I’d set alarm clock to wake me up on Saturday – should have gone to the hairdresser’s early in the morning and then continued with other activities throughout the whole day. Instead, when I read my e-mails, there was a message that turned the whole schedule upside down. There was a message from Interweave Press saying that their website was hit by a hacker during a certain period of time, and my customer details may have been stolen – including the details of my credit card. I’ve placed an order with them in 2003, and even that was handled so badly that I wowed I’d never go back (they charged twice for my magazine subscription of one year, despite several complaints I was never refunded). I just cannot understand how and why such old customer details are still available on the site.

Normally I take things with a pinch of salt, and of course I’ve seen the hoax e-mails where fraudsters ask you to confirm your credit card numbers “for checking”. But this message seemed rather genuine, and there wasn’t a credit card number even mentioned. I contacted the Interweave asking for their confirmation, searched for the numbers of credit card helplines and posted a warning to the Finnish knitting list. No-one has encountered the same problem ,at least not yet. Closed my Visa account (hope to get a new card before my summer holiday) and Amex was happy with just my phone call and to be informed about the risk. I’ll get a new card from them anyway in next month, so let’s hope that it’s smooth sailing until July. (This incident was the only negative one during this weekend, otherwise it would have been just perfect.)