The hardest part of all of this is the treatment/help/follow up that I’ve received from my Credit Union. Nada. Zip. Nothing! I immediately contacted the local police, as I noticed “pending” transactions when I checked on account online (I do this daily). The police said “no one ever reports it this quickly.” Obviously, they don’t know me; but they said that no crime had been committed until money had actually come out of my account. WHAT!? You mean to tell me that if I saw someone with a gun, and they pointed it at someone’s head, I have to actually wait for them to pull the trigger before a crime was committed? That shut them up real quick like. Begrudgingly the report was taken. I waltzed into my CU (card was already cancelled) to get a new card and turn over the police report info. Again, since no money had yet been deducted from my account, they wouldn’t even take my fraud packet. WHAT?! That night the money was deducted; I waltzed back in and left the packet – “we’ll investigate.” What’s to investigate? I’m holding the card used, and these aren’t my charges. Too bad. Short story long, one of the online places had great fraud filters and knew the card wasn’t being used by the rightful owner. They gave me e-mail info., delivery address, which was on the East Coast and I live in SoCal, so I contacted the local police there, with detailed info., and almost 3 weeks have gone by and not a soul has contacted me.

Lesson learned; DO NOT swipe card at the pump, in the dark. I opened a new account and because of the lack of help or caring from my CU, have gone to a bank, but the hassles involved are numerous. Auto Deposits; auto payments; charitable donations that occur monthly – all stopped because someone decided they needed leather clothing, Napster music, Wet Seal gear, and Armani Exchange apparel.

I never thought it could happen to me, and the worst part of it all? The card was in my possession, not having been left behind or lost, and I got “phished.”

Mrs. Micah, I truly feel your pain, but it sounds like you certainly knew what to do and did so in a timely manner. I pity the thieves who think we’re so dumb and lame as to not know where we used out cards, or who to call right away to thwart their future ill-gotten gains!

Great post and truly helpful as well. I now have a list of all cards in my wallet with account numbers, phone numbers, who was notified, etc. so if I were to lose my wallet, the Excel file has all the info., and the cards can be cancelled/stopped/alerted within minutes. We’re the smarter ones now, not the thieves

Well, at least we can all learn a bit more from you about what to do if something like this happens to us…

But kudos to you for handling it so quickly and so well! I hope they come back to you, or that their user is caught….

Good for you that you had enough sense and presence of mind to call your credit-card issuers on the spot. Hope the chucklehead tried to charge up a gigantic big-screen TV and got caught in the act.

Maybe the driver’s license thing won’t be too big a headache. Here you can get a new copy of your DL online. Don’t know what they do for you, though, if you report the license stolen. Maybe they’ll issue you a new DL number.