The simple answer is that the reason why we trust our money to financial institutions is that we expect that if we are robbed via one of their financial vehicles, we will be protected.

That’s why you’re only liable for the first $50 of unauthorized charges when someone steals your credit card. Its why when banks fail, we get up to $100,000+ back.

Its one of the reasons why we carry ATM cards, credit cards, and even, (God forbid) traveler’s checks.

The premium, if you will, is that interest free loan that you give the bank so that it can lend your money to other people at ahigher interest rate to make money.

What are you talking about? Chris Elliott is a well known travel ombudsman who also writes for MSN. He gets involved in consumer cases because people ask him to. Chris will often post quotes from the letters written to him, so it’s pretty safe to assume that the first indented section was part of the letter written to Chris asking him to intercede.

For you people that did not get it Derek did not write this story….Also, poor little Derek is not cowering in the corner somewhere crying because I wrote some mean and nasty things here! .He probably does not even know this blog exists!

That being said, I do feel sorry for Derek for being robbed…It must have been scary..And I never said he deserved being robbed!

BUT, as I said earlier..He made some mistakes. And to all the people that have chastised me for not having any sympathy for Derek…I will again remind you of the title of this thread that reads…..”Warning to travelers” (as in listen up…you may learn something here!)

By the way, anyone who can quote the “Electronic Fund Transfer Act” verbatim.to a financial institution has enough “world experience” to know to get a police report after a robbery…Some-thin ain’t right here!! By the way this is no grade school child we are talking about here People!

Sure it’s OK to get mad at the bank…And think they should just pay it anyway…….RIGHT!…..

What ever happen to Personal Responsibility?!

I fail to see where Lianne did a 180. She said she doesn’t walk down the street assuming she may be attacked at any second, even though she has been attacked before.

From your previous post you made it sound like you feel the need to believe that every street you walk down may be dangerous. That’s your perogative. I hope that you don’t accidently “defend” yourself from someone who’s just trying to ask you what time it is.

Carver…

Nicely said.

That being said, I believe (as I have stated in previous posts) that if you are old enough to travel alone, especially to a big city or foreign country, then you have the responsibility to do a little research before you leave. Are there areas of the city that are more prone to crime than others? Are there schemes that are more prevalent in a particular city/country? If anyone, especially a college student alone, is travelling to a foreign country, he needs to have the phone number and address for the American Embassy with him at all times. If he is afraid to go to the police after a crime is committed, he should be able to talk to someone at his hotel/hostel who can assist him. Not wanting to appear stupid to strangers in a foreign country (not saying that is what happened here, but if it were my brother, that might prevent him from talking to authorities) is not an excuse for failing to act.

Again, this was a horrible experience for Derek and hopefully someone will read this post and know what to do should they be caught in the same situation. Most of the comments on this site are not meant to place blame on the victim, but to help other travellers who might not otherwise think about how to handle themselves when a situation arises. However, I can’t blame the bank for not reimbursing him the money without any documentation to back up his story.

I cannot agree that Derek is blaming others. He was the victim of a crime. By definition that makes it the fault of the criminals, not Derek.

I realize that you don’t have alot of sympathy for Derek, but i would remind you that at some point we were all novice travelers. As such, I would ask for some kindness towards this poor kid.

Not everyone knows to get a police report, especially some college student in a foreign country.I remember getting my license plate stolen when I was 21. I only made a police report because my parents told me I needed to. Clueless kids. Give them a break.