Everyone's favorite retailer is in the news again this morning announcing plans to move ahead with in-store money services.

This is a story I'd been waiting to hear since earlier this month when the Financial Times broke the news that WalMar was prepping a money card. I was interested in the story because of WalMar's failed attempt earlier this year to get in to the money business by operating a specialty bank within their retail operation.

At the time they said the bank would help them save money because it would allow them to internalize credit-card and check transactions. Consumer groups and banks revolted at the idea. They saw it as a first step to the ruin of the local community bank. Politicians wasted little time jumping on the bandwagon. WalMart withdrew the application.

As you gain more success in your career and in life you'll accumulate plenty of

• scars from hard fought battles
• accolades for your great accomplishments
• friends with whom you've fought in the trenches
• a depth of experience which will make you a valuable commodity in your chosen field of expertise

If your career progresses anything like my own, you'll start asking yourself why you're time, your billable hours, shouldn't be your own to manage yourself. Why might you question it? Could it be it's that your customer rate increased by some large amount while your salary barely increased by the inflation rate? Could it be you're growing uncomfortable with the friction in the system - the time spent doing administrative tasks? Perhaps the concern grows out of an uneasiness that what you and your team are delivering, while valuable, could be both more on target and more effective for the same cost to the customer.

Over the weekend I got an email inviting me to participate in a survey. Now, I usually just toss these in the trash bin. This one caught my eye because it both appeared legitimate and it offered me compensation for my time in completing the survey. So I read on.

The email had every appearance as having been sent by my credit card provider. The graphics were very good. The "From:" and "Reply to:" addresses looked right. The URL for the survey even looked on the up and up.

The email told me the survey would take 5 minutes or less and that I would be compensated via a credit to my card account when I completed the survey. I was born at night; but it wasn't last night. I smelled a scam.

You already know I no longer use Windows on my PC. I've made the switch to ubuntu Linux. I felt reasonably secure that whatever lay on the other end of that link was not targeted at my browser or my operating system. Had I been running Windows I would not have taken the risk. I clicked the link.