How we lost $3K to debit card hackers

A funny thing happened while we were on the road in spring for Denise’s book tour: one of our debit cards got cloned and sold to someone overseas, who ending up racking up $3,000 in charges before we spotted the discrepancies and had our bank shut down the card.

We got all the money back, so don’t worry. This is not one of those stories. But it is a cautionary tale in the sense that it’s the first time this has happened to us, and everything I’ve learned in the past month or about the process has me pretty shaken.

You know what this swiper thingie is, right? You’ve seen them, used them, they’re everywhere. It’s a point-of-sale magnetic stripe reader. This is the side-swipe model. Others require you to “dip” the card with a swift, in-and-out motion.

Every time you use a magstripe reader to make a purchase, the critical data on your card is sent to your bank, which either okays or denies the purchase. Hackers can access that same data with a handheld device or they can team up with a crooked merchant to install a stripe reader which retains your data. The data can then be transferred to a new card and sold to a not-so-innocent third party.

When we’re on the road, we use our cards more than we do at home. We buy gas, food, lodging, etc. And because we’re always in a hurry,  we don’t typically stop to think about the kinds of places we are patronizing. Nor did we think very much about letting our cards leave our sight.

What’s scary about this kind of theft is that the critical moment o’ theft could be visible or totally invisible.

A visible theft: A bartender asks if we want to run a tab and sticks the card in a little cup behind the bar, and another employee or manager steals the data with a handheld device. Or a gas station clerk in NJ—one of the last states which do not permit you to pump your own gas—takes our card while we’re still sitting in our vehicle, not paying attention, and swipes it twice—once on the legit device to pay for your gas, and once again on a handheld to steal the data.

An invisible theft: The magstripe reader has already been compromised because the managers or owners of the establishment is in cahoots with the hackers. You swipe the card to pay and your data is instantly stolen—yet the card has never left your hand.

How do you fight this?

It’s tough. You can switch back to cash. You can swipe only at places you know and trust. You can be hyper-vigilant about downloading your bank charges on a regular basis and checking for suspicious activity. You can call your bank/credit card company to let them know when you’re leaving town. You know—all the stuff people tell you to do but you never do because you think it’ll never happen to you.

Well, it happened to us.

Now we’re warier, wiser, more delightfully paranoid.

And I just thought I’d share.

Blockhead is now a First Book

I got a nice surprise last week. My math picture book, Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci has been accepted into the First Book Program.

First Book is a nonprofit org that helps teachers and schools buy books for kids in need. First Book makes tons of titles available to select schools at astounding discounts of 50 to 90 percent below retail. That’s a huge discount. I was clicking through First Book’s online store and I came across brand-new books by major authors that are going for as little as a buck a book. That price is only available if the teacher or school has been vetted and accepted into the First Book program.

When Blockhead first came out, I used to get emails from teachers, parents, and librarians asking if I could donate a book to a classroom or library, because they just didn’t have the funds to do so.

That’s a hard thing to ask of an author. In the first place most of us just don’t have the money to help schools out in this way. For a while I donated a few, but it wasn’t something I could keep up forever. While I do get a discount from the publisher, every book I mail out costs me darn near retail price by the time I cover the distributor’s sales tax and shipping and my own re-shipping. It just wasn’t smart for me to continue doing that, as much as I want kids to have my book. On top of the cost, authors like me are simply not equipped to assess whether a school or library is truly needy. No matter what I did, I felt guilty.

LaToniya A. Jones loves her kids—with math!

A few years ago, I did a Skype visit with some classes led by LaToniya A. Jones, a former middle school principal and math specialist in Detroit who founded an 501c3 organization called P.O.W.E.R., which, among other things, runs workshops to teach parents how they can empower their kids through math. LaToniya, who uses a bunch of “math-lit” books in her seminars, wrote to First Book, asking that they add Blockhead to their menu of titles.

I’m really touched and glad that she did that. I had heard of First Book, but it would not have occurred to me that I could propose that the org make my book available. When Blockhead finally hits the First Book store, I’ll add the link to my site permanently so teachers and librarians will know that they have options that are cheaper than even the big online retailers. (If you are a children’s book author, you might consider looking into First Book.)

In any case, thanks, First Book. Thanks, Ms. Jones!

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Yes, I am trying to post here more often. Thank you for noticing. If you want to sign up for my newsletter and claim your free ebook, go here. Thanks — Joseph D’Agnese

When Chimpanzees Dance

I got a mention this week on the blog of a chimp sanctuary in Washington state.

In the wild, chimpanzees will sometimes appear to “dance.” The chimp in this video does this briefly; it’s the first time his caregivers have spotted him doing such a thing in captivity.

I mentioned chimp rain dances briefly in an article I did on one of these facilities for Discover magazine, back in 2002. The rain dance was just one of those bits of trivia you toss into an article when you’re writing it that ends up taking on a life of its own. In this case, that factoid came back around and made the piece. Even today, I occasionally get notes from people referencing that article, and they always say how the last line touched them.

Paging through the website of Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest, I discovered that my article actually inspired founder Keith LaChappelle to start his sanctuary. I love hearing stories like that. There aren’t many moments when a writer can say that his or her work has made a difference in the world. This is my, like, one time. I’m proud of it.

