Online Theft Hits Close to Home for Randy

This is the third time in less than 2 years this has happened to me, someone trying to use my credit card to purchase something.

Thank goodness the bank has caught the strange activity on my credit card and stopped the thieves from getting any money. I always thought hacking someone’s credit card info only happened to people that actually had money, but no, it can happen to anyone.

The first time this happened was two weeks before Christmas two years ago when someone in Fort Lauderdale, Florida was trying to purchase something at Macy’s. The scam was caught because my bank saw no other activity on my credit card sending me to Ft. Lauderdale.

The next time it happened was just before Christmas last year when someone in Ireland was trying to buy something with my card. Again, the bank realized I had not traveled to Ireland and called me to ask about the unusual activity on my card.

Last night I got a call from my bank asking if I was making a purchase in Sweden. At first all I heard her say was ‘Eden’ and I’m thinking: ‘is there an Eden, Maine that I don’t know about and when was I there?’ Well it turned out to be Sweden the country and someone trying to buy train tickets. It wasn’t a lot of money; one purchase was for $89 and the other for $54. But when you add it all together it was $143 and who can afford to give that away?

So I get that call around 8:30 last night asking if I was buying anything on line from Sweden, like a train pass. Well, I have never been to Sweden and don’t see it in my budget anytime too soon so I was sure my answer was ‘no’.

It is great that my bank monitors this type of thing but the only problem is they had to cancel my credit card and I will have wait 5 to 10 days for another one. I’d rather have that happen than someone stealing my bank account.

Moral of the story: It doesn’t matter how money you have or how little you have, everyone is susceptible to online theft.