My holiday gift? Some fuckhead cleared out my checking account!

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

I am so pissed right now. I was checking my account online late last night and saw a bunch of pending transactions that I knew I didn't made. Worse still, the amount started growing.

I called the bank first thing in the morning and she started going over the transactions pending but not cleared. A Wal-Mart, then a pharmacy and then the Walmart and then the pharmacy again -- all in San Bernadino, Calif.

She immediately put a stop on the card and I naively asked if they tried to use the card again, if that person would be detained and arrested. She said she doubted it that they just get denied and walk away. OK, this person just stole hundreds of dollars from me and they can just walk! No wonder it's such a growing crime if people face no penalties.

Anyway, I won't be held liable for any of the charges, but now my money is tied up over a long holiday week. I won't get my ATM card back for nearly two weeks. Luckily, I can just pull money out of my savings until this gets straightend out, but I know I'm luckier than most.

And this is just after I took countless hours already this month straightening out a fraudulent phone bill that somehow got tied to me and was sent to collections and screwed up my credit reports.

Well, it's off to the bank to start the paperwork.

Happy freakin' new year! I am so glad this one is over because it has sucked in so many ways. (Well, except for the getting married part. That rocked!)

I'm sorry this happened to you. Something similar happened with my credit card last year. I hope it is resolved as quickly as possible. :pals:

I'm glad you're not losing any money, but one person I can't stand is a thief.

That is horrible. :(

Realistically, there's usually not much a store clerk can do to physically detain somebody. They are supposed to confiscate the card though.

The charges were credit purchases made at land-based stores like Wal-Mart and Sears in California and while I was filling out paperwork, another one came through from Missouri.

Some don't even look at the signature.

I doubt they get training either; most people hired are teenagers that are naive or wilfully unconcerned.

:hug:

OK, starting tomorrow, whole new year, bad shit stops happening to my friends. I'm SERIOUS. *shakes fist at sky*

I'm holding you to that magical incantation. I've had enough bad shit this year to last a decade. I'm due a good year.

Always check your bank statements and immediately report any suspicious activity. Depending on the type of transaction your banks are not going to help you recover your funds if you initially report the problem more than 60 days after the item appears on your statement.

I work for a major bank and my job is to help people get their money back for specific types of transactions (not the kind you described). I agree that there are a lot of people getting away with this supposedly victimless crime. It raises fees at banks, it raises prices with merchants -- essentially we all wind up paying the price for allowing this kind of crime to continue. Yes, it sucks.

I sincerely hope your bank does right by you and refunds all your money. Just remember, you also have a right to recover any fees that resulted from these fraudulant transactions.

and track it regularly. It just happened yesterday afternoon and I reported it this morning, but they worked awfully quickly in clearing it out.

The teller told me a women had nearly $10,000 swiped from her account after Thanksgiving.

I'm very careful and don't use that card online and I shred everything. Who knows what happened.

The bank (locally owned) was excellent and I'm confident they'll help me straighten everything out. I've been a customer there for about 25 years and they have all my accounts, including my mortgage.

It really feels like a violation, though, like someone robbed your house.

and thanks for the info! :toast:

Thanks for my first official DU welcome.

it messed me up cos it would let me withdraw any money at
all until I pleaded with the band associate. It's ok now, but it
messed up some checks and I got to pay fees! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRr!

:(

always something!" after getting home. A Mexican tour bus had it's rear cargo door swing open and smash my driver's side rear view mirror and scrape the side. I think they'll pay for it, but I have to take time to deal with all of this. And I need this vehicle for my business. At least my dog who likes to poke her head out the rear windows as we drive along didn't get hurt. That would have really been terrible.

Hope you get it straightened out.

locally owned, regional bank. They seem like they'll help me, just a big hassle, especially coming so close to that fraudulent phone account, which still isn't all cleared up.

Verizon sent me an official letter, which I sent to the collection agency (return receipt), and I'm working to clear issues up with the credit bureaus.

I think I might put my money under the mattress and go cash only.

That happened to Michael once. Someone got ahold of his card number and charged about $1,000 worth of services and merchandise in Mexico. Took about two and half weeks to clear it up, with no access to the money that was in the account before the fraud.

Thankfully, I already had paid the mortgage and we don't have any other bills due for about 10-12 days. I just dipped into savings for something to tide us over. We'll be OK.

It was caught early and we have other options. I know other people are in much worse shape when this happens. Still fucking sucks! :-(

I've had a particularly bad week myself, and so have a couple other people we know. Let's hope this is 2005's way of getting all of the shit out it's system so that 2006 will be free and clear of it all. :-)

I know you've had a particularly trying year as well. :hug:

I think next year will be OUR year. :D

We deserve it! :toast:

Although I will admit that getting married and having a fabulous honeymoon certainly made up for a lot of it this year. :D

But, other than that, it sucked. A toast to a better 2006 :toast:

You nailed it. This is the sort of crime the police couldn't be bothered with. When my neighbor's home was robbed in broad daylight this past June, it took the police almost two hours to respond to the 911 call, and then the officer inquired if the victim even wanted any dusting for prints since "It's messy and chances are the perpetrator won't be caught anyway." No wonder people buy guns. Sheesh.

Anyhow, sorry about the crap you have to go through in order to put your finances back in order. You've been victimized both by the thief who stole your card and the system which lets that person get away with it.

It's possible that the bank will require a case number in order to refund any money.

They printed out some records for me today to take to the police and I'll go file a report on Tuesday. It's the soonest anyone can do anything because of the holiday.

a couple of days.

Sorry you're going through this. :(

:hug: