It Will Happen To Most of Us Sooner Or Later

Something funny happened to me today. Not funny haha, but funny not right. I went to the fabric store because there were some things I needed and there was a rockin’ Labor Day sale. When I was checking out, my debit card was declined. Not just the wrong pin please try again, but declined and the sales associate was supposed to take my card away and cut it up. Now this is something that has never happened to me before. Kev and I are careful with our finances and we don’t fill up credit cards and end up getting them declined. So this was new. The lady working the register ran it twice and then she asked for my ID so she could verify that the card wasn’t stolen. After everything checked out and she was sure that I am so I say I am, she tried again with the same result. Because she had already checked out my ID, she did let me keep the card but I had an unhappy feeling that something wasn’t right.

When I got home I immediately logged into my bank account and started combing through the recent charges to see if anything was amiss. It didn’t take me long to spot two charges that did not look right. The first was for $1.87 at Vons. Those small charges are generally a warning sign, one that Kev looks for. But I texted him on Thursday and told him I had made a charge that was just under $2 so he assumed that was what he was seeing. What he didn’t know was that the charge I made was $1.98, it was on a different card, and there are no Vons stores in our area. The other charge was $24.27 to Walgreens. We shop at Walgreens. There is one just down the street from us. So again, it all looked good to Kev. Because I was already on high alert, I looked closer and noticed that the store location was not ours, but one in Santa Clarita, CA. Definitely not good. So I googled the store number associated with the charge at Vons, and sure enough, it is a California location. The next step was calling to get the card locked to make sure no more charges would be make although due to it recently being declined, I can only assume the bank already suspected fraud. Then I started changing passwords just in case.

Now this was not a happy event for a holiday, but there are several good things associated with an otherwise stinky twist of fate. First of all, we had a great opportunity to sit down with our kids and discuss not only finances, but finances in a digital age. They are going to need to be aware of what is going on as they get older so they can be vigilant in keeping their own financial accounts safe. Second, the total for the fraudulent charges was less than $30. It could have been a much worse and in fact, while I was driving home I was having terrible thoughts of a completely drained bank account. Third, it reminded me that I need to be aware of what is going on in our finances. Kev is the one who pays the bills and although I try to stay abreast of what bills we have and how much they are, having two pairs of eyes checking things out is definitely a bonus.

I called the store and left a message thanking the lady working the register. Yes, she was just doing her job but because she did her job right instead of just brushing it off as a random glitch, I was alerted to a problem. She looked unsure and ill at ease while we were in the midst of the whole thing so I wanted to make sure she knows I am grateful. Because I am.

Two or three years ago I got a phone call from the fraud department of one of my credit cards letting me know that someone in India had attempted to use my card number. Luckily for us, the charge was declined and we didn’t have any trouble beyond needing to cancel the card, get a new one issued under a different account number and change passwords of any online accounts associated with the card. I’m not stupid where digital finances are involved and because IT security is what Kev does all day and he shares his knowledge, I feel like I’m actually pretty savvy about such things. I’m careful with my info and Kev is too. But no matter how careful we are, there are people out there who are determined to rip off other people to support their get-something-for-nothing mentality. So we try to be aware and cautious and we are trying to teach our children to be cautious as well because it’s only going to get worse the more digital our lives become.