So we get home from our most recent trip to LA today. Yes, we were there again. It was a relatively pleasant trip -- met the new tenant in my childhood house, spent some really good time with my Dad and saw some of our favorite friends. Sounds great, right?
Well, I am unpacking upon our return and Ken says, "Hey Keds, you got a call while we were gone."
"Oh yeah? From???"
"Visa Fraud division, they want you to call them back about your account and some questionable activity."
"Oh, that must be why the card got declined at CVS yesterday. No biggie, probably just because I used it a bunch in LA on Friday. Hand me the phone, I will call them back."
duh duh duhhhhhhhhh...
Turns out they were calling me because some lowlife, skeezball, whack job decided to use MY debit card to make a $797 purchase on ebay! Since I am with the credit union, I cannot do anything until tomorrow morning, and they cancelled my card for protection. My favorite card. The card I use so much that I do not even need to use the card itself as I have the numbers all memorized, along with the security code on the back. To say I am freaked out might be an understatement.
The best part, you see, is that all my bills are set to pay tomorrow. Only, now there is not enough money in the account to cover everything. That is in part thanks to a slacker tenant in my townhouse who has trouble paying rent on time, and now thanks to this jack a$$!
I am counting to 3 and breathing deeply. Wish me luck tomorrow, oh, and welcome home...
6 comments:
Oh no! How horrible! I freak out if something happens to my card so I can imagine how you are feeling. I winder how this happened? ALthough in this day and age it seems to happen with far more increasing frequentcy. I hope you get everything worked out with very little distress. And that you can track the a**hole through ebay. They can do that, right?
Welcome home. Will you be posting your new card number so I can get a new Blue Ray player? (sorry, bad joke)
Yeah, this does suck. I'm sure the Credit Union will make everything right. I'm just wondering how someone got your card number since we are so careful...
This totally sucks, I am so sorry!!! I hope this is a relatively easy process to rectify the situation, all things considered.
Ken - to answer your question, it's really so very easy to be a victim. Even something as simple as paying with it at a restaurant. The waiter/waitress leaves and scans it into a card reader that records the data from it... one little swipe that you'll probably never notice. And that's just one example. I have been considering for some time using my debit for less and less, because each time you do it increases the risk. More simple in the end to just haul my butt to an ATM and use cash.
Still - I'm sorry this happened, and I am angry this is causing so much undue stress. Please keep me posted!
Oh the joys keep piling... on top of the $797, I just checked my balance, and another 5 transactions had cleared before the card was stopped totalling about $300. AUGH! Now, I am off to the dentist. Rapture!
Lora - Yeah. I know it's easy. With technology today, it's as simple as a waitress or hotel worker jotting down some quick information. That's what happened to me.
My solution is to keep most of my "bill paying" money in a separate account. This way, if someone gets a hold of my debit, they won't do too much damage.
People don't have to get all "CSI" like to grab your card numbers. Sometimes the lowest tech devices like a pencil and paper do the trick.
It's also led me to be uber-paranoid when giving out personal information of any kind.
It just means we all have to be very, very vigilant.
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