Were They Connected?

Not everything is going to go right on a trip like this and it didn’t. I woke up Monday morning and went to the computer to get any e-mail and to update photos and maybe do another blog posting. I switched on and immediately got a message saying the system could not load windows. The message said it may be possible to repair but I would need to reload windows from the original disks. No chance of that then. Who carries their windows disks with them on their travels.

This was pretty serious stuff since I do virtually everything with or through the computer but fortunately not a complete brick wall. I knew I had copies of all major major files back on hard disks at home and I could get all my e-mail providing I could find a way onto the Internet. Also fortunately I had copies of all bookings for the trip and everything else about the trip, calendar, itinerary accounts, photos and blogs were in the clouds so I could get them via the Internet.

The Summerwood let me use their computer for that mornings e-mail. The solution was to buy another computer ASAP and I would within limits be back in business. This I would do when we went to Cape Town.

The second problem occurred the next day when we went to book in for the Premier Classe trip. They had no record of my booking and worse still no record of my payment. The papers I did have were enough in the end to persuade them to let us go anyhow. However, the manager asked that when I could get to my bank accounts that I provide him with as much payment information as possible so he could trace our payment. He gave me his fax number and I promised I would do my best.

Fast forward to The Grace Hotel in Johannesburg on Wednesday evening having booked in and with a few minutes time before dinner I decided to go into my bank accounts and look for the transaction in my bank statements online. I knew the date that I thought I had paid as I had written that on my booking confirmation form. By this time I had a new computer and so I could easily connect to the Internet. I had no problem getting in but unfortunately could not get back far enough to see the statement. I was about to log out when I thought that my account total was somewhat lower than I would have expected. On closer inspection I could see 2 transfers that made no sense and were for a fair amount of money. Further, they were to a payee I did not recognise. Alarms were now ringing very loud. I called the bank back in England and after going through their call centre and giving the information they wanted I was called back within minutes by the fraud department who were able after perhaps 10 minutes to confirm my worst suspicions that 5the transfers were indeed fraudulent. They actually were to someone in Australia. When the fraud executive discovered that my pc had gone down on the same morning that the first transfer was made she said that there was a strong likelihood that the fraud was perpetrated through the use of a virus and that the virus had then wiped out the machine.

So were the three problems connected? Certainly if I did not have the problem with the train booking I would not have been looking at my bank account and so would not have found the fraudulent transfer entries in my account. And if the fraud executive is to be believed then the pc crash was as a result of the virus used for the fraud and the three misadventures were connected. Time may tell us if we were right particularly as in this case the first payment was made only 2 days before I found it and the second on the day I found it.

Oh in case any of you were wondering the bank says no matter what happens I will get my money back.