This is one of the videos we produced with the Central Bank of Malta in our budgeting series.
Let me introduce the ĠEMMA family. I am Tony, Maria’s husband. I work as a manager in a large business in the services industry. My wife, Maria is 40 years old and works in my father’s family business. We have two kids: Matthias, our son who is 11 years old and is now in secondary school and Angele, our daughter, who is 17 and is finishing upper secondary school this scholastic year.
Maria was quite mad at me that day ☹☹☹☹☹☹. I had realised that I was scammed when purchasing some electronic stuff online. I know that whilst buying online I can find a lot of attractive deals.
“I buy a lot of stuff on line myself. I, however, use a separate card for when I e-shop. I tend to keep my e-purchases below €150. That is my maximum risk exposure; that’s the limit of the separate card I use for shopping online.” Maria exclaimed.
“Now Tony, ma tarax. Jifhem f’kollox!! He uses his normal card, with the full credit limit for anything he purchases on line. Il-bravu!! Ilhi ngħidlu to get a separate card. Hu mhux hekk tgħid. Sal-bieraħ stess he was telling me li scams are all hype and he is aware of the signs and he knows what he is doing,” Maria thought to herself.
“Ħriġt ta’ stilla, ħa ngħidlek!! You were scammed €600!!!!! You realised because you got an alert from your bank saying that a transaction of €600 was carried out by your card,” Maria flabbergasted.
“Rajtu jsir abjad. He wouldn’t tell me at first! Fl-aħħar ammetta. Issa xeba’ hassle mal-bank u formoli biex jara jekk jistax iġġib l-flus lura u rapporti mal-pulizija, u ma nafx x’iżjed!!” “Dan kollu għax ma rridx jisma’ minni!” Maria thought without saying it out loud.
Take my advice. If you are on-line shopping do not use your normal card – get a separate card with a lower limit so that you minimise your exposure as much as possible. Go through this ĠEMMA video too. Fetaħli għajnejja fuq ħafna affarijiet oħra li rrid nogqħod attenta għal meta nixtri minn fuq l-Internet li ma kontx naf bihom, kif ukoll kif għandi nuża l-ATM!