Thought for the Week

To have something stolen is always difficult and frustrating. Usually we don’t know the name of the thief and have to hope he or she will eventually be caught and not inflict the same angst on others.

In my case, I have been given the name of a woman living in England who is regularly using my credit card to purchase items online from Microsoft.

I do not have an account with Microsoft, yet they accept this fraudulent activity every month with regular amounts varying from £89 to £630.

My credit card has been stopped and reissued three times now, yet this woman continues to use it as the payments are just transferred to the new card.

My bank kindly refund these amounts and I have now had to shut down my credit card account completely.

I do not understand why they cannot arrest this woman as the bank has given me her name and address to verify that I do not know her and that she does not have my permission to use my credit card.

As you can imagine, the inconvenience, frustration and amount of time I have had to devote to this has caused a great deal of stress and anxiety.

I feel disempowered, angry and frustrated beyond words.

This made me think again of those in our world who are disempowered in far worse ways in their lives than I am.

I think of those disempowered due to poverty, gender, ethnicity, sexuality or where in the world they live.

How helpless they must feel when they can do nothing and have no recourse to any helpline.

I wish I could do something for them, but alas that is also beyond my power.