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I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

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Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t have such laws in Washington DC? Funny you should ask. A few years back my wife and I were stuck in Reagan (an airport in D. C.) for a super-long layover. As I'm watching my first ever episode of Archer , I notice the family a row over gets up and walks down the concourse, leaving their bags. Now, I've heard a bit of their conversations as I've sat there, and I gather they're American and probably self-cent…

I was in Shanghai Pudong airport waiting in line to check in. There was a small suitcase sitting there unattended for quite a while. What was funny is that all of us in lined seemed to be very studiously ignoring it, looking away. I think we all knew that if anybody said anything, the security theater would start and we'd never get on our flights.

Definitely falls under the category of “not my circus, not my monkeys”!

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#252

Life lesson: Keep a note with your email address in your wallet - clearly marked "wallet owner's email". Paranoid version of the life lesson: Keep a note with an anonymized email address, with forwarding set up for the message to go to your actual mailbox, in your wallet.

Even better - put a photo or even a drawing of your face on the note as well, to try and evoke some empathy from the finder, increasing the chances it'll be returned to you.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#254
post #147
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're making it worse. Anyone can conveniently lose a wallet, but one with a bank card with no identifying info in it anywhere? A finder who went to bizarre lengths to make Faster transactions to your bank account to send you a message? Absolutely no other identifying information in the wallet? A plan to ride a jump bike around to prove you looked for it with receipts? Before sending someone pennies with context in…

In the UK the details needed to transfer money into an account are on most bank cards (Account Number and Sort Code), so that's enough identifying info. That would also mean someone can send you money if your card is blocked or cancelled. Account number and sort code don't change when you get a new card. Also, "Faster Payments" is the name of the normal system to transfer money between accounts in the UK. It doesn't…

The old system (BACS) has been electronic since 1983, or possibly even 1968 when it was introduced. (Wikipedia is unclear, it seems transactions were recorded on magnetic tape for the first 15 years, before using phone lines.) It slowly replaces the paper based system: cheques.

The 2-3 days got the old system will have been a limitation of batch based computer processing from that time, and maybe moving the magnetic tapes around.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#255
post #98

Wouldn't it be much easier for the finder to just get in touch with the bank and ask them to notify the owner? I once got a call/mail from my bank giving me the contact details of someone who had found my lost keys that had an RSA SecureID token generator thing on them and the finder called the hotline imprinted on it. I don't remember much details around it since it happend in the mid 2000s.

No it wouldn't. Sending three or four transfers from mobile banking app is for sure faster than finding bank number, calling them, listening to the info that the conversation will be recorded, listening to the menu, then listening to music interrupted with "we will be with you shortly" etc. I guess I could send 20 transfers at least during this time.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#256

This is neat! I once found someone’s debit card on the street (in the US). It had a small face shot on it, so I found them on Facebook and sent them a message. Of course, Facebook had already started doing the “messages from non-friends are really hard to find lol” UI dark pattern, so like two years later the woman responds thanking me, but also saying she just canceled the card. Which is what I would’ve done, but I…

"Dark pattern". Do you know how many unsolicited messages women receive on Facebook ?

I doubt your comment has to be as gendered as it is.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> wish OPD had taken an interest in the theft Sadly, in California most theft is merely a misdemeanor, and busy PDs do not have time to chase down criminals to give them a ticket.

> Sadly, in California most theft is merely a misdemeanor, and busy PDs do not have time to chase down criminals to give them a ticket. But they sure do like camping out all the time to give people speeding and parking tickets. Priorities!

Speeding tickets make sense. They're putting people's lives in danger by speeding. Driving is the most dangerous thing most people do regularly. Having a set of predictable behaviors saves a lot of lives. People who think that think they're "great drivers" or "everyone else is doing it" violate those norms and create risk.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#258
post #239

Beware of lost wallet frauds . At some countries they drop a wallet on the road, wait for you to find it and then appear and claim that few hundred bucks (or a local equivalent) are missing. First they try to threat you, and then resort to the police. Your fingerprints are on the wallet. If you want to help, make sure you have a stranger witness at least, who is willing to help, or better look for a policeman nearby.

>First they try to threat you, and then resort to the police How could they pull this off? It's 100% he said, she said. What court is going to see such a case through and find in favor of the fraudster?

It never goes to a court, obviously. Your choice is to spend hours at crappy room with other unsocial dudes waiting for more important cases to be documented before yours, -or- take a shortcut by just giving them what they claim. You’ll also be confused if it is a fraud or you just found a recently stolen wallet. That’s how fraud works.

Re: I just lost my wallet on the way home from work

#259
I once found someone's iPhone in a shopping basket at my local supermarket and spent the whole day getting it back to them. I decided to buy a lottery ticket - after all, my cosmic karma must be running at an all time high.

But first, I'll make myself a nice cucumber salad and I'll use that new mandoline slicer we got - protective dongle thing be damned (The very same mandoline slicer my wife told me to be every so careful with before she left on her trip). Wow.. this is cool - every slice of the cucumber is identical down to the en.. OW!

Sliced my finger opened and spent the evening in the ER getting half a dozen stitches and the top of my finger sewn back on.. So much for karma...

The lesson I learned from this is never, ever return a phone you found - it will only lead to pain! :)

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