Credit Card

Well, in my last post, I did say I like to pay stuff with my credit card. But there is a huge element of fraud. Most people have this irrational fear of fraud.

Firstly, unless we are negligent, fraudulent charges are usually covered by the bank. If we carelessly give out our card number and details to any Abu, Raju and Ah Choong, then, the banks will make us pay for it. Fair enough. So, just be careful. Report a card missing ASAP, when you notice it.

Next, use a chip-based credit card. Those are one hell lot harder to skim or duplicate. The magnetic stripe only cards are bloody useless. Push your bank to issue chip-based cards.

Lastly- there is this CCV number, the three digit number embossed by laser onto the card body. This is usually on a white space of the plastic card, at the back of the card. Now, what I do is, cover this 3 digits with a sticker. Fraudsters need this 3 digits to make a online transaction. If they remove the sticker, you will know - report it. In any case, chances are - they rather remember the credit card details of another card without the sticker. Sometimes, close enough is just good enough - a silly sticker will make them want to fraud another card.

Duty Free Incident

Dubai Airport would be a fantastic place to do duty free shopping. Ah, the choice and the price. I did get a few items for myself and of course, my family. It would have been more shopping if it was not for the terrible check-in service provided by the ground staff for SIA. SIA should really look into this. As a group, we had no idea where to, transferred from counter to counter, which made it a pain.

Anyway, after my shopping, I was walking around the airport, near the departure gate. Suddenly, my a pretty gal from our travel group called out to me. She looked worried and angry. An Indian chap was talking to her, asking her for the receipt of goods purchased. The shopping was done one floor below.

This Indian chap, did look like the guy responsible for the trolleys. He wasn't security. He said something about computer error to me and he wanted to check the receipts.

In reality, he was hoping my friend Y could not produce the receipts. Y was already frantically searching for the tiny pieces of paper amid her shopping. She did Shop! Y said that when she had trouble locating the receipts, he asked for some money. This made Y angry. When I showed up, the guy pretended that all was OK and disappeared.

In hindsight, I should have asked him for his ID and made some fuss. When I returned to KL, I found out in Bangkok, there is a ploy to trick visitors. In the duty free shop, after shopping, the salesperson would offer a gift to the visitors - say, a box of cigars. Since it is a gift, thinking it is part of the purchase, the visitors will take it. Alas, the visitors will be arrested later and be charged with theft. Certainly, a sum of 500,000 baht will make the charges disappear. This was actually published in the New Straits Times.

In short - be darn careful when we do duty free shopping. Keep receipts. And ensure that all free gifts are properly labelled as "free gifts". Oh yeah - this is why I pay with my credit card - if I lose the receipts, the credit card will still have a record.

Dubai

I was in Dubai recently. Prior to arriving in Dubai, I had the mindset that Dubai is an expensive place. Did not bother to prepare cash for shopping. When I arrived in Dubai - ah, that's when reality dawns.

I was fortunate enough to have a travel mate who's been to Dubai many times. First stop after arriving at 3am - nasi mandi - a type of rice with meat topping, near the clock tower. It wasn't cheap - about RM 30 per person, but the food was great.

Next stop - shopping for cloth. Wow. That was great. Spent more than RM 1500 on cloth. Got enough for 10 shirts and some for my girlfriends back at home. It was cheap, generally about RM12 to RM 30 per yard. Yes, they still use yards. 100% cotton - which is great to wear but a pain to iron.

Making shirts were cheap too. RM 30 each. The best part is, it could almost be done overnight. Fitting was perfect, although the tailor (Prince Taylor in Bur Dubai), did insist I try one first before making the rest.

Oh yeah - I guess I forgot to mention - it was a business trip. Business was bad, and I will write more on why in the next blog.

The Prefect

The political landscape in Malaysia has changed a bit - with more weeds tainting the picture. Najib is now prime minister. That's OK. Someone has to be prime minister.

But what the heck - Dr. Koh Tsu Koon - voted out by the Penang people for a job badly done, is now the guy who will monitor the performance of the federal government of Malaysia. Can you imagine this? How lame can it be. I suppose the politicians just cannot take a hint - he bloody got voted out by the people.

On the night of the three by-elections, the buggers commented that people were cheated by the opposition and not see that BN will be bring development. What a clown. BN is outdated. Old ideas, about race and development. That worked when Chin Ping was in Malaysia. Hell, even the Queen of England is a gracious old lady by now. But yet, BN's marketing ploy remains unchanged. And for the record, when we vote for the opposition, we want change. We want performance. Lip service is so yesterday.

And the good news? In the Bukit Gantang by-elections, it is said that more Chinese supported PAS. It shows one thing clearly: Support for PAS is based on track record and performance - not race or religion!