THIS ONLY HAPPENS TO OTHER PEOPLE, RIGHT?

WRONG!!!

I am going to make a very long story a bit shorter to make it readable.

You think you cover all your bases and are secure, but ya not.

Dudette stays on top of our financial's.  She checks them all the time so at any given moment, we know where we are.  At this point all I can say is, "Praise Dudette".

Earlier this past week, she noticed a couple minor pending transactions on our account.  Didn't look familiar to her, but maybe to me.  The inquiry commenced.

Nope.  I had no clue.

She investigated.  Still no clue.  But...this didn't look right.  Later that night, she went back and checked, and a couple MUCH bigger pending transactions were there.  Enough to wipe out our checking account.

Yup, you guessed it.  We'd been hit.  Someone had our card information and was floating bogus charges.

The next couple days were a flurry of activity (ours, not the crooks).  Banks were notified, accounts closed, new ones opened, monies transferred, cards canceled, new ones issued, and on, and on.

All parties involved or affected were called, talked to, options exercised.

Much swearing took place.  Much sweating took place.  A BUTT load of paranoia took place.

NOTE: Just because a charge is "pending", and you tell them it is bogus, does not mean it will be stopped.  It merely means the "paper" hasn't hit the bank yet.

NOTE:  It ain't a crime until "paper" hits the bank.  Kind of stupid in my book.  If the charge doesn't go through, no harm is done.  No theft or fraud as of that point.  But when the "paper" hits the bank, whole different story.

A third party provider was involved.  We spoke to them as well.  They were very interested.  We got all kinds of forms to fill out.  And still, until "paper" hits the bank...

And "paper" hit the bank.  HOT DAMN!!!  We got us a CRIME now.  I felt like Arl0 Gunthry's song, Ailices Resturant.  (I'll put some verses up at the end of this mess)

The bank (knowing what was up) reversed the charges immediately and we got affidavits of the event.  Then it was a case of contacting Fairweather Lewis and Willard Clark, and getting the "rip-off patrol" to file the police report.  They were fairly amazed and pleased with the steps we took.  They couldn't think of anything else we could have done.

With the affidavits and police report, all kinds of doors opened for us.  Credit Bureaus were notified, and we now have long term fraud alerts set up for our continued protection.  The FTC has also been notified.  And more papers have to be sent out to various places.

Two long days of sweatin', frettin', spittin' and ...well, you know.  Wondering how someone got our information.  We went nuts wondering who we might have ordered something from over the internet, that didn't have a secured site.  Had to be a short list as we don't order online all that much.  It was driving us nuts.

We finally got to look at a newspaper late Friday afternoon, and look at what's on the front page, a story about what we just went through.

The story was about a national retailer with a local presence that suffered a breach in their security.  Seems someone got their hands on information about a certain provider, and type of card, for BUNCHES of customers.  They talked about the THOUSANDS of locals affected, through several banks and financial institutions.  And, of course they couldn't mention the retailer.  For reasons I can understand.

Hmmmmm, ya think there might be a connection?  Naw, too much of a coincidence.  Yeah, my left nostril.

You always think it will be the online stuff that gets you in trouble.  You always hear about how financial information is stolen off the 'net.  How "real" stores are safer.  Guess not.

On the plus side of things, when our world started to unravel, CK offered to give us all the money she had to help us out.  We didn't need it, but the thought was about as sweet as you can get.  Crazy Kid.  Gotta love her.

Also, every single person we talked to and worked with, were fantastic.  They were all understanding and helpful.  For a bad situation, it was very nice dealing with everyone.

We had a bad scare.  But thanks to Dudette's diligence with our financial's, this got caught, and stopped, before it turned very ugly.  A lot of people only check their account information once a week or when the statement comes in.  If we had done that, our account would have been empty before we even noticed.  The "bounced check" notifications would have been the first clue.

SUGGESTION:  Check your accounts on a regular basis.  Several people I work with shared horror stories about their accounts getting hit on a Saturday or Monday, and they didn't have a clue until they went to cash their checks on Friday.  By then, they were cleaned out.

Now for those lyrics: (sung to the tune of Ailices Resturant chorus)

"Anything you want,

You can get,

If you order off

The Internet."

"Anything you want,

You can get,

If you order off

The In - Ter - Net."

"Surf on in, And shop around.

We're gonna charge it, to some other clown."

"Anything you want,

You can get,

If you order off

The In - Ter - Net."

Theft happens.

Comments

[Cop Car]

I might discover it a year or two later. Good for Dudette!

[CK]

My offer may have seemed cute but maybe you don't realize something....My net worth is less than $100. It was the thought that counts right?!?!

[Wichi Dude]

When that is all you have, and you are willing to part with it, that counts for a LOT.

Crazy kid. Still gotta love ya.

[bogie]

I would notice it at the next statement (or the next time one of us couldn't get our allowance out of the ATM. I probably look at my Rollover IRA performance more than the bank accoun - maybe I should change that!

[Heathen]

OMG ~ what drama.

This recently happened to a friend of mine. She refuses to buy anything online and she is super anal and diligent. And through a 3rd party her info was gotten. What a pain.

I'm knocking on wood, I buy tons online and with my debit card. Yikes!

[Owen]

Our (Wichita bank) credit card was hit last week too. The weird thing is that it is our backup card, we haven't used it in 6+ months. No clue how it was compromised.

[Wichi Dude]

Same here Owen, no clue. I wonder if any of us will ever get told what exactly happened.

[buffy]

Good God, what an awful experience! You're really lucky Dudette is on top of things. Like Bogie or Cop Car, I'd find out when I got the overdraft notices from the bank. I guess I'm going to have to check in to setting up an on line account with the bank.

There have been several scares in the past year, where thousands of accounts were compromised because a company's security wasn't up to snuff. It seems to me that the police should be obligated to tell you how your accounts were hijacked. How can you protect yourself if you don't know where the attacks are coming from??