Fighting Back Tears of Frustration Over Fraud
Today, I took my husband to a doctor’s appointment for an injury from work. That was lots of fun with my 2 boys – NOT! My 3 year old was excellent and very well-behaved. My almost-18-month old was NOT! He would not sit still and kept running towards the elevators, not to mention the 2 small bags of snacks he dumped out on the floor. It was the Radiology floor and they had a kids’ table with a multi-function playtoy over on the far side of the building (right next to the elevators) – away from everyone – lol. Every time the elevator opened, he would make a mad dash towards it. My fear was I would look down for a second and my 18 month old would be heading down 9 floors to the lobby, unaccompanied by me!
After about 45 minutes of waiting for my husband to get out, I took the kids and headed down to the car in the parking garage, where we listened to 15 minutes of “Dora’s Christmas CD” – review and giveaway to come soon!
When I finally arrived home for a brief potty break and to head out the door to pick up my 5 year old, I listened to the answer machine. A company claiming to be working with my bank needed me to call back regarding some financial transactions that were in question. I called them back but didn’t recognize the name of the institution. I didn’t give them any information but said I would call back later. I hung up and called my bank from the cell phone in the car while waiting for my son. Apparently, someone in Great Britain was racking up charges on a cruise in my name…on my debit card!!!
The bank representative transferred me to the fraud department (who had called earlier and left a message) and verified that I was in fact NOT in Great Britain and was not on a cruise. Heck, I’ve never been on a cruise before! After the phone call, I headed to the nearest branch and had them file a fraudulent charge form to dispute the transactions. The charges were over $600 – a significant amount for a family of 5 living on one income. It’s supposed to take 3-5 business days to credit them back to our accounts so I finally decided to hire a financial fraud lawyer in Thailand.
I’ll feel much better when it’s fixed and we have our money back. I just don’t understand how people can do something like that and live with themselves!!! It’s so frustrating and I’m fighting back tears just thinking about it!!!! But I guess worse things could happen, right?
I’m sorry that this happened to you. It sucks big time!
I work closely with issues like this & it’s good that you contacted your bank ASAP. You’re actually really lucky that they’re going to refunding your $ in that amount of time because sometimes it could take as long as 3-4 weeks. I’m sure you’ve already done it but you should close out that account & open up a new one once they refund your $. You also want to keep an eye on your credit for the next couple of months, just as a precaution. You can get a free credit report every 3 months from http://www.annualcreditreport.com (you dont have to enter any credit card info or anything).
Good luck!
That is so crappy!! We had someone use my husband’s debit card somehow and it was for $100 to Hasbro.Com. I am glad I check my account often and am able to track it. I am sorry for your ordeal. $600 drained from us would be tragic. The 3-5 days would seem like forever. Good Luck with keeping your accounts safe, and your credit on the right track.
There are some very shabby people out there.I often feel like while I am putting out
my general information on line they are lurking,It’s so scary.Thank goodness you can
straighten this out
You have every right to be frustrated and upset. This is really something you never want to deal with. We bank at Bank of America and they call us about out of the country charges. We’re supposed to tell them when we go out of town. They have blocked many of our charges and we we not too happy, but I understand why they do that now.
You know I’m so sick of people stealing other peoples credit. It’s a constant story here. I’m so sorry this happened to you and I hope today is better.
I agree-I don’t get how people can do this knowing full well that they are ruining someone’s life! It’s more then morally wrong, it’s just…HORRIBLE! It’s a good thing you were quick thinking and got things sorted out right away. Hopefully that’s all that will be needed!
I’m sorry, that’s a terrible thing to have happen. At least you caught it early. The sad thing is, I wonder who’s credit card was used to pay for the cruise that this person was on.
With all the recent stories about credit card companies really jacking up interest rates and banks charging fees for just about everything I’m even more determined to do away with credit cards and debit cards and try to pay in cash for things. It’ll be a difficult adjustment, but I’m determined to do it.
hugs sweetie I’m so sorry that is happening to you. Thankfully glad to hear that your bank is taking care of the whole mess and that you’ll get your money back.
Wonder how they get a hold of name and numbers lke that and why didn’t some get iD for a charge like that. CHeck your accts I have a alert set up that if there is a charge over $200 I’m to get a email. You can catch it a lot sooner and get it reversed.
I’m so sorry…that is so so scary…..
That is too bad. I am sorry to hear that this is happening and I hope that it clears up very soon!
go ahead and cry! What lousy timing.
I’m so sorry to hear that happened to you! I sure hope they can get it straightened out soon.
What a bad day for you!!
I’m so sorry that this happened to you, but I’m glad that you caught it so quickly. Good luck getting the money back soon… I agree that you should get a new account soon.
We too have been the victim of fraud, but from someone that we called a “friend” to the tune of over $200,000, and are still trying to get some of the money back!!
Please know that my thoughts are with you and your family.
I’m always amazed at how quick banks are to call and verify things like that. Good for them! I know when my parents were traveling to Jamaica, we got a phone call at their house because they had charged something there to their credit card. We heard from the CC company before we’d even heard from my parents that they were safely there, but we knew that was them using it. Then the CC company called at least once more that week just to check. Amazing. Glad you got everything refunded.