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Micheline's Blog

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Micheline's Blog

Tag Archives: Credit card

WordPress: please get in touch with me

10 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Music, Sharing

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Credit card, Marin Marais, Micheline Walker, Nicolas Poussin, PayPal, Small business, WordPress

The Four Seasons: Summer, or Ruth and Boaz, 1660–1664, Louvre Museum

Nicolas Poussin (15 June 1594 – 19 November 1665)
Photo credit: Wikipedia

* * *

I have just destroyed my Credit Card.  It was a new Credit Card, a third card because I had already destroyed two cards.

Yesterday, a person from the Credit Card Company phoned to inform me that all the money available on my Credit Card had been spent.  They were suspicious because the money was used by a company located in France, which was unusual.  Normally, my card is used to pay for groceries or cat food.  To my surprise, someone authorized these expenses, but it was not me.  My money will be returned to me, but I must now involve the police.

I can think of only two ways in which they could have accessed my Credit Card number.  First, they could have done so when I paid WordPress for an update.  I did not use the Credit Card on the internet other than to pay WordPress money I owed.  Second, they may have entered my online bank account.  They are hackers.

My money will be returned to me, but the items will show on my next statement and I am now alarmed.

* * *

Two weeks (approximately), I received comments from a French site calling itself Référencement gratuit (Free reference).  Référencement would mean cataloguing.  I replied to these comments by explaining that if my posts were quoted, a source had to be given as the writer would otherwise be in violation of copyright laws.  I also feared they would make money using my posts.  A student would kill to have access to the blog I published yesterday.  It may not be popular with most readers, but for a student preparing a term essay it is very valuable.   So are my voyageur posts.

* * *

But we have left the realm of copyright violation.  That is bad enough, however…  using WordPress (the name, the ability to leave comments, etc.) to defraud me is just as serious a matter, and I cannot exclude the possibility that WordPress was used to defraud me, even though WordPress does not keep a Credit Card number.  The police will have to deal with this matter, but I need to contact WordPress.  Please tell me.  How does one contact WordPress?  If one phones WordPress, no one answers.  One leaves a message, but one’s call is not returned.  If you write a message to WordPress, again you will hit a brick wall.

I can reach the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada.  I  believe I can also reach the Pope.  However, I cannot reach WordPress.  Nor can I reach most online businesses.

I have to talk to someone at WordPress.  It is an URGENT MATTER.  I have to secure my site.  WordPress is an honest platform, but hackers are not honest.  They are criminals.

If any of you could help reach WordPress, I would be most thankful.

By the way, change your password often.  Moreover, when you bank on the internet and your password is not accepted, please take that matter very seriously.  Do not use PayPal, unless you can authorize a payment and they have hired investigators.  Credit Card companies have professional investigators.

But it is best not to give your credit card number to anyone on the internet, including our above-suspicion WordPress.  Your Credit Card number will nevertheless be in cyberspace for a few minutes and cyberspace is not safe.

I have been removing what I considered harmless personal information from the internet.  It is not harmless.  In fact, if I post a lovely picture, I soon find that an internet company has chosen to put it in its inventory.  If they do this, they should pay me.  This keeps happening.  Moreover, Micheline Walker’s pictures are on the internet.  I have obtained or purchased permission to use art from certain sources, but some of these pictures are on the internet and not on my site.

P.S.  If I am late reading your posts, it has to do with the above-mentioned fraudulent activity.

_________________________
composer: Marin Marais (31 May 1656, Paris – 15 August 1728, Paris)
piece: Spectre de la Rose
performers:
Marie Knight – baroque violin,
Alison Crum – treble & bass viol,
Susanna Pell – treble & bass viol,
Elizabeth Liddle – bass viol,
Paula Chateauneuf – theorbo,
Timothy Roberts – harpsichord
 
© Micheline Walker
11 November 2012
WordPress
 
 

michelinewalker.com

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They may seem honest, but…

19 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Sharing

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Business, Company, Credit card, Microsoft, Money, Payment, PayPal, WordPress

Frost by Bertha Boynton Lum (1869-1954), c. 1920.  Library of Congress Prints and Photographs, LOC #LC-DIG-ppmsca-10484.

