When I first told Wayne I wanted to start this blog, he was concerned about security, about having random strangers hit our site, looking at photos of our children, etc. While I can understand this, and have taken steps to minimize as much as possible the number of "strangers" who can visit the site, today at lunch I witnessed a much more risky behavior when it comes to personal security.
I went to our building cafeteria to grab some lunch and saw a woman standing at the end of the food line, talking loudly on her cell phone. She was obviously making arrangements with a hotel for some kind of event, by her discussion I can only assume a wedding reception or anniversary celebration.
She proceeded to stand there and loudly give our her credit card number, including the expiration date and full and complete name as it's printed on the card, in the middle of this cafeteria. I can still remember the first 8 digits of it, not by my active listening, but simply by walking around her and collecting my things as she had her discussion. (Her card also expires in April 2008, in case you're wondering.)
Anyone, and I mean anyone, could have quickly jotted down that number as s/he pretended to gather some salad makings, and there you have it, a new plasma TV, compliments of the dumb woman in the cafeteria. Not to mention the fact that the technology exists to "pick up" cell phone conversations via wi fi gadgets, more people than just those within the cafeteria could have picked up this information.
If someone had decided to take her up on her blatant offer to steal her credit card information, she would probably have the gall to accuse some direct marketer of making it avaiable to criminals, not realizing that she was her own worst enemy.
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