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!