Malware and Hackers

[emilyB]

Did anyone see on the news a couple of days ago that the Holiday Inn Express and whole chain of Intercontinental Hotels had been attacked by malware and that anyone staying in some of these establishments between September 22, 2016 and December 29, 2016 using a credit card to pay their bill would have their credit card compromised?  My mind went quickly to our trip down to California and overnight stop at a Holiday Inn in Corning.  Sure enough that was one of the thousands hacked and our timing was just right.  Holiday Inn has set up a response center and special website for 'protecting our guests' and I called and was directed to a 'responder' and he confirmed that we were at risk.  I told him that I regularly check my bank statements online and saw nothing amiss.  He responded that it won't necessarily happen right away because they wait at least 4-6 months and then they sell the credit card numbers in packets of hundreds.  So along with my very busy day yesterday I had to spend time on the phone and with our Bank who have now got a red alert on our account.  I could just have cancelled our credit card and got a new one but the Bank advised us that we are totally insured against this and they would immediately call us if anything unusual appeared on our account.  As our credit card is registered with a number of companies that we do business with like our utility companies it is a pain in the neck to have to go to each one and change things, but also by not changing it helps to catch these bastards that wreck so many lives for their own gain.

[luvtimes]

That's gotta be horrible Emily....


desperation it's going on in the world right now where people are just lead to do the most horrible things.


Not caring who they hurt in the process of their greed and desperation.

[takncarabizniz]

I hadn't heard a thing.
Usually the companies contact anyone affected and offer free credit monitoring.

[emilyB]

We are supposed to receive a letter but there were thousands of people affected and I just happened to see it on a news channel.

[sunshine]

We've been hacked several times...credit card, Target, Home Depot, OPM, insurance company....you can't not get hacked these days.

[emilyB]

Oh and now this.........I pay most of my bills like utility and credit card, etc. online.  I pay them as soon as they come in and it comes straight  out and of our bank checking account which I have all set up.  Our electric bill came in today and I paid it and then noticed that I had supposedly enrolled in automatic payments, which I never do as I don't like anyone to have automatic access to our bank account.  There was nowhere on the website to disenroll so I had to spend about 45 minutes with customer service from the power company and they said this happens sometimes (so everyone watch out) but they couldn't figure out how to stop the May 9th payment that I had just made today from being taken out.  WHAT?  The rep finally figured it out but she told me to still keep an eye on my bank account to be sure. 

[takncarabizniz]

Same thing happened to us and our cable bill.  When we moved, and the techs finally came out to set up cable, internet and security, after all was said and done, they signed us up for online billing, using the X-finity sign in to know what we owed.  I had no idea and after 3 months called them to find out why we had no bill...they said they were glad I called because they were going to shut off our service...I was livid and asked how I got signed up for it...I was told, it's automatic, you have to opt OUT...
It also took considerable time on the phone to straighten it all out, as well as pay our bill in full including the arrears...I told them, it's pretty sneaky setting it up this way...

They really don't care.

[emilyB]

Takn, that is definitely sneaky and could ruin your credit.  We need to have eyes everywhere nowadays.  As far as cable is concerned we are stuck with Wave Broadband and they are always upping their charges and we constantly lose service.  We installed an indoor antenna in the attic storage and when cable goes out it kicks in.  We stream Acorn, Netflix and Amazon Prime and are thinking about dumping basic cable and just keeping their internet as we have to have wi fi.