Monday, August 06, 2007

$502

http://www.geckoandfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/atm_machinese_money_windows_xp_withdraw_virus_worm.jpg

On Friday, I got an email from Bank of America notifying me of suspicious activity in my account.
"Suspicious activity" has this air of non-threatening shenanigans, like Bank of America wrote an email to simply inform me that someone has been peeking through the presents the night before Christmas.

When I called a customer representative, she informed me that $502 was withdrawn from my account.
"Did you authorize this withdrawal?"
No, I did not.
"So you are not taking out money for your bank account right now?"
No, I am not. I am in my living room which, last I checked, does not have an ATM in it.
"Ah ha."

I spent the next 45-minutes on the phone and discovered that somehow someone withdrew some cash from a Citibank located in Howard Beach, New York.
How?
Bank of America has no idea.
"Have you ever lent your debit card to someone?"
No way.
"Have you ever given the number out to someone?"
Nope.
"Do you have a spare card?"
The only debit card in existence is in my wallet.
"Hmmm."
Do you know how they did this?
"Not really."
Is there any way I can prevent this happening again?
"Probably not. This is identify theft and this person got your number and guessed your pin number correctly and tried to access your account three times. Thankfully, we froze your account after the first attempt..."
The $502 withdrawal...?
"Yeah....anyway, we froze the account but anything more than that, I can't tell you."
They guessed my pin number?
"Yeah."
Wow. That's impressive. It's not an easy pin number.
"Well, these guys are good."
Yeah. They kinda deserve the money.
[Pause]
Just kidding. Now, how do I get my money back?

"Hold Your Secrets To Your Heart" - Miracle Fortress

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home