Crime Scene Investigation

 

A few weeks before my very first exams in uni. 

Great challenges with a great mix of emotions; and I’m still in the process of going through everything very slowly. While some things are actually still under 'work in progress', I guess I would just take some time to start writing about it whilst it is still fresh in my mind and keep updating on the cases as time flies. (plus, I have essays to work on so I need to be fair on that part too hehe)

Case #1: Theft victim

31^st March 2018

It was a sunny day. We took a train from Rovigo, a small town in Venice to Pisa. It was a long journey so I decided to listen to something on my phone. Once we arrived at Pisa, I took out the earphones from my ear and just put both the earphones and my phone into the pocket of my trench coat. The funny thing was, I have never done that while I was in Milan and Venice; I have always put my stuff inside the pocket of my pants and not my coat. But what else can I say; things happened.

After we had finished taking pictures in front of the tower of Pisa, I put my hands in my coat’s pocket. Something wasn’t there anymore. I was very certain I didn’t put my phone in my bag. And I wasn’t wrong; my phone (and earphones) was stolen. The only thing that came out of my mouth at that moment was: “Oh, I lost my phone.”

I didn’t know what to think of, since for me there wasn’t anything I can do to get it back so what is the point of mourning over it. I was travelling outside of UK; there was no Internet connection on my phone and I have PIN code for my phone as well. But there is a possibility that anyone can hack it and manage to access the content of my phone. While pretending to be cool, these actions were taken:

1. Take a deep breath. Hahaha, this is true though. But the additional thing that I did was thinking of a worse thing that could have happened. I thanked God again and again that it wasn’t my wallet. I would cry and might even give up to continue with our trip for the rest 6 days if that happens. (Credits: Thanks Izzatul for the hug and the attempts to comfort me XD funny how she was the one who was more affected than me though it was me who lost a phone and not her lol)  She couldn’t brain why I still smiled after losing my phone, I think, hahahah.

2. Using my friend’s phone, I changed all my online account passwords which includes my Gmail, Facebook and Instagram. Thank God I don’t really have a lot of online accounts though.

3. Logged out of all my accounts after I changed all the passwords.

4. I called my bank, Barclays, to report about my stolen phone since I have Barclays’ mobile banking app in my phone (Thanks Izzatul for lending your phone and credit huehue). Even though you need to have a passcode to access the app and the security code of the debit card is required to make any transfer or payment, I still feel the need to report to them. So what they did was they blocked my mobile banking service, but not the card. I thanked God because that’s exactly what I neeeeeed since I still have to use my card to make payments while travelling; I didn’t have any euros with me at that moment. Good job Barclays, for being very efficient!

Those were the things that I was able to do on the spot. I texted my sister (using Izzatul’s WhatsApp) to tell her so that at least I have a family member who can tell the others not to be worried about me not reaching out to them for another 6 days. Thank God I remembered her number (though I failed the first attempt of remembering her number haha). I told a best friend of mine in the UK - having to find out a few days later that there are people who actually looked for me (about things related to work). I texted Diy as well since I initially wanted to ask for her help regarding my Malaysian sim card. Ummi? Eheh, no, it wasn’t the time yet.

I was actually a bit frustrated for having to wait for a week until I will be able to resolve the matter. 6 days was such a torture huhu

1^st April 2018

If you ask me whose number I can recall without any doubt, it would only be Ummi and Abah’s phone numbers. After a day has passed, I decided to use Izzatul’s WhatsApp to text Ummi telling her to contact me through Izzatul’s number just because: I don’t have mobile data connection outside of UK. (I wasn’t lying, was I? :P)

3^rd April 2018

I finally had the courage to log in to my Instagram. I sent a direct message to Amni to tell her briefly about what happened (just had the feeling she would be worried). She was, and here I am to tell you, I am so sorry for that, Amni. I should have told you earlier.

I made an instagram story post about being unavailable on WhatsApp but I'm not sure how useful that is actually hahaha

4^th April 2018

Of course, I sent the news to another important person in my life, Adlina. (What kind of roommate I am of not telling her about it oh my God, horrible me). Informed a friend of mine in an organisation we are in to keep things updated, in case I was missing out on any work that I had to do while I was gone.

7^th April 2018 (Arrived home at 2.00 in the morning)

From planning to buy an Oppo, to a Samsung, I got myself neither both XD Apparently buying a phone is not an easy thing in the UK. I was planning to buy a phone with the sim card package included. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to do that because it involves contract where I have to pay every month for both the sim card and the phone, and they can’t accept any university accommodation address as the permanent address for a contract. Thank you and sorry Diy, for dragging you for 4 hours here and there but did not even end up buying a phone with you.

But after Diy went back to Cardiff I finally got myself a phone, a free-sim phone from Argos - thanks for sacrificing your evening, Azmi. Thanks Adlina for the extra free sim card that you gave; you made the whole process a bit easier and quicker. (At least I don’t have to order and wait for a new sim for another few days huehue)

8^th April 2018

Took me around an hour in the morning to activate my sim card and installed WhatsApp on my phone. Thank God giffgaff does provide this service called ‘sim swap’ where you can actually keep your old number even though you are activating a new sim card as long as you remember your giffgaff account details ie your username and password. Another half a burden away.

