Even the most careful of us can be scammed.
My husband is a computer guy, and a “thumpin’ good ‘un” at that (as Hagrid would say). He often uses his website and computer hacking skillz to test his clients’ systems for vulnerabilities (with their consent and in their service, of course). Ever since we began dating, I learned the rules of operating safely on the internet. Make sure your passwords are eighteen characters, include symbols and numbers, and spell words in pig-Latin. Always use a pseudonym and guard your anonymity carefully. Occasionally search your own name in quotation marks to check for information posted about yourself. Be extra careful about which sites you trust with your credit card information. Know how to spot spoof emails and how to check security certificates. Sound paranoid?
Maybe not enough. Tonight I found four charges to my bank account, with my card, from France. Fortunately, I immediately called and canceled the card and have set the wheels in motion to get my money back, within 24 hours of the initial charges. The thief should not be able to access the account again, and I am getting a new card.
But hey, this happened to ME. And if I hadn’t gotten a heads-up email from Ebay, saying, “Hey there, did you authorize this?” I wouldn’t have checked my bank account online for another WEEK, by which time my husband’s income for the month would be history. So, I think I’m going to make a daily habit of checking our bank account online, however briefly, to be sure all is well.
As a funny aside, I was terribly concerned that canceling my card would deny payment to our favorite pizza parlor, from which we purchased our dinner this evening. They make great pizzas and I usually order and pay online with my card. I dug up our order number and called, explained the whole situation and that I needed to know if they’d gotten the authorization number that would guarantee them payment, otherwise I needed to give them another card. After repeating the story three times to three different people, Employee Jeff found my order and said, puzzled, “M’am? It says here that the order was paid in cash.”
Oh yeah. Poppy picked up dinner tonight. I forgot. 
Posted on July 8th, 2007 by Dove
Filed under: Learning
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