Sunday, November 18, 2007

VICTIM!!!!

We have a forwarding order in place for our mail, so the post has been a tiny bit late coming to our new address. When it arrives it's like a puzzle to get into, rubberbanded twice with forwarding stickers all over them.

I ripped right into today's bundle because the renewal notice had come for my car insurance. I'm determined to find a better deal and needed to know exactly how many claim free years I've got. Looking at that this evening, Lou walks in with the rest of my mail... four letters from two different mobile phone providers. I probably would have ignored them, thinking they were just advertisements because neither are my service provider. But she points out, one says 'Invoice' on it.

We tear them all open and I am absolutely stunned. I am a victim of bank debit-card fraud. Two letters are duplicates, thanking me for requesting their Terms & Conditions. One is an invoice for the delivery charge of a very FANCY cellphone.

The last letter is confirmation of a direct debit set-up! It's got all my bank info there! You KNOW I phone them first. They tell me I have a standing order monthly debit for what has to be the biggest package they offer. It's 6 TIMES what I use on my pay-as-you-go each month!! The lady was nice but hard to understand as her english was heavily accented. They have to investigate further and will be calling me back on Monday. I was as nice as I could be to her, but am seriously prepared to ramp it up if I don't get what I want on Monday.

I tried calling the company that sent the other letters, the one with the delivery charge. There was no answer and they'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Next up, we hit the computer to cancel that monthly debit and check the account. Lo and behold, while the invoice looks like there was NO charge for this cellphone, the account shows why. £100 has been taken already. I am furious and feel so ... incompetent, frail, ineffectual. It's a horrible, horrible feeling.

Immediate phone call to the bank next. Thank God they're open 24/7! We've blocked my card. I have to go in and change my address in person (because I haven't done it yet) before they can reissue me a new card.

I don't know if I'll be able to get the £100 refunded. But I have hope. Know what blows me away? My name is spelled wrong on everything. And the billing/delivery address is our old place. I think, in the end, that'll be the part that will convince everyone I'm a victim here. Why would I have something delivered to a place I no longer live?

The rest of the evening I've spent wracking my brain, trying to think of what I might have done wrong to leave myself open to this. I diagrammed my movements the few weeks preceeding the fraud. Did I leave a receipt somewhere? Do they even have enough info on them for a badguy to access my account?

Does this have something to do with the laptop going stupid in early September? I thought trojans just caused havoc, not that they stole info... Lou's reassured me that it could easily NOT have been something I did. We see news blurbs with reporters showing bank rubbish containing personal info sitting right out on the streets for any and all to take.

I don't know I don't know I don't know.
Okay, I DO know one thing.. there's going to be some screaming holy hell if I don't get my money back and this problem doesn't clear up quick!



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

(((((Nony))))) - so sorry that you are dealing with this.

nelle said...

Ouch, that sucks. Any phone solicitations you can remember? My understanding is they can play with altering recordings...

hope they square it for you.

*hugs*

gone said...

well? What happened next????

nelle said...

Just wondering if things were resolved...