Do You Ever Think About Identity Theft?
Have you ever looked into identity theft protection? Let me share a very personal story with you.
A few months after my youngest son was born, I was a victim of identity theft. It was a very mild situation and the bank caught it immediately, but it was still a significant inconvenience for me.
I had stopped to get gas while out running errands. Being that I always have a car full of kids, I take advantage of pay at the pump. I swiped my card and it denied my transaction. I shrugged it off as an issue with that particular pump. So I moved my car up to the next pump. Same error. Hum, must be the gas station. I knew it was not a funds issue.
So I head to another gas station. Same error. Now, I knew something was wrong. I headed into the station and swiped it inside. The lovely attendant says, you must not have any funds in your account. It will not accept the transaction.
I knew better, and now my heart was racing. I knew something was very wrong.
My bank was not too far away and luckily they were open until noon on Saturdays. As I hand my card to the next available teller I begin to explain my attempts to get gas. He slides my card. He immediately picks up the phone and refers me to a banker.
What the heck?
The banker is now on the phone as well. Everything seems hush, hush. I had to verify things I had never verified before- more than just my social and name. They asked if I had been at Walmart attempting to purchase a $500 TV about an hour before.
Um, no.
They asked it I went to a different Walmart and attempted to spend $300 about 20 minutes later.
No again. I am just trying to get gas.
Apparently someone had made a copy of my credit card. Less than an hour before I tried to get gas, they were trying to purchase a TV at Walmart and the fake card was declined because all of the encryption were not readable.
The thieves then tried another Walmart in our area and again the card was declined at which point a hold was placed on my account and my account was flagged.
My bank was smart and likely saved my account. Per the banker, their identity theft department knew this shopping pattern did not match my spending trends and the encryption issue just gave it away. He said it is actually easier than you think for someone to copy your card (or at least that was the case three years ago). Someone can use a swiping device, at a restaurant or convenience store for example, swipe your card and the machine copies all of the card information and then they later produce a replicated card or sell the information to someone who does.
I was shocked!
I had to remove cash from my account to get me through the next 5-7 days (for gas, groceries, etc) until a new bank card could be sent to me. It was incredibly inconvenient, but not as inconvenient as my account being wiped out.
Until this moment, identity theft was not something I worried a lot about. I am not a person with tons of money in my personal account and I’ve always thought… well, a thief would never get much from me. But, they almost got a TV and other frivolous items from me.
Check out IdentityHawk. They offer a variety of options to protect your social security number, programs that send you alerts and 24/7 identity scanning.
This is a sponsored post. Feel free to read my disclosure statement.