Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Meanieheads

Last night I finally sat down to balance my checkbook and pay bills. I logged in to my online banking and immediately was confused by some charges to random places that I knew I hadn't made. Blockbuster in Texas, Napster in NY, and other random companies. They were mostly in Texas and Arizona. Anyway, I looked for a 800 # for my bank, but it was all automated, no real person. So through some friends, I ended up talking to someone from the bank at about 8:30 last night. From the time I had logged in, about an hour earlier, to when she logged into the bank system it went from about 8 or 9 transactions to about 35!!! They could tell from their side that it was my debit card information being used and not my account numbers. So they hotcarded my debit card so it couldn't be used and any of the charges that were still just preauthorizations would be denied.

Then this morning I had to go in and fill out dispute forms for EACH transaction that had gone through. I have to get a new debit card obviously. I also had to have a credit report run to make sure the person(s) had not also got my social security number and started opening credit card accounts. (They had not) THEN, I had to call the 3 major credit report bureaus and have them put a fraud alert on my social security number so that if anyone tries to open any accounts with my info, they will have to call me to verify it is me opening them.

The bank just called me back about 5 minutes ago. She said they had been calling all the companies charges had been made to trying to find out who charged them. She said most of them were in my name and address and a couple of them had actually already shipped what was ordered. So those, I have to refuse when they arrive. She also said there were a few charges with a chick's name and addy from Nebraska. They still had more to call also. All I know is I hope the bank tries to prosecute her, because they are the ones having to eat that loss and put the money back in my account. And if I ever meet this chick (they did tell me her name)....I'm gonna kick her flippin' a**!!! This is a nightmare!