I have been violated!!!!!

Technology is a wonderful thing. I mean that. It really is. But, sometimes we get "had". And I got had.

Lane and I had a wonderful week-end camping in the mountains. Peace and quiet. I love my Kindle. Our site was right on a beautiful creek and with the windows open in the Hornet, we could hear the soothing sounds all night. We were so far in the mountains that we had no phone service. No big deal. So on Saturday when I wanted to call and check on my parents (which I do daily) I had to use my debit card on their public phone. No problem. But later in the day when I called to check on Catherine (which I also do daily) my debit card was declined. 3 times. Hmmmm. Unusual. So, I just used our credit card to make the call.

Later on, I got out my laptop to just take a look at my bank account online. When I did this, I noticed two charges to my account. One for $75.00 and one for $74.87 at a Chevron service station somewhere in Georgia. No big deal. The bank will fix it on Monday. These things happen all the time...Right?

This morning when I got up at "9:30" (unusual for me but wonderful), I decided to take another look at my bank account. You know, just to be sure. Guess what? There had been 5 other such transactions in Georgia. Fortunately this is an account only I use so I immediately transferred what little money was left in my account to another account.

WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON????????? I have my cards all in my possession. Now I am extremely worried.

As we head down the hill back to civilization and my phone regains it's service, I noticed I have a voicemail from the bank informing me of strange activity on my account so I call them. They immediately put a block on this account and explain that it looks like someone has managed to create a duplicate card to my account.

I have continued to check my account throughout the day and guess what??? My new "friends" are still at it. They are headed south through Georgia just living it up on my money (well, now nobody's money because they have managed to now get my account well overdrawn since I moved what little money was left in there) .....Scumbags.

So here is what it looks like I will have to do tomorrow: Be at bank at 9:00, file police report, go to school office and have account info changed. Oh, and I am due a deduction for my car payment tonight at midnight. Won't they be happy with me when they see the account has closed. Great!!!!! The "Y" won't get their money. They, too, will be happy with me.

Some of the charges were at Wal-Mart's Murphy gas stations. Wal-Mart has cameras so maybe they can look at videos and get tag numbers and stuff. So Wal-Mart, I'm counting on you to catch these scumbags.

One of my questions is this, If they are going to hack someone's account, why not let it be someone with a lot of money? I am a lowly paid North Carolina public school teacher. I don't make a lot of money. I guess that is kinda ugly. I don't want this to happen to anyone.

Now, will I continue to let my debit card be my lifeline? I don't know. Do I have a choice? I guess not.

What I do know is that I have been violated and I do not like it......