speaking of fraud......

I am writing to you in a very frazzled state right now. Once AGAIN my husband's debit card has been spoofed somewhere along the way. This happened to us a couple years ago the same way, spoofed card, used on a weekend to delay the bank's reaction. So now at this point I am on the phone with the various people needing to be called when this kind of thing happens. There are some other issues I personally carry with this (resentment being one) and I know I need some prayers for my temper to remain guarded. This will no doubt take some time to sort out and rectify.

In the meantime this has taken a large chunk of money out of the account. I am very glad that I have not merged my account with my husband's, so we avoided a complete depletion of funds. Last time this happened the bank refunded the money and we're hoping they do so again. However, this time there are now NSF charges associated with these fraudulent debits as well as the ones we did initiate. In addition, we're now potentially going to see additonal fees for refused payments. There's no guarantee that the other companies are going to remove those charges from our accounts, even if we have documentation like a police report or bank affidavit. It's all just very frustrating and draining. I am trying to keep in mind that somewhere there is something to be learned. Of course it's unclear what is to be learned, who is supposed to learn it, and what is to come of all this. If nothing else, maybe I can convey to you the message of keeping tabs on your accounts frequently. I check the accounts at least every couple days if not more often. If I hadn't looked today, there possibly could have been hundreds of dollars more taken. It has been shown that those who check their accounts online do so more frequently than those that do not. In checking online frequently, those individuals catch fraudulent charges/debits sooner than those that wait for a paper statement. Like last time, I logged on to check the balances and activity and I found these problems. My husband would have called the phone teller after his card was declined to check his balance and then called me asking what I did with the money. So please be careful with your cards. It's very easy for people with a few gift cards or expired cards and the information from your card and some computer skills to spoof the card and steal from you, the bank and the businesses.

I'd hate to think what Sprint would have done with my information yesterday if I'd given it to them.........