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I WONDER WHAT'S NEXT? ZIP LINING MAYBE???




Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Thief!! Thief!! and a MLB FAIL!!


As many of you know, this morning, someone hacked into my checking account and stole $2200.

I never worried about identity theft, because since my divorce, I can't get a credit card, there is $30 in my savings account and any money in my checking account goes out to bills as soon as it comes in.  Little did I know that they could be watching my account and as soon as a decent sized deposit is made, they'd steal the money!


I checked my account on Sunday and there was $99 in there.  My ex-husband sent me a check for $2058 on Saturday and on Monday morning, on my way to work, I deposited it in my checking account.  I knew the funds wouldn't be available until this morning (Tuesday).  I was planning to pay bills after work today.  


Now I don't answer phone calls that are 800 numbers, or calls with area codes I don't recognize.  So around 10 am, I got a phone call that I didn't answer.  I got to work at 11am, and Jess, our part-time accountant told me my bank called about some questionable charges and I should call them right away.  It was the same 800 number that tried to call me this morning.  So I called.


It was someone from my bank but it was OUT-SOURCED to some god-forsaken country (I was NOT happy about this because I couldn't understand him!)  Anyway, he asked me if I spent $680 at Best Buy (uh NO!!),  $506 at ATT (NO!)  $117 at Petmeds (NO!!)  There were 5 or 6 charges in all.  He told me to call my bank immediately and to also file a police report.  I called my branch and she told me to come in right away.  So I had to clock out (I was at work for all of 17 minutes).


So 5 minutes later, I'm at my bank.  Connie had already printed up all the latest charges in the past week.  My checking account had $-78.00 in it.  So I told her the ones that were legitimate and she did some paperwork and made me a copy.  She cut up my check card and issued me a new one (should be here in a few days) .  She was astounded that my account was wiped out!  Then I had to file a police report for fraud.


So off I go to my local police station (please don't ask to see my driver's license for ID because it's expired).  I talked to the Police chief and he took everything down, made a copy of the paperwork from the bank and will fax a copy of the incident report to my bank.  The officer told me this was not unusual.  Lots of folks get wiped out of all their life savings, and often it's way more than $2200!


So I go back to work, but they aren't busy and it's nearly time when the shift leader would be taking me off the floor, so I never got any tables today.  Now I'm out more money!  


Two hours had gone by since I reported the fraud to the bank.  As of right now, $1470 of the $2200 is back in my account and another $739 will be back in a day or so.  There were 2 pre-authorization charges so that money was never actually taken out.  

I am very very happy with my bank right now!  Petra told me when it happened to her a few weeks ago, it took 10 days for her to get her money back!  Now if I can just get my bank to stop charging me $35 every time I bounce a check, I'll be real happy!


On another note, last night the Major League Baseball network, MLB.com posted this picture, below,  on their website before the game ended, proclaiming the LA Dodgers as winners of Game 4.  FAIL MLB!!!   Phillies got 2 runs at the bottom of the 9th inning with 2 outs to win that game 5 - 3!!  Like my daughter says, no apology from MLB but they did pull the picture.  Fail, MLB, fail!
 




17 comments:

Mandi said...

WOW! I'm so glad you're happy with you're bank - they did you right. As a general rule, I NEVER use my check card online - always a credit card - for that exact reason. Now that the Holidays are around the corner, this is going to be all the more prevalent. I work at a small community bank, so it's nice to hear about the good stuff with that 4-letter word (bank). I'm so glad it's going to be OK.

Jenny said...

Oh wow! That's insane. If it happened to me iuno what I would do, other then cry. Good thing you got all your money back though.

Boozy Tooth said...

OMG! Joanie!

You poor thing. I'm so happy this looks to be having a happy ending so far. What a stunning reminder that there are crooks and dishonest people everywhere.

I'm so sorry you're having to go through this, but your bank is doing an excellent job of assisting you. That's not always the case.

Please let us all know how this turns out!

mo.stoneskin said...

Wow. So far in my relatively sheltered life I have got away without being a victim of fraud. The closest I came to experiencing it was my friend who had someone use his credit card details online to buy 700 pounds worth of Lego!

Joanne said...

OH Joanie - that just sucks that they were watching your account - azzholes!!! Thank goodness your bank reacted so quickly.

Cheering in our householf for the Phillies (G loves Pedro)

Martha said...

Sorry to hear about your money issues. That sucks. I had something similar, it was done through PayPal. Luckily my bank returned the money in less than two days, but Paypal kept saying they had to contact the payee to see if the charges were legit.... like they were going to respond! I never thought something such as that could feel so violating, but it was a terrible terrible feeling. It happened in a similar way, just after pay day (I got paid monthly) and before I knew my mortgage check had cleared I was down to less than $90!

I did not see or hear abou the MLB FAIL! What an amazing game that was last night!

The Retired One said...

I know how you feel, Joannie..we had someone charge our credit card for a bunch of stuff about a month ago. Thank goodness the credit card company called us and caught it and gave us a new card and thank goodness they didn't charge us for the bogus charges. Gheesh...why do they get away with it? Isn't anyone asking for I.D. anymore when a credit card is used???

Maureen@IslandRoar said...

OMG, I was freaking out just reading this; what a horrible feeling you must have had all day!
Thank goodness it's gonna work out.

That Janie Girl said...

Dang, girl. I'm so glad someone caught this theft thingy!

And way glad you recovered the funds..

Big Mama Cass said...

OMG! That is so scary! Any idea how they got your info??

Pseudo said...

I need someone to explain to me how this can happen cause it freaked the shit out of me.

I am so happy you will get your money back right away.

Candy's daily Dandy said...

WTF!!!! Joanie, I am soo sorry this happened to you, but I am so glad you got most of your money back!!

Scumbags.

Love the little MLB addendum.!!!

~Thought's By Dena~/ JDs Gift Shack said...

Im so glad that you are getting this taken care of!!!! The people that do this are just ruthless...how does it even happen???? (hugz) to you

Sally's World said...

its crazy that we have to worry about this stuff so much, my parents are always going on about cash, in their day, if you didn't have the money, you couldn't buy it....it over simplifies it I know, but sometimes i think they have a point...of course it doesn't allow for other crimes like muggings...sigh... xxx

linlah said...

Yeah for the good banks. Not many of those left.

Joanie said...

I don't know how these people can get credit card or check card info. I don't have a credit card, just my check card. I got an email today from Amazon telling me someone tried to use my card at Target.com. Not sure if the email is a fake or not, but I went in and deleted any kind of personal info about myself on any account where I make a payment.
I also deleted all info on my paypal account too.

Turtles In Northern Florida said...

This exact thing happened to me last year when we were still living in Alaska. All the charges were from New Orleans. My bank too was super cool about it.They did though ask if I was sure my hubby was home with me for the days previous! I thought I would have a stroke from laughing so hard.

BTW thanks for stopping by and following! Im following you now too.What a fun blog you have.i know it will be a great read.