Dear Pinhead who pretended to be T-bone and spent our money without permission,
Lucky for me my bank is on the ball. Remember earlier today when you tried to charge more than $300 on my MasterCard check card at Sears, and did charge about $200 at Home Depot? My bank called me to confirm the charges. It didn’t seem like us. And it wasn’t us.
Oh, we’ve spent money at Sears. And we’ve spent money at Home Depot (I love Home Depot!). But it’s been our money, money we’ve worked hard for. Money we don’t throw around because there’s not a whole lot of extra each week. In fact, there’s usually no extra. We’re having a tough time lately in that regard. So we don’t go on shopping sprees and we do just fine.
But you don’t care. Somehow, some way, despite us being as careful as we know how, you got our account number. And maybe because your mommy didn’t love you, or you had problem acne, or you didn’t learn to go potty by yourself until you were 12, or maybe because you were simply born stupid, you decided to use that account number. Hope you had fun, because the party’s over.
I do not hold onto the hope that we will find you. However, you’re activity has been found out and won’t be permitted on that account any longer. The card has been canceled. The account is being reconciled.
You are a booger on the nose of humanity. I don’t hate you, because wasting hate on you would only mean you’ve won. No, I don’t care about you. I’d like to blow you into a Kleenex and toss you in the toilet. And flush you away. But then you don’t even deserve that. It’s too good for you.
Sincerely (you are a thorn in my side and people like you make living in an open society painful),
T
There are a lot of scams out there and sneaky ways for your credit/debit card numbers to be pilfered. The woman at our bank said, “It happens all the time.” We thought we were doing all we can do to safeguard our identity, but I guess we weren’t. Here’s our new plan:
1. We shred everything with our names on it before we throw it away (we already did this).
2. We are going to start using cash more often than not. Especially at places our card is taken out of our sight. Numbers can be stolen with special card-readers and such.
3. We are working to pay down our credit cards, highest rate-card first, and then we’re going to get rid of them.
4. We are going to be even more vigilant with our credit card statements and checking account balance to monitor any strange activity that may have slipped beneath our bank’s radar. We are also going to order a credit report to make sure our rating is still as stellar as it used to be.
5. We won’t make any online or over-the-phone purchases using a credit/debit card.
For helpful tips, check out the Federal Trade Commision's web site. Here is the section on reducing your risk. Be safe. Be vigilant. Safeguard your identity, your money and the ones you love. Sheesh. It's probably going to happen to you, if it hasn't already.
Yeah! I get to go first! Wow. I can't beleive that happened to you. It's probabally one of those things you think won't happen, but then it does and you're taken by surprise. What bank to you bank with, because mine sucks and probabally would never do that for me.
That happened to a really good friend of mine. He had fantastic credit and ended up accruing almost $100,000 of debt to his name and ss#. Because of the huge amount the FBI got involved. That was 3 years ago. So far as banks are concerned his name is mud even though none of it is his fault.
My bank is also really good at alerting me to uncharacteristic purchases (so far all of which have been made by moi - but it's reassuring to know they monitor my spending habits).
I'm glad your bank didn't drop the ball. :)
I'm glad to hear that your bank is on the ball ~ my bank would never know if it was us or not since we never do the same thing every month ~ but with our limited amount of funds running through this house and someone tried to purchase large items hopefully that would alert them something was up. Also if you use a post office box ~ never leave throw any mail away there either ~ because people will pull those things out and you'd be amazed at what information they can find out about you and obtain your idenity.
Damn pricks these thieves are!
Hope you solved the problem without any hassle to you and your credit rating.
get em tiger!
it's crazy how tenuous the whole electronic monetary world is. scary. thanks for the reminder to get my act together.
and i love the move! yayaya
I vote for using Chinese water tourture on the f@#$head. You do appear to have a good bank though.
The Chinese water torture isn't painful enough!
This is terribly scary, and incredibly upsetting. It's a violation. An even worse situation is loosing control of your Social Security number, or having someone use parts of the files on your computer to store their data. Blue Wolf called it steganography. We live in a time where the good guys have to work a LOT harder to outwit the B**tards!
I'm glad you caught on quickly!
Yep, happend to Mr. Husband too. Thankfully the dweeb who stole his number bought stuff off the shopping channel and we didn't even have cable at the time. It takes about 3 months to clear up but after that things are cool. Except paying for all the fees and charges and making up for the lost time and $.
The thing that bothers me are the companies that send you-are-approved- loan checks, or credit card approvals in the mail. We had a problem two years ago where a post office employee was grabbing those, filling out the applications, and cashing the loan checks. The person wasn't caught until just over 1 million dollars in damage was done. The people that were the victims, at least 200, are still recovering from that.
