news is that with my time off, it’ll allow me to not only recover from my heart attack but should be sufficient time to let me get over the bronchitis as well.

I’m looking forward to experiencing some good health soon.  So far 2010 has sucked for me health-wise!