Robbed!

I haven’t been very productive this weekend. Something bad happened, and put me in a funk, and I spent a lot of time brooding. I did get some things done, but not what I had hoped for. So, I am going to write about it now and get out of my system.

I was just about to head out to the store Saturday, and I wanted to take a quick look at my bank balance. I normally check about weekly, but I had not spent any money last week, really. The mortgage payment goes out on the first, and this was my month with an extra paycheck, so there was no reason to worry, but I checked anyway. My balance was too low.

I tried to think if I could have forgotten something, but nothing made sense. I found two transactions that did not look familiar at all, plus some service charges associated, including international exchange fees. I felt sick.

I called the credit union and they canceled the card right away, and we looked at the transactions, but here’s the deal—they both happened in England, and one was a check card purchase and one was an ATM withdrawal. Not only did they have my card number, they had my PIN. There had been some other withdrawal attempts that were declined because of hitting the daily limit, but I am sure they would have tried again.

Because it was an ATM withdrawal, rather than a fraudulent internet purchase, I had to file a police report, and they have to get that before I can get a new card issued or have the amounts credited. That’s about $630. Still feeling pretty sick.

Just for the record, I have never been to England, lost this card, or entered my PIN into any weird web sites. It was probably random number generation, then testing to get a working PIN. I worked in e-commerce for a long time. After people started successfully randomly generating working credit card numbers, it became customary to require the CCV numbers (the three digits on the back), and people started testing those. Our site added coding where if someone tried multiple card numbers subsequently, they were locked out. The crooks just keep inventing new ways to steal.

There may be some comfort in being pretty sure that it is not anything that I did wrong, but at the same time, that means it’s something you can’t really guard against.

I have a lot to be grateful for. For one thing, I did check, and I also have a credit card through the credit union, so I was able to forward funds from there to checking to cover the shortfall with the mortgage. It’s not an ideal solution, but nothing bounced, and I am grateful for that. That already makes it a better experience than Mom had with Wells Fargo (right before we moved her to First Tech).

I was able to fill out the police report over the phone, so I will get the money back. Really, the only problem is the hassle, plus some sense of violation.

I put for my Facebook status “I guess the advantage to high-tech fraud is that people can steal your money without breaking into your house or clubbing you over the head. Yay.”

I am grateful to not have to change the locks or to have been clubbed over the head. I might be open to clubbing someone over the head, if I could find the right person.