Day 12-Normalizing...

26 June 2007
Things around here are starting to get routine now. Today consisted of work, a funny meeting with our local Policeman about safety in London, dinner and laundry. Really it was almost so routine and mundane that it was unremarkable.

The meeting with our local Policeman was actually the most interesting part. We learned quite a bit of common sense stuff...and a little not so common sense stuff about being safe in London. London is a farely safe city. For the most part people here are pretty considerate of one another and violent crime for the most part is pretty low. Financial crimes, however, are very high. This comes in the form of mugging (which is relatively rare), pick pocketing and highly adapted ATM fraud. The ATM fraud has actually happened to two (2) people who are in the study center right now...one on Monday and another last week to the tune of $3,000.00.

The scam is pretty elaborate. The theves, who work in gangs, have purchase or built scanners which fit over the card insertation point on the ATM machines. Some of them are so elaborate that the thieves are downright ingenious. After you use the ATM, the theif remotely intercepts your card number and your pin and then in short time cleans out the balance of your account. To one of the guys it happened to, his balance had been completely stolen within a half hour of using the cash machine. That being said, if you are using an ATM in London (or any other city for that matter) examine the machine very closely before completing any transations on it. Look for any parts that just don't seem quite right. If you do find that the machine is tampered with cancel your cards at once and call the police but don't try to remove the device because the bad guys are close by and might attack you if they see you doing it. That's it straight from the PC's mouth to my blog.

So, that's all I have for today, Hope everyone has a nice night.

~Jenn