Theft Happens!

Well, somebody up and did it to me!! I was at a Hallmark store one day last week and I tried to pay for my items with my debit card... "I'm sorry. It didn't work. May I try your card again?" Sure, you can. So the cashier tries my card again... "Oh, there's a penny stuck in the slider track thingy."  Flick! Out the penny goes! "Ok, let's try it again."  Nope. "Service not accepted" it says. Now the manager comes over to see what the problem is... she tries entering the numbers by hand... guess what? It doesn't work that way either. She is puzzled. I am puzzled b/c I just used my debit card this morning and I know I have enough money to cover the $11 bill. I ended up paying another way and as soon as I walked out of the store's doors, I went straight to my car to call Wells Fargo.

I found out "someone" had been trying to make transactions using my debit card. What you say??? The woman asked me a bunch of questions... did I make a purchase here? "NO."  Did I make a purchase there? "NO." ...and so on. Finally, she said, "Let me transfer you to the claims department to stop your debit card and issue you a new one." I say, "That's fine"...until four people and 30 minutes later I'm still trying to resolve the issue! UGH!

So how does this happen? How does Joe Random get my card number (or anyone's card number for that matter) and start trying to make purchases? Moreover, how in the world does Wells Fargo know it's not me??  They have ways, folks. Somehow they know when something is amiss! Thank God!! I mean, I'm super glad they stopped this thief in his/her tracks, but at the same time, it's kinda creepy. I'm not gonna lie. I haven't been super happy with Wells Fargo since they bought out Wachovia, but in this instance I give them Props for being Johnny on the Spot with this debit card business.

I had to go into the bank and speak with a "personal banker" to get a temporary debit card until my "real new other one" comes to me via the mail. I had to have a debit card because I NEVER have cash. I just don't. They told me it would take up to 10 days to get a new one and "ain't nobody got time for that!"  The personal banker, William, was very nice and he got me my new temporary card, but it took 45 minutes. 45 minutes I didn't have to spend at a bank with William. I tell ya, this whole ordeal is extremely time consuming, not to mention a huge pain. Thankfully the transactions the Thief made (tried to make) were not really large amounts of money. The most Thief tried to get by with before being caught was $290. I have a friend who just recently had his card "thefted" and the Thief ran up $10K in transactions before anyone figured it out!!! Now that's bad! Real bad. I would hate to be doing the paperwork on that case!!

People tell me all the time, "That's why I don't purchase things over the Internet. You never know what can happen." Well, we never know what can happen anywhere... we give waiters/waitresses our credit cards or debit cards to pay for meals. We give our cards to pay for any number of things. It's all about convenience in this day and age. We (majority of human population) are not going to stop buying stuff via the Internet. It's just too easy and it's quick. I know I will continue to shop online. Yes, my card was hacked, but Theft Happens. We carry on.

D~

Comments

  1. You should set up a Paypal account for the internet and check out Bitcoin. gf

    ReplyDelete

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