SoÖI offer up a dilemma
So...I offer up a dilemma for anyone who's interested:
This morning I went to a cashpoint (to get some cash, just to complete the picture). Just before I got to it, a group of five lads (I use the term advisedly) got there and put a card in. The subsequent conversation I heard as I stood behind them made me better than 99% certain that the card they were using was stolen: "See if you can get £500. All right, well try less. Are you *sure* you've got the right number, etc", and on top of this, as they left, one of them said "Right, let's try it in a phone box." Which, I was told by the bank's security person I spoke to when a card of mine was stolen last year, is a classic way of checking whether a card's been blocked, because you don't have an actual person to have to interact with.
So here's the dilemma: What should I have done? There were no handy police officers strolling by (shock, horror), and the kids were across the road and out of sight before I could so much as finish looking around for one anyway. There were five of them and one of me, so I'm sorry to say I wasn't going to tackle them. It was before the bank in question was open, so I couldn't go in and say "I think that the transaction before mine was dodgy - can you look into it?", and I have no idea whether I'd have been taken seriously or not anyway. So I'm left not knowing if there was something I should have done to stop them. And that's presupposing that the less than 1% uncertainty I had didn't actually reflect the truth of the situation.
Anyone like to share their wisdom? Mail me with any inspiration you have, and let me know if you'd rather I didn't post your response here. Not that I'm planning on opening a forum, or anything, but if anyone has anything they'd particularly like to share, I'm happy to provide a channel.