After I successfully registered my number for WhatsApp, I called Ummi right away to tell her the whole story. She wasn’t mad (even though it was me who was being a bit careless), huhuhuuuuuuu I was so touched. And it was more touching when she offered to go to the Celcom centre to help me get my old Celcom number back. She doesn’t have to do that, but she did, just in one day. And I was glad I didn’t have to ask her to do it for me since it would make me feel bad of having to trouble her with my problems. Do I regret not telling her earlier since I could have got my Malaysian sim card from Diy if Ummi passed it to her before she flew back to London? No, I don’t. Telling Ummi my unresolved problems is not my way. Making her feel worried about anything especially me is not something I would ever think of.

Installed the important apps such as: Barclays’ mobile app, Microsoft Teams, my new spending tracker :’) (have to start tracking my expenses all over again gg T.T)

9^th April 2018

Amni and Izzatul added me to WhatsApp groups in which they are the admins.

Told my sponsor about the change of my WhatsApp number.

Lessons I learnt:

It would have been a lot easier if I change my WhatsApp number to my UK number when I first got here so that I could have easily get back all the back-up messages and be in the groups I was in. So lesson 1: change your WhatsApp account to your overseas number when you’re studying overseas.

We might have been able to track my phone if it does have Internet connection via Google track settings. I don’t really know how it works (will try to find out more and post it here) but yeah lesson 2: try to have mobile data connection when you are travelling overseas!!

Case #2: Fraud Victim

27th March 2018

We (my 4 other friends and I) already booked a house for our next academic session and paid a deposit of **** pounds for a month rent. To make things easier, I volunteered to pay using my bank account first, so that the others would only have to transfer their money into my account later. I transferred the money a day before I went for my spring break trip.

8^th April 2018

I was having a WhatsApp voice call with my sister when another phone call came in. Kak Fatin? Thank God my UK number is still the same that she was able to reach me.

The five minutes conversation made me lost for words. I was lost and puzzled; I had no idea what am I supposed to do and had no idea what was going on too. But since I was on call with my sister, I put that matter aside for about an hour and listened to the girl who has been waiting for a week to talk to me.

Thanks to Fatin Aqilah and Arina; they laid out things that I had to do and I just simply followed everything that they asked me to. I found out that Barclays has security measures and refund policy for fraud cases. So Arina asked me to call Barclays and make a report, since now, my debit card might be currently not secure and vulnerable.

Well, to be honest, I actually cried a bit while waiting for the bank officer to check the details of the report. Maybe because I was wondering why are these things happening to me. I just called Ummi this morning to tell her about my stolen phone and now I am currently in a risk of losing money?? God, what are you trying to tell me?

After talking to the bank officer, Kak Fatin told me to make a report to ActionFraud, a UK reporting centre for fraud and cyber crime. Thanks to Arina for helping me with the terms that I don't even understand while answering the questions. It took me almost an hour to complete the report, and I think I have never been more serious than this while filling a form before. 

After I completed the report I actually felt a bit relaxed, and weirdly, excited. Not only because I know that things are being taken care of, but also for the fact that I got to learn and experience something that not everyone has the chance to. And of course, for the fact that I am now one of the people who will be able to write and share this with everyone else too :) Nonetheless I still hope that everything is going to be alright (and hopefully we got our money back too huhu)

10th April 2018

Charity Victim Support contacted me to offer confidential services.

13th April 2018

Charity Victim Support called me asking for my emotional conditions and wellbeing. I am grateful for their support and concern but I think I have been well comforted by people who do care about me and actually bother to stay by my side, too.

15th April 2018

Finally told Ummi after a week has passed. I just can't take it any longer to wait until everything is resolved before telling her because I think she ought to know by now, plus, I'm not even sure when (and if) our money will (ever) be returned. But anyway, let's pray for the best. Like what Ummi said, it's a "pengalaman dan pengajaran" 😌

16th April 2018

I went to my accommodation office to take my parcel and mail. There's a mail for me from Barclays regarding the case that I reported last week. Not a very good news, the bank is unable to refund our money back. But they are still in the progress of contacting the other bank regarding the possibility of getting a refund. Not sure how much hopes do we have left.

17th April 2018

Can't deny the fact that I was too mentally exhausted - ended up falling asleep with the laptop turned on last night without doing any improvement to my essay; definitely just have to accept whatever it's gonna be later. 

A sudden thought came up about where all these things might lead me:

It's preparing me for something much more challenging in the future. 

Not sure if I actually feel good about it or the other way round.

I called the bank today as I was told to give them the crime reference number (the one I got from ActionFraud) in the letter I got yesterday. Nonetheless, I was told about a not very pleasant news; the case is closed on behalf of the bank. Again, I think my hopes are fading away.

18th April 2018

Another letter from Barclays came in.
"We have been advised by _________ (the other bank) that they have been...

...unable to recover any of your money from their customer. We are sorry this may..."

I took a deep breath. The only hope we have now is just within the police; which for me is as thin as the onion skin.

Lessons I learnt:

Believe in your intuition and other people's opinion when they say there's something suspicious. (My current accommodation officer was being suspicious actually huhuhu) but sometimes it's really hard to tell if something is legitimate or not though

Make sure you do a house viewing before booking the house, regardless of what the landlord has told you. We were told that the landlord was so busy that he doesn't have the time to show us around before the booking deadline. Huhuhu

*            *            *

A few other things happened along the way but this post has gone way too long I think XD Despite all the unexpected issues, I have received some good news this week too, which is mostly related to my summer break plans. Alhamdulillah, thank You for still cheering me up :)

So ciao, till my next post! (and here's a song 'Rahmat Ujian' by Mestica which I have always remembered every time life hit me a little bit harder than it has always been hehe)

Source: https://youtu.be/1VXWuDBDw80


"You don't have to be happy to be grateful, 
But be grateful to be happy :) "