Internet hackers and thieves have always driven me nuts.

I resent all the silly things I end up doing, and the money I have to spend to compensate for all those folks out there who get their kicks messing things up on the Internet.

I mean, really!  We’ve got this wondrous thing that connects people all around the world.  We learn from it, we make our livings from it, we connect with other people using it.

Then, we have these jerks that think it’s fun to mess with this good thing.  And, as everyone always says, if these hackers would apply their expertise to something legal, they’d probably be millionaires.  Instead, they mess with us little people who are just trying to make a living.

You’ll find that the Payment page on our main site is now password protected.  Yes, clients will have to “login” to process a credit card payment.  Why???

Well, because some idiots decided to use my online payment facility to test out their stolen credit card numbers.

How did I find out?  I checked my email one morning last week, and was amazed to find a long list of emails with all kinds of credit card transactions from people I’ve never heard of.

Remain calm I told myself.  Check your online account – maybe the emails are just spam.  No such luck.  The transactions were actually showing in my account.  Needless to say, I was shocked and amazed.

The idiots would have been better off using someone else’s site, really.  We know when someone is going to be processing a payment.  We don’t have tons of anonymous people buying widgets on our website.  So, spotting the problem wasn’t the issue.  It really smacked me in the face.

Evidently, what these thieves will do is process a small payment online somewhere just to check and see if they have the right information, and to verify that they can use the card information successfully, and that the card holder hasn’t discovered the theft and closed the account.  Then, they’ll go somewhere else and start racking up the charges. 

This went on for a few days while I and my credit card processing company were madly trying a few things to stop it, and madly crediting back all of the charges.  In fact, one of the people actually called the office, asking why there was a charge from us on his card.  Cheez.

The final solution was to password protect the payment page.  It’s not as convenient, but at least it’s safe.

From what I could tell, the thieves are from India.  The Internet offers an amazing opportunity for people around the world to learn more about one another and hopefully grow to understand one another better.

But, it also offers the opportunity for someone half way around the world to completely mess up my week, not to mention the finances of all the people whose credit cards they stole.

I feel like screaming sometimes, you know?