Tweet
I just have to get this off my chest. We had to deal with our credit card company last week - apparently someone got a hold of our credit card number to set up some kind of "no phone line required" fax number. We weren't charged anything for their charges, and we're getting a new card issued. The point is, the charge was $4.95 set up on a monthly subscription basis. As soon as I saw it on the account I called to have it blocked and the outsourced cs in India did not register it as a fraud so the charges continued to be billed to our account. After three months of back-and-forth, we finally got the thing cleared up - again at no charge to us but massive amounts of aggravation. When I spoke to the communications company that was billing us, the guy there was sooo nice. He explained that the majority of credit card fraud these days is for small amounts so they don't trip any fraud alerts. And that in all likelihood the fax number was being used for a larger, more profitable scam.
Okay. So that got taken care of, and we went through our computers to double check our safeguards and change all our passwords (we've been kinda lax about that) but still we couldn't figure out how the thieves got this particular number.
Then yesterday I get a call from our bank - someone's got a hold of our DEBIT CARD NUMBER and tried to rack up a few charges - two of which slipped through for a small amount and a third that set off all kinds of alarms and was declined, triggering a call to us. So we're getting a new debit card number, and I have to do a small amount of paperwork with the bank to get these two charges reversed, and in the meantime I start worrying about my other checking account - BTW all this is going on around 11 pm last night - and around 1:30 in the morning it occurs to me I should probably check up on that account, which seems to be fine so far.
But I'm so upset by all this, even though no monetary loss has been incurred and we've taken all the steps and precautions and yaddayaddayadda - I couldn't get to sleep - I started thinking about every personal violation I've had since I moved here to ABQ; my bicycle was stolen, our store was broken into twice, our home was broken into twice, our truck was stolen (and recovered), then one of the truck windows was smashed and the gas cap broken.
Even though all these things happened in the past and all of them have been resolved with a minimum of expense, still they all came rumbling back into my head in this giant ball of near pathological RESENTMENT at having to alter our daily lives once again.
I despise the fact that there are individuals worming their way through existence with the goal in their dehumanized brains of victimization - and knowing it's nothing personal doesn't help, either. I won't have it. I refuse to be a victim. I refuse to be a statistic.
I've always done all the things the experts advise as far as safeguarding documents and internet safety goes and apparently it doesn't matter how well you think you're covered - if some asshole wants to breach your security he's going to get there. I also realize that as the economy worsens, there's going to be a whole hell of a lot more of these shennanigans going on.
I kept waking up my poor fella all night long with tirades and fits - bless him, he's a tower of Zen calm in crises - and with a final bellow of "I want them found and I WANT THEIR ENTRAILS FED TO RABID GOATS!!" I managed to get about two hours' sleep.
Now I'm at work, still worked up about all this and needing to blow off some steam, and whaddya know - it DID make me feel better.
On the upside, all of the non-outsourced customer service people were excellent - calming, helpful, and one fellow even put me in mind of Gravekeeper (made me smile). The outsourced cs for Major Credit Card was abysmal.
BTW, can anyone here recommend one of those identity fraud services?
Cheers!
Okay. So that got taken care of, and we went through our computers to double check our safeguards and change all our passwords (we've been kinda lax about that) but still we couldn't figure out how the thieves got this particular number.
Then yesterday I get a call from our bank - someone's got a hold of our DEBIT CARD NUMBER and tried to rack up a few charges - two of which slipped through for a small amount and a third that set off all kinds of alarms and was declined, triggering a call to us. So we're getting a new debit card number, and I have to do a small amount of paperwork with the bank to get these two charges reversed, and in the meantime I start worrying about my other checking account - BTW all this is going on around 11 pm last night - and around 1:30 in the morning it occurs to me I should probably check up on that account, which seems to be fine so far.
But I'm so upset by all this, even though no monetary loss has been incurred and we've taken all the steps and precautions and yaddayaddayadda - I couldn't get to sleep - I started thinking about every personal violation I've had since I moved here to ABQ; my bicycle was stolen, our store was broken into twice, our home was broken into twice, our truck was stolen (and recovered), then one of the truck windows was smashed and the gas cap broken.
Even though all these things happened in the past and all of them have been resolved with a minimum of expense, still they all came rumbling back into my head in this giant ball of near pathological RESENTMENT at having to alter our daily lives once again.
I despise the fact that there are individuals worming their way through existence with the goal in their dehumanized brains of victimization - and knowing it's nothing personal doesn't help, either. I won't have it. I refuse to be a victim. I refuse to be a statistic.
I've always done all the things the experts advise as far as safeguarding documents and internet safety goes and apparently it doesn't matter how well you think you're covered - if some asshole wants to breach your security he's going to get there. I also realize that as the economy worsens, there's going to be a whole hell of a lot more of these shennanigans going on.
I kept waking up my poor fella all night long with tirades and fits - bless him, he's a tower of Zen calm in crises - and with a final bellow of "I want them found and I WANT THEIR ENTRAILS FED TO RABID GOATS!!" I managed to get about two hours' sleep.
Now I'm at work, still worked up about all this and needing to blow off some steam, and whaddya know - it DID make me feel better.
On the upside, all of the non-outsourced customer service people were excellent - calming, helpful, and one fellow even put me in mind of Gravekeeper (made me smile). The outsourced cs for Major Credit Card was abysmal.
BTW, can anyone here recommend one of those identity fraud services?
Cheers!
Comment