Stingy Operators, Runny Noses, Credit Card Theft: Undercurrent 08/2025

Stingy Operators, Runny Noses, Credit Card Theft

what we traveling divers have to put up with

from the August, 2025 issue of Undercurrent

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After a day of diving, I bought a pair of sandals in a Bonaire shop. When I arrived home a few days later, I found a message on my landline (this was before cell phones) from VISA inquiring about the $2000 worth of shoes I'd purchased in Texas on the same day I was shopping in Bonaire; they had canceled the charge and put a hold on my credit card. I recalled that the Bonaire clerk took my credit card into the back room to run it through their machine.

These days, scammers have advanced technology for stealing card data, as one of our readers from Portland, Oregon, reports. On her way to the Cove Eco Resort in Raja Ampat last February, she reports: "When I arrived in Jakarta, I went to two airport ATMs to withdraw money from my Schwab debit card in Indonesian Rupees, as the machines have limits. While I am careful to look for skimmers and watch my back while withdrawing money, a woman came up too close at the ATM and said, "Taxi?" I'm guessing she was testing to see if I understood English for a distraction. I turned around (I should have ignored her). She muttered something, and I told her to go away. I got my money and left.

"Fast forward four days, and I get a text from Schwab questioning two charges from Singapore, one for zero dollars and one for $99.99. The zero-dollar charge is, of course, to verify if this was a live card number. I denied authorization, and Schwab blocked the charge and the card. Yep, my debit card number was stolen. I don't know if the woman had anything to do with it."

As for the resort, she says, "The ocean trash is worse than I remember from December 2023. The beach and dock area are full of garbage. Indonesians use the ocean as their trash bin. Sometimes, I'd surface from a dive to find trash floating around my face.

"I visited 19 sites, and 11 of them were worthy of diving."

"My second week was spent at Raja Ampat Dive Lodge. In two weeks, I visited 19 sites, and 11 were worthy of diving, but eight were in terrible condition. When I asked one of the guides to take me to a non-bleached site, his response was 'all of Raja Ampat is bleached.'"...

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