COMMENT: In my new book, Twisted River, the hero couple come home from an overseas holiday and discover their dog-sitter has disappeared, changed the locks and put their flat on Airbnb.

From there their lives spiral out of control in ways that are too murderous to mention here, but relevant to most of us is the way their lives are cut off from all the things they take for granted. No phones. No credit cards. No internet.

Imagine what it must be like when you are trying to get your phone reconnected but your credit card has been cancelled. And you can un-cancel the credit cards because the bank wants to send you a code on your phone.

Ironically, the very week that Twisted River came out I tried to log into our Macquarie Bank account and was stopped by a screen that said I had to phone a number because of a security issue.

Alarmed, I called up and eventually, after I had provided my name, date of birth, phone number and address to prove that I am who I said I was, I was told there was a suspicious transaction. Had I paid someone $660?

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I can’t get into my account to check.’

However, I searched my emails and found an invoice for $660 from a reputable firm that processes documents for self-managed super funds.

‘Have they received the money?’ the voice said.

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘They haven’t asked for any more so I guess so.’

‘Could you phone them and find out?’

‘Wait a minute,’ I said. ‘Was this transaction flagged because I made it when I was in Poland?’ Poland is the computer scam and hacking capital of Europe.

‘We can’t tell you for security reasons,’ the voice said. ‘Call them and ask them if they got the money.’

‘This is ridiculous,’ I said. ‘You have cut me off from my own money with no warning.’

‘We sent you an email, but you didn’t respond.’

I vaguely remembered the email. I got it when I was in Poland and assumed it was a scam.

‘Has anyone recently asked you to provide personal details like your name and date of birth over the phone,’ the voice asked.

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘Aha!’

‘You did 15 minutes ago when I called.’

This went on for a couple of days but if you read Twisted River – and I hope some of you do – you’ll realise that I got off lightly, unlike my characters whose lives just get worse and worse, and in unexpected ways that go far beyond cancelled credit cards and disconnected phones when the villain reveals their true intentions.

That’s unlikely to happen to you but the real cyber security fences we build around our day-to-day lives can be just as effective when you are the one who’s locked out.

One forgotten password, a phone with a dead battery, and a credit card that you left at home because you have it on your phone, the one that’s run out of juice, and real life can take an uncomfortable twist.

By the way people have been asking me why I write crime novels under the name James Dunbar. Well, for a start, those are my first and middle names so they’re not entirely fictional.

Also, Jimmy Thomson is a name associated with this website and everything else I do connected with strata. And that’s fine but it doesn’t exactly scream “thriller” or “mystery” – or it shouldn’t.

This article first appeared in the Flat Chat newsletter and you can get that free every week by clicking on the link below. Twisted River is published by Echo Publications and is available in all good bookshops and HERE.