My chimp piece was later featured in the Best American Science Writing anthology in 2003. The piece is also included in my collection of nonfiction science pieces, The Scientist & The Sociopath. But you can read the whole chimp piece for free on Discover’s website.

Related: The Death of a Chimp

The Making of "The Suspect" with Mekhi Phifer and Sterling K. Brown

A message today on behalf of my buddy Stuart Connelly, who’s running a Kickstarter to raise some funds for a film he’s just completed in rural Pennsylvania.

Wait, you’re asking. He’s completed the film? Why’s he need money?

Take it away, Stu:

Here’s the pitch: Confusion & stress engulf a small all-white town when an African-American stranger appears in the wake of a masked armed robbery.

Bring Hollywood talent to our rural town in Pennsylvania and shoot a crime drama involving racial tension, hair triggers, car crashes? 

Convince a famous musician not only to score the film, but also write and record original songs — lyrics and all? 

Shoot it all in nineteen days?

Are you kidding?

But… with a lot of help… 

We did it.

We put every penny of our investors’ money onto the screen, and there are critical components still to tackle that we don’t have the financial resources for. That’s where you hopefully come in. To get The Suspect over the line and secure a meaningful distribution deal, to get on the radar of influential decision-makers in Hollywood and beyond.

We are looking for your help to offset some of the on-going promotional expenses associated with raising awareness for

The Suspect

. This includes costs associated with entering and attending film festivals, renting space and coordinating industry screening events to allow distribution companies to experience our film, creating and producing a professional press kit and other communication materials.  All key activities to help differentiate 

The Suspect

in the marketplace.

The Suspect has just secured a place in its first major film festival. Our film was selected to be one of five narrative features in competition at the 17th Annual American Black Film Festival in Miami, June 19 – 23.  We are thrilled that the Festival’s Grand Jury has nominated The Suspect for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor - Mekhi Phifer and Best Actor - Sterling K. Brown.

We know we are close to our goal of being securely positioned and on the radar of key industry players looking for smart, stylistic films. We are looking for $25,000 to take us to the finish line. Yes, it’s a mere fraction of our film’s budget… but it’s a fortune when your production bank account is circling the drain.

Your support and contribution will help ensure that the wonderful performances of our amazing cast, the impressive talents of our core creative team and crew, the masterful work of our composer and the tremendous support we received from our community — which collectively became The Suspect — will be available to a broad audience.  To entertain, to inspire, to start a conversation…. 

Read on to learn more about the project and be sure to take a look at our list of rewards.  We tried to offer a little something for everyone — you’ll find props from the movie, books, music, clothing, artwork and more.  

Thank you for considering The Suspect.

Making Up for Zero Days

Since March I’ve been writing sporadically, and it’s been killing me. I keep a journal of my daily output and for much of spring and early summer it’s looked like this:

Since March I’ve been on the road a lot with Denise. I accompanied her on her book tour throughout the east and southeast, and while I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, I’m forced to admit that I wasn’t very productive at all. I’ve never gotten good at writing for myself while on the road.

In contrast, I’ve always been able to force myself to crank out client work and meet their deadlines while on the road. When it comes to my own stuff, I just tell myself I can skip a day. So while my ghostwriting clients can happily say their projects have moved forward—the scientists, the business dudes, the diet docs all got their proposals done this spring, yay for them—but on the Joe-fiction-writing front, this is the result: a long line of zeroes.

I started off great in January and managed to get about 75,000 words done on the new project before things went haywire. And when Denise hit the road solo in mid-June, I locked myself in the house and managed to write 35,000 words—Joe words, not client words—in a week. I now have a good rough draft on that book. It’s big, sloppy, and longwinded, but I’m ecstatic. It means I’ll be able to march through the next draft solidly knowing where I’m headed.

I’ve also decided to share this book with my agent and not automatically self-publish it. You can read that as a sign of how excited I am about this project. But bear in mind that I’m still at least one good draft away from sharing it with anyone. Since this is historical fiction, there’s a lot more research ahead.

If you think you might be interested in being a beta reader on this work, please let me know. The genre is historical fantasy, by which I mean that an element of magic has been inserted into a real-life historical setting. I’ll post again when I’m ready to share it.

By the way, here’s what I can say about any kind of historical fiction: don’t. Just don’t. You can barely write a sentence of your book unless you’ve researched a ton of stuff. Knowing how much I procrastinate, it’s a wonder I’ve gotten this far with this book.

I managed to write a decent short story this week, so I think I may have broken through the logjam. This week I’ll be starting the next book in The Mesmerist series while revising the historical fantasy. Should be good. Just don’t tell my ghosting clients, whose work may or may not be due this week.

* * *

In other news:

* It’s Fourth of July week here in the States. My most best-selling nonfiction book, Signing Their Lives Away, tells the story of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. That book and its sequels have sold pretty well in historic site and museum gift shops. Learn more about them here. Follow the Facebook page here.

*  Back when we had more time on our hands, we did a line of Signer-themed Fourth of July T-shirts. Check them out here.

* Lastly, Google Reader was discontinued July 1. If you’ve been following this blog via that service, it’s time to migrate over to something like Feedly or what-have-you. All I ask is that you take me along with you. It’s been fun, hasn’t it? I haven’t been excessively annoying or needy, have I? Please take a moment to bookmark this page to your new reader, whatever it is.