The thing that bothers me are the companies that send you-are-approved- loan checks, or credit card approvals in the mail. We had a problem two years ago where a post office employee was grabbing those, filling out the applications, and cashing the loan checks. The person wasn't caught until just over 1 million dollars in damage was done. The people that were the victims, at least 200, are still recovering from that.
T - sorry to hear about that, but I love the way you could put it into words so well. Its good to know that there are still some people looking out for the little guy, my bank would not only never do that, they'd prolly be among the bastids taking my money.
Oh, T-Bone! I'm so sorry to hear about the mess. What a headache! Fukkin' fukkers like to ruin things for everyone else. It's a good thing your bank alerted you! I'm shopping for a new bank right now. Do you use someone local or a national bank? Curious to hear how you like them. E-mail me!
You're kidding me! Don't worry, you don't have to hate this slimy booger, I will. Why do people have to do shit like this? It's so frustrating. And I know that you don't have like tons and tons of money, so it's really upsetting to hear that someone would do this to you. I am SO glad that you figured this whole thing out. Way to keep your family safe, my man.
You're kidding me! Don't worry, you don't have to hate this slimy booger, I will. Why do people have to do shit like this? It's so frustrating. And I know that you don't have like tons and tons of money, so it's really upsetting to hear that someone would do this to you. I am SO glad that you figured this whole thing out. Way to keep your family safe, my man.
yep, that crap sucks. the scary part is losing a credit/debit card. at least with a credit card it is borrowed money and you are only liable for $50, but if someone gets ahold of your credit/debit card, that is straight access to your bank account.
Someone used my credit card number to get onto a porn site, another time they bought some stuff from New York. Those were credit card charges not check card charges at least, so the credit card company handled everything.
May he wake up this morning with a horrible disease spreading "down there."
Here's something else: take your SS# off anything in your wallet. My identity was stolen 2 years ago by someone who took my wallet out of my purse in a restaurant. Simply by using my driver's license and SS# they were able to buy over $20,000 worth of merchandise in the span of 4 days. If someone gets your SS#, all bets are off.
Oh that sucks! The EXACT same thing happened to me. Right around Christmas last year, someone got my checkcard number and bought a $500 computer on QVC (must have been a crappy computer) and then a couple weeks later paid their 250 dollar phone bill. All this happened in Texas (Hmmm maybe Texas is the root of all checkcard scams?) and I live in Massachusetts and it didn't raise any red flags to ANYONE. I went to the bank in tears cause I had no money and all my checks were bouncing like crazy and all they could do was say they would look into it. I eventually got my money back but it took a while. Glad your bank is a little more customer friendly.
Oh - that totally sucks!! But I want to warn everyone that they don't need just your credit card number. My Mom went and had her hair cut and paid by check, a check that had her driver's licence on it. The store didn't deposit their checks and cash that night and an old employee broke in and robbed them. They took my parents check and made new ones with the same account number and then made fake driver licence's to match my parents names, but had the thieves pictures on it. The bank didn't catch it and my parents realized something was wrong when a week later they had checks bouncing. In the end the thieves had raked up close to $8,000! A couple was caught using my folks driver's licences' and were arrested. They were part of a national ring and the police are not sure how many copies were made! My parents closed their account, but the bank is still receiving checks on it. As a result my parents now have to carry paper work from the police and the bank stating that they had their names stolen and if and when they apply for a loan, they have been told that it will take longer than usual(no 24 hour approval) to make sure everything is in order. A lesson learned - always pay cash if you can!!
I prefer 'boil on the butt on humanity', but thanks for the warning. I should definitely be more careful.
oh that so bites! I was relieved earlier this year to hear of my banks dilligence when I was contacted before getting home from a shopping spree. There was a message for me to call the bank ASAP ... I had gone and purchased a computer and some flooring on the credit card (unusual spending for me) ... and the bank was quick to note the unusual spending.
Ever seen Catch Me If You Can, with Leo Decaprio? That identity thief he portrays there is now working for the fbi and has some good tips on moneycentral.com. (don't know where on there, but lots of good advice in general on there even if you don't find him). He also says that the only thing on your check should be your name. Believe it or not in this day and age, in my years of retail, I've seen everything on checks- from the D.L. number to the SSN! I've all but stopped using them, I use bill paying online. But it's probably not much safer, come to think of it.
I have a hard time spending only cash, because it takes more discipline to track it. But I wonder if it would be a bad idea to shred the debit card, and just keep one credit card.
Oh, try banking online. You can watch for your checks to clear, daily. Having mine online has alerted me to several cramming attempts, which, when you dispute, they just totally roll over on it. They know they don't have a leg to stand on, they just count on you not noticing.
I'm glad your bank was good in catching the activity and you didn't lose any money.
Oh, and don't forget to check credit receipts. Some of them record your entire credit card number, expiration date and all. I scribble it off.