Photo credit:  http://store.tidbitstrinkets.com/blog/

As I was writing my blog, I looked at my last Credit Card statement and noticed that I had been billed for money obtained fraudulently.  I phoned the Credit Card company and was told I had been reimbursed that money after they sent their invoice.  However, they told me that they had made a payment to my PayPal account.  I do not have a PayPal account so this account was opened by someone else.  The Credit Card company asked me to destroy my brand new Credit Card and said they would retrieve that money.

In the meantime, I had contacted PayPal to open a PayPal account. They confirmed I had an account, the account I never opened.  Yes there had been activity, but they would fix this.  But they did not tell me they had billed my now disabled Credit Card, I cannot open an account with them until my computer has been scanned.

In other words I do not have

  • a Credit Card, temporarily, nor do I have,
  • a PayPal account.

Here are the tricks used to try to defraud me:

1) They disabled my computer,

  • made me believe they were Microsoft employees;
  • showed thousands of viruses;
  • and told me they could fix the problem for x amount of money.
  • They installed AVG at ten times the cost of AVG. 

Then someone else phoned and told me my computer was full of viruses and that the people who had phoned me had defrauded me.  They too posed as Microsoft employees, with photo ID.

I could smell a rat and phoned the Credit Card company immediately.  My card was cancelled and I received a new one about two weeks later.

2) A sense of guilt and harassment: they will not stop phoning.

I then received another phone call from the people who defrauded me the first time and was told I had to pay for the AVG protection they had installed.  I told them to take it away, but they said they could not do this.  So I hung up, but they kept phoning and phoning.  It turned into harassment.

In the end, they told me I would be charged a lower amount of money and they asked me if I had a PayPal account.  I told them I didn’t.  I therefore suspect, they created the PayPal account at that very moment.

The Credit Card people have experts who can deal with this, so I will get my money back.  However, I had to destroy my new Credit Card.

THE ADVICE

This is the advice I was given.

  • If someone tells me my computer is disabled, contact someone I trust to have it fixed, if indeed it needs to be fixed.
  • Do not use a Credit Card to pay for anything purchased on the Internet.
  • Phone the police if someone is manipulating me and harassing me.

THE SEQUEL

AVG is now messing up with my computer.  I’m getting alert pop-ups that I can’t close.  So

  • how do I get rid of AVG and
  • how do I pay WordPress?  My beloved WordPress would not accept my Credit Card when I had a valid one and now it could be two weeks before I receive a new Credit Card.
  • Doesn’t WordPress have a contact person or a phone number. 
  • I also learned that PayPal was not as safe as a Credit Card.  Credit Card companies hire experts and you have to authorize a payment.  In a sense, they fell into a trap.

CONCLUSION

I do not know how to get in touch with WordPress and may not be able to blog for about two weeks.  And I do not want a PayPal account.  Not only did I not have an account, but I did not authorize the payment(s) they made.

We will therefore listen and look at Japonaiserie.  

Micheline Walker©
October 19th, 2012
WordPress
 

45.408358 -71.934658

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A Warning

27 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Better Business Bureau, Confidence trick, Credit card, Micheline Walker, Microsoft, Personal computer, Telephone number, WordPress

My dear readers,

I am about to post another blog, but my computer was hacked and nearly destroyed.  The evil deed was perpetrated by persons who first phone and tell you that viruses are destroying your computer.  They claim to be working for Microsoft, give you the badge number, a name and a telephone number.  They then tell you that they will repair your computer… at a cost.

The next day, you receive another telephone call, by persons who tell you that you have been the victim of a scam but that they will fix the problem … at a lower cost.

At that point you phone to cancel your credit card and your bank account (s).  An investigation is under way.

However, you receive yet another phone call.  This time you hang up.

They are consummate con artists and because your computer does not work, you can be convinced they are Microsoft employees.  They show you a photo ID.

I will have to get in touch with WordPress to change the name of my blog.   Once they have your name, they can also get your phone number or vice versa.

Beware, they also get pictures.  There are Micheline Walker pictures on the internet and since I am not the only Micheline Walker, there are photographs of people who are not me.

But life goes on.  I have not lost a great deal of money, but how does one believe anyone anymore?

My computer (WordPress in particular) does not feel as stable as it felt.  Writing a blog is difficult.

I will post this warning and try to finish what I was doing.

Best regards to all of you.

45.408358 -71.934658

michelinewalker.com

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