OT: Unpleasantness

#1

I lost one of my passports coming home from Denver. Had to report it as lost. :confused:

Tried to use my bank card to buy lunch yesterday at my favourite indian place, card wouldnā€™t work. I tried to call my credit union, lines all busy.

Finally got through to them at SEVEN last night (Last day for RRSPs, phone lines were jammed all day.) Turns out some lowlifes skimmed my card and stole $500 from my account via ATMs.

$500 of my measly student loan. $500 so they can drive fancy cars and live in fancy houses. The police lady I talked to said itā€™s happened TWICE to her.

Oh, thereā€™s also a new pickpocket problem here.

Also, I had to do my taxes yesterday.

Day from H E double hockey sticks.

#2

Oh no!! All big cities especially have problems with pickpockets and crime in general. Even if itā€™s improved itā€™s still there. Did your credit card company refund your money? If someone uses ours like that we get it back as long as the card has been reported stolen.

How many passports do you have? I only have one.

#3

Oh no! Hopefully something good will come your way soon. Hang in there!

#4

I am a dual-citizen, so I have two. Luckily it was my CDN passport I lost, easier to replace.

I keep crying over the theft, my credit union will refund me, but the thought of someā€¦lowlife stealing my student loan money to pay for fancy cars/houses/drugs/etc makes me absolutely sick and angry. I wish I knew who it was. I sometimes donā€™t buy stuff like feta cheese cause itā€™s too expensive, and yet these jerks are living the high life stealing peopleā€™s hard-earned cash.

#5

Noob - that really stinks that your passport and $ were stolen. Do you know what it was spent on? It could have been spent by someone just as desperate for money as you are.

#6

They are creeps for sure, but I donā€™t think they know it was student loan money and I doubt they are buying cars/drugs/houses with it. Houses and cars are more expensive than that and drugs I would imagine have to paid for in cash. Most likely someone bought clothing or electronics. That doesnā€™t make it any better that they did it, but I think they just tend to go for the easiest things unless they are big time thieves.

Years ago I had someone get my bank account number and deposited money first then a few days later tried to withdraw a much larger amount making it all seem normal. Thank goodness the bank people knew who I was and thought it was suspicious. The person fled to Canada before the court date. :doh:

#7

In my line of work we deal with these types of people on a daily basis. What really gripes me it that they can steal/embezzle hundreds of thousands of dollars, then when it comes time to pay it back after they get out of prison, theyā€™re ordered to pay some measly amount, like $100 a month or something. What did they do with all the money they stole? They should be made to sell whatever can be sold and give that money back to their victims. These scumbags are the lowest of the low, next to the sex offenders.

#8

I know some peopleā€¦ goes all Tony Soprano

The first time I traveled without benefit of parental supervision was overseas and my grandparents (both sets) took me aside and told me to never, EVAR carry anything valuable in my pockets or purse. When I got caught in a gypsy mob in Italy I was glad for the advice. If they were going to get my money, theyā€™d have to buy me dinner first. :wink:

It sucks so badly that they could use your card, though. I mean, itā€™s one thing to steal one, quite another to be able to pull the PIN from the ether and get money with it. We had a company credit card stolen at the DFW airport a couple of years back and the idiots went in to WalMart and bought gift cards with them (this happened at Thanksgiving). Even with the cameras and everything Wal-Mart said they could do nothing but hand them over to the police. Since Iā€™d reported the card stolen, I didnā€™t have to pay for itā€¦ Wal-Mart did because they had to honor the gift cards.

#9

The police told me those jerks skimming debit cards etc live in fancy houses etc. Itā€™s organized crime. :frowning: All the jerks did was using ATMs to steal $500 from me, doesnā€™t matter if they know I have student loans, what if I was an 80 year old person with only pension money, or a single parent etc etc? Itā€™s soā€¦disgusting. Also, the jerks caused me $12.60 service charges (it will be refunded though.) Revoltingā€¦

#10

True scum. And people wonder why I refuse to use credit cards or even have bank accounts. Hopefully the cops will track them down and put them where they belong.

