Too Busy to Pay Attention...
How much the fast paced online world really costs...
I must admit that I am usually on the go, trying to get as much done in the course of a day as humanly possible. I also admit that I love the freedom of online bill pay, immediate purchases from the comfort of my office and while in my PJs.
I see tons of computers over the course of a year - some so severely infected that I'm amazed it's taken the person 2 or 3 months to finally get it cleaned. I'm amazed at how secure people believe their systems are and how much faith they have in their expired anti-virus program.
Upon virus removal, I tell people to change their online passwords, run monthly scans, how to interact with their anti-virus software, what types of things can increase their risk of viruses, what different types of viruses do (how it acts) and so on and so forth.
So why didn't I follow my own advice?
Over confidence? - "it could never happen to me"
Too busy? - "oh you dumb machine, NO, I don't want to scan/update/restart my computer right now."
Stupid.
In all honesty, plain stupidity led me to the chaos that awaited me in July 2010....and has carried over into August 2010.
I must admit that I noticed something "odd" with my system several months before all this happened. I even had to restore my system because everything in it ceased to cooperate - talk about a huge big horrific mess.
After the restoration of my system, things still weren't quite right. In hindsight, I should have dug a little deeper, but ..... I was busy - I had lost time, files, etc with the restoration and I'm ashamed to say that I failed to follow my own advice that I give out on a regular basis ---- back up your data.
So while I'm bustling around, working, re-loading programs, changing settings, restoring bits and pieces I had an opportunity to do a good thing.
:)
This good thing - donate to the ASPCA by means of using TrialPay to get a program. What TrialPay does is allow you to get a software program by accepting a Trail Offer from another company. My choice was to get the $80 programs, by signing up to give $18 or $22 (can't remember which right now) to the ASPCA to aid them in their plight to help abused animals.
With a sense of slight "do-gooder" attitude, I signed up, entered my debit card information, got the confirmation emails from TrialPay as well as my program download link and a "Thanks for your support" email from the ASPCA.
Feeling good - perhaps a little too good.
My computer was acting strange again. Unreliable - for lack of a better word. As fear and dread set in, I started moving files to external hard drives, running system scans like they were going out of style, set my email to treat almost everything as spam or junk.
Like so many of us hit by hard financial times, I was waiting for a deposit to hit one of my accounts so I could set up and pay my electric bill. Calling the toll free number at 1 AM, I kept hearing unacceptable balance amounts. Selecting the options to hear the last set of transactions, I was overjoyed when I heard the deposit amount, then absolutely and thoroughly confused when a list of debits followed.
I had enough. This was ... was... well....this just was not acceptable - something had to be wrong and this whole thing just didn't make any sense.
Welcome customer service to the line.
It seemed that the charges were for ....
AV Date
SpeedPass
FriendFinder
PHXSoul
Over the course of the next several days, my phone could have dialed customer service on it's own. Come to find out "these people" - whoever or whatever company was responsible for this were trying to cash in and cash in big. There were attempts to hit this account with other smaller charges using a couple fake names of some large well known companies as well as a $700 + charge to a company not known by me at all.
So, here I am aggravated beyond belief... as I try to find out what the heck happened. When did I last use this card online, would this be the only card that was compromised?
I had to allow the charges "pending" to either hit the account or "fall off". The merchant has 7 days to "do something" with a pending charge, so before I could cancel the account, start an investigation, try to recover my money, get a new card issued, and have access to the money that was left (if any), I had to wait and check back regarding the charges for 7 long days.
During this 7 days, I cancelled other accounts - who knows how long it had been and who knew what cards/accounts had been compromised. I had to scan and rescan my system, local drives, external drives, files, folders, thumb drives, phone, emails for viruses. I contacted ALL my accounts and cancelled cards to have new ones re-issued because I didn't know what "they" (aka the bad guys) had. I changed passwords for everything from email to online access to my bills, PayPal, eBay ---anything that had a password that could possibly contain "sensitive" information such as storing a credit card or bank account number to receipts of payments.
After the 7 days were up, I called to "officially" cancel the primary compromised account. The account was cancelled, a new card was issued which would arrive between 7 and 10 days and going over the charges with the customer service representative, filed claims for fraud.
Now...this all sounds "simple" enough, right? Well, not really - you see EACH charge has it's own CLAIM NUMBER - a claim number, by the way, that is 12-16 digits long. By filing a fraudulent charge this generates the claim, which gets sent to a department that will investigate the claim to see if you can get your money back.
I received my claim papers at the end of July - this issue happened July 6.
In the midst of all this, I received email notices that my credit card on file for this-that-or-the-other bill was no longer valid. So .... big sigh... I had the joy of responding to those and after the replacement cards came (7 - 10 days after the request to cancel and re-issue) was made, call the company back to give them the NEW card number.
I must say that I was pleasantly surprised that with the explanation of what I was going through - no one charged me a late fee, suspended service, or anything like that....but it did require CONSTANT contact to keep everyone up to date with what was going on in my corner of the world.
So now it's August - a few days past a month ago this mess all happened. I've received most of the money back, but it's come back in spurts - one charge reversed and a credit created here, another one there. I don't know what else is required or what other things may crop up. But it's been a mess.
So looking over everything - I think it may have been TrialPay - because I don't click on email links to pay an invoice or bill and that was the last time I used that card online.... I think.
Why did I write this?
To give you an idea of how simple things can go haywire.
To give you the outline of how to deal with this situation should you have to deal with it.
You'll notice I didn't give you the name of the bank.
You'll notice I didn't give you the name of the major well known company whose name was used fraudulently.
You'll notice I didn't give you a ton of specifics.
There's a reason.
The reason: each situation is unique and different.
Your bank/branch/customer service representative of the same Bank Name may be able to help you better, faster, etc. I don't know. If I gave you the name of the major well known company, you'd inadvertently and perhaps subconsciously look JUST for that company name in a fraud case, instead of investigating each item that crops up.
Also, I want you to think about the cards you have and exactly how many companies have that card number either by one handwritten form mailed in, to online access of your account to set up for auto pay through your bank.
Best advice - get a prepaid visa or mastercard to shop online.
Make a list of what companies have what cards.
Include the Customer Service number for the card and the customer service numbers for the accounts that pull from that card.
Put this list in a safe place where you won't lose it, write on it, spill coffee on it, etc.- like in a Ziploc bag in your freezer door, taped to the inside of a semi-frequently used cabinet door, etc.
For example:
V1234 (800-555-1212)
APS (602-555-6565)
Gym Membership (623-555-1212)
I'll write some more, once I see what happens next. I faxed back my claim paperwork a week or so ago and I have no idea what happens next.
Have questions? Feel free to ask - just send me an email and I'll see what I can do to help you.
Are you a Customer Service Rep or Bank Representative that would like links to your banks publications placed on the site? Please send me an email with your name and contact info as well as links (if you have them) to any publications.