What's Not In Your Wallet?

Well, it finally happened to me. We have had security breaches before, but it was always expected because the attempts followed one of the family loosing a credit card, leaving a check book, or my wife had her purse stolen once. But we always discovered the breach before any money (except ant cash we might have had) was taken.

This week-end started out so nice. We had a break in the 100 plus degree heat, there was a breeze, even a smattering of rain. We had spent most of Saturday morning on the back patio just enjoying it all. Birds were at the feeders, the chickens were scratching around in the lawn, still damp from the shower, the dogs were lazily sniffing around the yard, it was nearly perfect.

The Phone rang and I got up to answer. It was the VISA Fraud center asking me to verify some purchases. I had gotten these calls before. If I or my wife ordered something expensive on the interweb, VISA would call to check and I always voiced my appreciation that they were watching my back. A recorded message asked me to verify several charges made with a charge card ending in 2993. It was at that point I snapped to attention.

My wife, Karen and I have worked very hard in the past eight or so years to eliminate our credit cards. Having each been married before, we had started our new life together with old debt that our spouses had not paid. In addition, we were both working independent doing film, theater, and TV spots and Arizona had made some political errors with the MLK holiday that, like now with the SB1070 law and its dubious revisions, shows coming to Arizona are canceling or just relocating. Work dries up and you live off your credit.

Bad idea,

It took twelve years to get out of that trap. Finally four years ago, just before the housing crunch fell on us all, I refinanced our home and nailed everything that was left. Credit card became plastic confetti in my shedding machine. Bank of America, MasterCard, Sears, JCPenny, American Express, Visa Silvers, Visa Platinums, Visa Visas, all fell prey to the whirling knives as they were paid in full and closed forever. It was ecstasy.

Since we have had a few choice store cards that relate to my wife's company. One General Visa card from our bank and our checking debit cards. No credit balances over $1000.00, everything else is cash. Before the housing market values fell, we even still had over half the value of our home in equity.

So the mechanical voice on the phone said the account ended in 2993, with so few cards left, I know them all. This was not a credit card; this was our checking debit card. This was going to be bad. I listened as the mechanical "man" at the other end of the phone line ran off four charges done that morning at a Wal-Mart in Columbus Georgia. I immediately chose option "5" speak to a human being and was pleasantly surprised that the person answering spoke perfect English. I identified myself and after the obligatory "And what can I do for you today?" question I said, "Stop the card." .
"So these are not your charges?"
"I, and my wife are here in Phoenix, the charges are in Georgia. Stop the card."
"Are you in possession of the cards?"
"I will check to be absolutely sure that both cards are here, but in the mean time stop the card!" I said and put down the phone. Racing into the kitchen I checked both my wallet and Karen's purse and, yes, we had both our cards. Back on the phone, "I have both cards in my hand, those cannot be our charges."
"I see another charge has come through, I put a stop on the card."
"Another charge? Came through just now?" I asked. In my mind I could see dollar bill lining up with little arms raised and being marched out of my account.

So now there were five. Four in Georgia at the same Wal-Mart and one in Tennessee at a furniture store. The woman on the other end of the line assured me that no more charges would be passed and gave me a 800 telephone number to file a claim for the bad charges. After she hung up, I tried the 800 number and got a voice that said the number "could not be completed as dialed."

Perfect.