#11

I concur completely. Seeing the fraudulent withdrawals on paper just made my stomach churn.

#12

This recently happened to me as well- my car was broken into and my whole backpack was stolen. I felt my whole life was stolen, with me being a college student, who just lost their job thats all i had. They took my backpack, wallet, everything i owned was practically in that backpack. :frowning:
I finally got the charges on my cards reversed, had to change bank accounts and cancel everything which is hard to do with no computer to use since that was stolen too. Had to change all my passwords online because all of them were saved on the MacBook.
I now have a new MacBook because my mom bought it for me and i have it password protected everytime it goes to sleep.

#13

I have to say, banks are awfully helpful when somebody steals your information. I would like to pass this word of advice on to everyone though.

About 10 or 11 years ago I was late making a payment on my van, and realized it was due that day, so I called the finance company to ask how much the late fee was and I to tell them I was putting the check in an express mail envelope, overnight. The person on the phone was helpful and then said that I could pay over the phone and not have to pay late fees. That sounded like a wonderful idea to me, so I gave the person who worked at the finance company my information to do a check by phone and felt great that Iā€™d avoided a late payment and fee. A month later my checking account was dry as a bone.

I went down to the bank and found thousands of dollars worth of ā€œOnly on TVā€ purchases. We called foul and told the bank we had not made these purchases and thatā€™s when they said it was done via check by phone. The bank contacted the companies who had withdrawn the movie to find out the address(es) the goods had been sent to. We sat in the reception area and waited for some news. Then we were informed that the case was being sent to the Federal level and I figured out it had to have been done across state lines. Bank fraud across state lines is a Federal Offense in the US. The bank officer could only tell us where the goods were sent. The city was a bedroom community of where the collection arm of the finance company was located. Thatā€™s when I put two and two together.

It takes a long time and a lot of money sometimes. It used to be really hard, but thanks to so many scumbags doing this, the banks now make it easier to get your life back. I asked a friend who works in the biz and he told me that the banks reverse the payments made to retailers who do not check ID when credit cards are being used, so then itā€™s up to them to file theft charges. They rarely do so unless the theft is over $1000 because itā€™s simply not worth their time or money. And restitution is non-existent, so they really do get away with it.

#14

Ouch, guys :frowning: hugs all around

#15

Iā€™m going through a divorce, I kicked my no-good ex husband out two years ago, I started the divorce process in December. Anyway, my divorce was ā€œrejectedā€ due to some paperwork problems. I did my best to do everything correctly. I gotta go back tomorrow to file some documents, then I wait ANOTHER month for the divorce to be finalised. We had no property, no childrenā€¦itā€™s the most simplistic kind of divorce and still, taking for-ever.

Sigh.

#16

Man that sucks! I hope everything sorts itself out.
Fortunately the only time Iā€™ve had money go missing out of my account, it was because the bank wasnā€™t checking the name on the account. Some guy had transposed a couple of numbers on his account number and his withdrawals were coming out of my account! We called them each timeā€¦ the last time I was overseas and got overdrafted, and I let my daddy loose on them (If I can take care of it diplomatically, I doā€¦ but sometimes its just time to pull out the big gunsā€¦ even if I hadnā€™t been out of the country at the time). Needless to say, I check my account balance almost daily now, and there havenā€™t been any unauthorized withdrawals since then!

#17

Wow Jess! Quite the screw up on the part of that bank, eh? Sheesh!

#18

Yeah. I can see it happening once, but it happened four times. But itā€™s fixed now.

#19

Iā€™d be switching banks personally. :open_mouth:

#20

I would, but for whatever reason my parents still have their account (its true that it is the most convenient bank with the best rates and lowest fees in town) and we have our accounts set up so that we can do online transfers to each other. Really nice if Iā€™m out of town and need to pay my mom back for something or she wants to give me some money. She tried to deposit money in one of my other accounts once and it was a huge hastle.