Thursday, June 23, 2011

You Think It Won't Happen To You

image via Can Stock Photo

In the back of your mind you know it's a possibility. But, you naively think it won't happen to you.

I'm talking about credit card fraud.

And, it happened to us today.

My normal morning routine consists of getting up and letting the dog out, then making a cup of coffee, then sitting down to my computer. One of the first things I do on my computer is to access our bank account and review our statement. I guess it's lucky that I do this every morning because today I immediately saw three suspicious transactions that had occurred around 6:30 a.m this morning. They took place in California; two of them at 7-Eleven stores. In California! We live in Kentucky and I have never even been to California. These transactions were made using my husband's ATM/Debit card number (which he very rarely even uses).

Of course, my husband immediately called our bank and the fraud department sprung into action. The thieves had already attemped more purchases and the bank was able to block them. The ATM card was cancelled and blocked from further use. So only three transactions were able to "get through" before we caught on. Those three purchases amounted to approximately $115. I'm so glad we discovered this early and were able to prevent any furthur transactions.

The bank said that someone probably made a paper copy of my husband's ATM card or card number. But, how it came to be used in California is a mystery to me. We have to fill out some paper work and sign an affidavit for the bank and the money will be credited back to our account. It's a relief that it's been a fairly easy process to take care of and I'm grateful to our bank for working with us and helping us through a stressful event like this.

So, please let this be a reminder to you...guard your credit cards with care and check your bank statement daily.

Thieves suck!

2 comments:

septembermom said...

That's terrible, Kari. Thanks for this important reminder.

Beth @ TheAngelForever said...

We were the victims of identity thieves. Someone had my husband's information and opened up a credit card and then rushed it for delivery. We were lucky they did this since it was clicked before they changed it to their address. They were fast and tried to take a $6K cash advance on the card. The mess was huge and the credit card company treated us more like the bad guys. The sad reality is that many people are victims and don't know until a lot of damage is done. Often times thieves get the information and sell it to multiple people to use online. Our credit is now locked down. Nothing can be opened or looked at without us doing it. Makes things complicated to get loans, but well worth the added security.