Friday, May 25, 2007
Identity Theft
Well I knew it would happen eventually. I tried to take precautions and shred every piece of mail that has to do with a credit card but it didn't work. Last night we looked in our Wells Fargo Bank account to see what kind of money we had in there and we saw a charge for $1400. Scott called customer service but they couldn't help because the charge just said "pending." The lady told him to wait until today so we could see where the charge came from or if it was just a bank mistake. We looked this morning at our account and found that the charge came from Paypal. Scott looked into it further and also found this person was taking money out of our savings account. I believe it is close to $2000 that he/she has racked up over the last few days. We called our bank again and hope to get all the charges disputed, but it would make me VERY angry if I found out that I had to pay for someone else to buy something. I can't stand these people who think they can use someone else's hard earned money to buy things. Identity theft is the number 1 crime in the U.S. and it is so ridiculous. Not only does it make me angry that people are stealing our identity but it also makes me angry that credit card companies/websites/businesses make it so easy to do. I don't know how this person accessed our Paypal account on Ebay but obviously it wasn't that hard. Sometimes I just want to carry cash with me everywhere but then I would probably get mugged and lose my money that way as well (and we couldn't buy things over the internet at all). On a good note, though, this weekend sometime I will post a video of Hannah.
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7 comments:
Hey guys, hopefully Wells Fargo will not charge you for any of these items. I'm glad you looked this up while the items were still pending and not two months from now. It may make it simpler to clean it up. We also had credit card debt with our Amex but they were on the ball and called us and asked us if we charged a cruise on Norwegian Cruise ships for 1300 bucks. We said no, of course, and they took care of it immediately and actually caught the guy. (He had been using other's accounts also.) I hope it turns out to be nothing more than an inconvenience.
Me again, I didn't mean credit card debt, I meant to type "credit card fraud" but I'm sure you know what I meant.
Hi Sprague Family,
Hopefully this will all get settled soon. I had this happen to me once and someone had shopped off my atm card and spent over $2000 at Macy's, $100 @ a floral shop and something else. They had my credit card# and yet, I had the original card in my wallet. The bank was so determined that it was me spending my $$$ and then did an investigation. It turned out that the shopping was done during a weekday while I was at work in a city that was on the other side of town. Being that the person was signing my name wrong kind of helped the bank process my case a little quicker. It turned out good at the end but having to find all that out and dealing w/it is a pain and I was too very angry. I still don't know how they got my card# because I shred everything and I had the original bank card. Take care and I look forward to seeing Hannah's video.
- Teresa & Madison
Oh, I am so sorry! You're in for a fight, but don't give up. Dad and I had our identity stolen at the same time that we refinanced the house, and someone was opening credit card accounts all over the place. We wouldn't have know except for the fact that we were contacted by one of them because of a difference in addresses. Keep after the bank - it is not as important to them as it is to you, so call them everyday if you have to. If we can help in anyway, just let us know........looking so forward to Hannah's video......I just can't get enough of her!!!! Love you all - Mom
It sounds like no one is immune to identity fraud and theft. We, too, have been victims several times- once with a debit card, a few stolen wallets, an ipod, and a car stereo system in our almost 11 years of marriage. It's really sad how dishonest many people are. I somtimes wonder how safe it is to give our cards to waiters/waitresses and cashiers. It would be so easy to write down the numbers when we're not looking. Can we offer to swipe our own cards at restaurants? Good luck! I bet your money will be returned by the bank.
It also happened to us about 7 years ago. Somebody from Sacramento (we lived in Utah) had Thayne's debit card number and bought $300 worth of collective coins. I wonder if the banks try to investigate or if they just eat the costs-- which means the consumer usually ends up eating the costs, too. Darn dishonest people.
Maran and Scott,
I'm so sorry to hear about your money being stolen. That's such a frustrating thing. Ya know, I can't even count how many times I've heard of people, personally and professionally through my job, having had money stolen from them that bank. My parents included. I used to use that bank, and I think certainly, they are a good company to use, especially if you do financing through them, more than just a bank account. But it seems to me that there may be some kind of an issue with their fraud security. I don't know. I'm sure it happens with a ton of banks all the time. It's one of those inevitible evils of technology. It's too bad, since technology makes life so much easier in most cases, but then in the situations like this, seems to cause more frustration. I hope you guys are able to recover your money quickly, and I think that it was very smart of you to report it so quickly. A lot of people don't even realize it until they get a bank statement and they are over drawn.
Anyway, other than that, hope all is well. Hannah is adorable in that video!
Love ya,
Stacy
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