cachsux
Wah
A 9mm has a longer reach than any punch I've seen.
%$@#&* Identity thieves!
- Thread starter soberups
- Start date
A 9mm has a longer reach than any punch I've seen.
wkmac
Well-Known Member
Some hacker was able to forge a physical duplicate of my wife's debit card. They went on a little shopping spree down in California, swiping the card at point-of-purchase outlets where no PIN was required. They emptied out our checking account, and then maxed out our overdraft protection credit line before the bank froze the account and called my wife at work to inquire how it was that 2 identical cards were being swiped on the same day 1000 miles apart. They got us for about $1800. Fortunately, that was the balance in our account after we had just paid about $5K in first-of-the-month bills, mortgage etc. so nothing bounced; if they had hit us 1 or 2 days earlier we would have had an avalanche of bounced checks to deal with, and the thieves would have gotten a lot more money. We filed a fraud claim with the bank as well as police report with our local police department, and found out that others who dined at a local restraunt and paid with debit cards were reporting similar problems. Someone probably put a "skimmer" on the card reader. Its is frightening and stressful to go thru something like this. The bank is processing our claim and said that we will probably be made whole in 7-10 days. My heart goes out to other, low-income victims for whom the complete draining of their checking account for a week or more would be financially devastating. For us, this has boiled down to the hassle of my wife spending 3-4 hours on the phone, filling out forms, and transferring funds from savings. We can use other credit cards until matters get sorted out, our bills are still being paid and we will eat and be OK.
I'd like to find whoever did this and KICK THEIR ASS!
I hate those bastards. My wife got tagged on a credit cards for about $400 before the damage was stopped and our situation was very minimal compared to your's. Hope you catch the
ERS!
UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)
Well-Known Member
I just re-read Sober's OP---$5K in first of the month bills?? My fixed expenses are 1/3 ($1,667) of yours and with miscellaneous expenses I live comfortably on about $2-2.2K/month.
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Two words:
Trophy wife.
moreluck
golden ticket member
Used to have an over $3000 house pymt. before we refinanced..........................so, $2000 a month wouldn't cover but part of a house pymt. and we'd starve, be in the dark, with no heat and no car to get around.!!
rod
Retired 22 years
My monthly expences are 20 bucks for garbage service, about a 125 for elect (total elect house) 125 for TV-internet-telephone. Thats about it. (I have a trophy wife also---at least to me she is).
I suppose I could add to this taxes, insurance, food and all that other crap but the bottom line is I don't have any house payment or vehical payment to throw into the mix so that helps.
I suppose I could add to this taxes, insurance, food and all that other crap but the bottom line is I don't have any house payment or vehical payment to throw into the mix so that helps.
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soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
I just built a deck over Memorial Day weekend(and bought a new barbque, new outdoor lights, new cordless drill, et etc etc) and put almost 2 grand on our Home Depot credit card, the full balance of which we paid off at the first of the month in order to avoid interest. Adding that little chunk to our mortgage utilities etc meant we were pushing $5K out the door at the first of the month. Had the thieves hit us just a few days prior, all those payments would have bounced and we would be close to $7K in the hole unless the banks fraud dept (or my wife, who checks our account online daily) would have caught it first.
How frustrating! I'm sorry sober. Those criminals totally suck, I hope you catch them and there's some jail time involved...
Paper or Plastic: What Have You Got to Lose? | Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
ATM/Debit Cards: What consumers need to know about greater fraud risk, card blocking, and debit card fees. | US PIRG
Paper or Plastic: What Have You Got to Lose? | Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
ATM/Debit Cards: What consumers need to know about greater fraud risk, card blocking, and debit card fees. | US PIRG
P
pickup
Guest
Well, I think Cheryl's links in post #28 address the reason why credit is better than debit. Why not just use the cash in your checking account to pay the credit card bill? The money would come from the same account and you would have more peace of mind.
Just my opinion.
Anonymous 10
Guest
Had this done to my wife and I just after we went to a vacation resort. Somehow they scanned out card. It all worked out in the end but a major pain in the ass.
soberups
Pees in the brown Koolaid
%$@#&* Identity thieves!
The bank refunded all of our money to us today. Whew! My wife also had the local police come by her work to get copies of our bank statements and receipts for the restaraunt. A bunch of other people in our area also were victims, and our PD has a detective working on it.
The bank refunded all of our money to us today. Whew! My wife also had the local police come by her work to get copies of our bank statements and receipts for the restaraunt. A bunch of other people in our area also were victims, and our PD has a detective working on it.
Jackburton
Gone Fish'n
Sorry to hear that. On the bright side, times like these we need a superhero like Batman to get pissed.
rod
Retired 22 years
Re: %$@#&* Identity thieves!
If your police dept is anything like ours be sure to cancel all your bank accounts and start fresh (even maybe at a different bank) because now all your account numbers and other personal information are who knows where.
If your police dept is anything like ours be sure to cancel all your bank accounts and start fresh (even maybe at a different bank) because now all your account numbers and other personal information are who knows where.
moreluck
golden ticket member
Gotta watch the computer stuff too......we get official looking notices about someone messing with a pay pal account (don't have one), so that's fake for sure. But some are supposedly from banks we do use.
It looks official, but if you click to reply, the adress looks like a regular e-mail address of a person....like nairobiprince.com.
It looks official, but if you click to reply, the adress looks like a regular e-mail address of a person....like nairobiprince.com.
rod
Retired 22 years
I get those Pay Pal notices all the time but I igrore them even though I do use Pay Pal once in awhile. The best defense is to pay close attention to your credit card statements and bank statements. I got suckered into that "free credit report" crap years ago and it took me a couple of months of repeated calls and threats to straighten things out. All it takes is to answer one loaded question the wrong way and BOOM - you are getting a monthly charge.
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