My bank card is living a far more exotic life than I am, by far!
I was at Aldi attempting to purchase about $4.38 worth of Mexican food fixings and my bank card was denied.
I ran it again... denied.
I left the stuff behind and came home to check our account online... I couldn't log in.
I tried to change my password... no go.
So I called the bank and was told they needed to transfer me to the fraud division. Oh shit.
"Well, sir, we've had some questionable charges on your card. Have you been to Italy lately?"
I wish!
"I've got $45.42 at a gas station in [such-and-such town], Italy, and $938.47 at a photo studio in [another such-and-such town], Italy. We caught it when they tried to charge $1,403.27 at a place called Media World, which I think is probably similar to our Best Buy. Looks like they also did a $2 test charge at an Avis Rent-a-Car."
Holy craptards!
"We have completely shut down the use of your bank card and will track any continued attempted uses of the card."
So now I'm bank card less and we have no access to our online account at all since it's tied to my bank debit/credit card number. Katie's card is fine and all our identity information is supposedly secure as well. I'm also awaiting an affidavit in the mail so all this money can be credited back to us legally. And I need to stop by the bank and make sure everything is cool and that none of our checks will be given stop payments as a result. We've sent some in for bills lately and it would suck for them to not work.
This is some scary shit. I've heard of this happening and even know a person or two who has had it happen, but it never really hits home just how serious and freakish and mentally crippling it is until it happens to you.
Obviously someone spoofed my card from an in-person purchase as I never have nor ever plan to use my bank card for online purchases. I don't even link our real bank account to my PayPal account. I opened up a whole separate checking account at a different bank with a balance of a whopping $4 in it for Paypal. I want no online ties to our real bank account whatsoever. But apparently it's still not safe.
Right about now, I think the only fair thing is to give us all the stuff this douchebag bought as well as let us charge an Italian vacation to him. Sounds right, doesn't it?
Oh, and then I'd like to beat him to within an inch of his life. If he is actually a she, still fair game.
Actually this is more than just a bit related to the post above.
Jack Dorsey, one of the founders of Twitter, is creating a plug-in device and app that makes it possible to use your iPhone to scan credit cards.
Until my card was spoofed, I would likely have been okay with this sort of technology. But now, after the fact, I see it as making it even easier for someone to scan our information from our card to their phone when we're not looking. Sure they can do it now, but he's creating a device that makes the theft of this information that much simpler and more inexpensive considering the "Cube" costs him $0.40 to produce.
Sometimes technology ain't such a grand thing, is it?
[image courtesy of engadget.com and tuaw.com]
