Friday 24 June 2011

Stolen

Hubby and I have had a very rude awakening. How did our everyday bank account become overdrawn, when we have not been using it? We usually check our account balance but not always our transaction history. Not as often as we should or will do now.
As I have been not well with my back and still need a hand with lifting, hubby has been shopping with me. So when I went to get money out at the local ATM for the kids bus fares and found my account overdrawn I was very puzzled. I spent the day questioning myself and remembering what we had bought. Not even thinking that it may not be my fault.
So when Hubby got home I told him. He was as stunned as me. We sat there trying to work out where it could have gone, still not thinking this was not our fault.
Don't you just love internet banking - we logged on and there it was. A lot of transactions starting at $30 appearing on our transaction history. Some of them were as low as a $1.90. The details listed were Itunes, Google and Amazon. This card is a visa debit and has never been used on the internet so alarm bells rang.
I rang fraud services at my bank and they took one look and said yep no problems ( ha I thought) they are fraudulent transactions they have been manually entered and are not of your usual history. There is also several transactions outstanding and declined because of the account going overdrawn........
How? This card and account have never been used over the phone or on the internet.
Answer: The people who do this have a random number generator and if they are lucky apparently more often than not they can take your money.
Lets just say that after we have submitted disputed transaction paperwork we have 45 days to wait until we get our money. They have said it will definately be refunded. They got away with a few hundred however there was a few thousand in declined transactions.
Moral of the tale - please check your account transaction history. Even the smallest amount because that's how they start.
On another note - a craft post will be coming soon. My back is improving and it is nice to have left the house albeit an effort.

1 comment:

  1. How scary ... I hope it will be fixed for you soon. Looking forward to the craft post!

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