"It will never happen to me"

swerve

This is a delightful story of how Thursday, September 13th has gone so far.
Around 12:15 a.m. I got to bed and had some fun... too bad the rest of my day would be a roller coaster of events.

After that "fun" I speak of my stomach began to hurt and I went ahead and excused myself from bed to browse around online. I've been shopping for a small laptop for school so I can get my current laptop fixed and not be without a computer. Upon talking with a friend I begin to realize I can get so much more out of a desktop at the same price, or even less money. So around 2 A.M. we begin parting together a desktop. 4:15 A.M. rolls around quickly and everything is in the cart. I e-mail the cart to myself and head back to bed.

The alarm wakes me up at 8 A.M. and I make my way to the bathroom to take a piss. I wash my hand and then quickly go prepare some Raisin Bran to start my day. After eating my bowl of cereal I hop into the shower. The water feels amazing but then I realize I have like forty minutes to get to class. I brush my teeth and throw on some pants and a polo. I walk down the street with my backpack full of 4 books and a notebook. As well as a box that is full of nearly 1,100 note cards with various German words on them. My first class of the day is German. It goes smoothly but I ask to meet with the instructor later in the day around 12:15 P.M. to retake a few quizes that I bombed. He explained that would most likely be a good idea.

At this point, despite only sleeping 3.45 hours my day was going great. However things would change very quickly. I get to my News Writing class and begin to surf the web instead of listening to the instructor talk. I login to my bank account and see an odd charge. The whole hour I am research this charge online... only to find out that it came from Mexico. I get out of class and immediately call my mother, as all my mail still goes to my home address. She states the bank has been calling and sent me something stating my account has been flagged and "closed" due to fraudulent activity. My heart sinks and I begin to think "what if they have my other information". I call the bank after hanging up and talk to a lady that I have known for about 15 years. She tells me to come in tomorrow and the issue will be resolved.

So this has scared the hell out of me... but what else can I do to protect myself?

The rest of the day has gone very smooth though. It's about 80 degrees, no humidity and a cool breeze. My friends are arriving this afternoon and we are going to party. I run this computer that I have planned by my mother and she states she will take care of it. I tell her I want a big LCD panel and she states that's fine too! Then to top things off my last class this week has been canceled!

And that brings me to right now... I'm sitting on the couch bored out of my mind and a little tired. I'm tempted to turn on the television but it could be more satisfying to just throw on some tunes and chill out for awhile.

Sorry this was long... but the bank thing has thrown me off today and I had to clear my head.

Adam

Serendipity

Don't worry.

Had this happen to me before, but the bank's fraud protection program was able to find the source of the charges and clear everything up...

mulveling

That's nothin' too bad, in the grand scheme of things. I kept reading in anticipation of the part where you piss blood and your arms fall off

Take care of it, but don't be too upset. You're young - enjoy life :cool:

swerve

yeah... more good happened than bad today.

it's just funny that all that went on.

Sherardp

Same thing happened to me just recently, Im out in Japan however someone tried to order some electronics and have them shipped to Texas. I was never in Texas, so my bank called me in, cancelled the Visa, reissued another.

As for everything else, you better give moms a hug and a nice dinner for taking care of you with the new PC, enjoy. Everything will work out bro, go easy.

Sherardp

mulveling wrote: »

That's nothin' too bad, in the grand scheme of things. I kept reading in anticipation of the part where you piss blood and your arms fall off

Take care of it, but don't be too upset. You're young - enjoy life :cool:

Yeah I thought you were going to say you got "burnt". AHAHA, strap up kid.

bigaudiofanatic

Okay what you want to get is spyware pertection and antivirus believe me i deal with hackers and identity theives all the time "not myself" but my customers do.

ohskigod

if your worried about identity theft from this episode, you can get a fraud alert on all three of your bureaus. basically anyone wanting to give credit under your profile has to contact you. I believe its free or a minimal charge.

I havent done it, but i know my way around credit so as much torture as the resolution process would be in case I have an id theft problem, its not nearly the train wreck it is for someone that isnt in the know.

Fraud alert is pretty much the best protection i can think of if it is worrying you that much.

danger boy

swerve wrote: »

Around 12:15 a.m. I got to bed and had some fun...
After that "fun" I speak of my stomach began to hurt... Adam

what were you doing? :eek:

timswim78

Something like this happened to a relative. Someone used her account to bill $4,000 in costume jewelry. She was able to recover the money. It took about two weeks.

Hope everything works out for you, too.

MSALLA

My sister-in-law just got nailed for $12,000. They caught a group out of Wilmington,DE who got her and many others. She recoverd all her money and hr credit was not hit. They opened credit cards in her name and some kind of counterfit checks in her name.