I've Been Robbed, a Rant →[More:]So Saturday I got a call from target.com who wanted to ask me a few questions about my recent purchase. Groovy, except I have never bought anything from target.com, particularly not a $600 laptop to be delivered to Antelope, CA. What the hell is this? I thought. Maybe someone stole my target card number? Good luck with that, it has like a $250 limit. But nooooooo, it was way worse: this purchase was made with my Visa card. Yes, they stole my debit card number, the one that links directly to my bank account. So I immediately called the lost/stolen Visa card hotline and when I got home from work around 9:45 that night I went online to see what had happened.
It looks like they got my number on October 3 and between October 3 and October 8 they just went to town. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars on everything from Skype to Facebook to a liquor store in Tennessee to a Comcast bill in California. Naturally this overdrew my checking account but the bank has been merrily transferring money out of my savings account to cover all of this. Good job Asheville Savings! Way to recognize fraud, there! Nothing like a pattern change from months of ONLY LOCAL Asheville grocery store to gas station to suddenly I'm making random purchases all over the US in one day? Yet they did NOTHING.
So I freaked the fuck out - and Elizarde talked me down from the ledge, the darling, thank you and happy belated birthday!!! - but thought, well, at least I've stopped the card and it's over, right?
WRONG! This morning I tried again to reach my bank but noooo, they're closed for Columbus day and there is No. Reaching. Them. Then I went online and WHOOOO, there were EIGHT MORE ENORMOUS TRANSACTIONS on my Visa card since yesterday including $800 to Verizon, again in CA. I called the stolen card hotline AGAIN and they said, yes, we have stopped that card. THEN WHY IS IT STILL WORKING? I said and they said, well, we don't know, call your bank first thing tomorrow morning. Meanwhile every penny I have is being drained away and even though I'm pretty sure I'll get most if not all of it back (minus the $50 "liability" which is to say, let's be honest, a $50 FINE for being a crime victim THAT BANKS CHARGE,) I am SO FUCKED right now.
AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!