Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Hacked!

It happened again.
3 years ago a guy in North Carolina got hold of my credit card number and bought a bunch of stuff at WalMart. Unluckily for him, my bank alerted me and I wasn't charged.  Even worse for him, my brother the FBI agent was stationed nearby at the time.  He went to the Wal-Mart & looked at all the security tapes, got the guy's image and car, and found his address.  Unfortunately for me, he didn't get enough info for a warrant. so he couldn't bust him.  But the guy has pretty much been on the radar of the FBI and local police ever since.
This morning I decided to check my Amazon trade-in account, as I wanted to add a few items.  When my log in info came up, my name was attached to an email account I have never seen before.  I called them, and, long story short, it turns out someone hacked into my account and bought two Kindles.
Well, tried to buy two Kindles.  They're not going to receive them, because my Amazon account, as well as all my credit and debit accounts, are frozen.  A fraud alert has been reported, and hopefully that is the end of it.
But I'm nervous.  I REALLY hope this is the end of it!
So aside from work, most of my day was spent on the phone and at the bank.  I'm in limbo, wondering if there's another shoe out there waiting to drop, and without credit or debit cards for a few days.  Luckily I was able to take care of some financial issues (grocery shopping, gassing up the car, depositing my paycheck) yesterday, because I wouldn't have been able to do it today.
Just by chance, yesterday I did an internet search of my name.  Basically there is no privacy anymore.  Pretty much ALL my info was out there, from my various addresses & phone numbers, to my voting preferences, to how much our house is worth.
And then I was hacked.
So, yeah, I'm feeling pretty wrung out and vulnerable right now.  One consolation is that anyone who tries to steal my I.D will end up with my fairly crappy credit rating.
Hmmm...maybe I should declare bankruptcy?  That'd pi** 'em off!

Isn't technology supposed to make life easier?

3 comments:

Geosomin said...

Eep. That kind of thing makes me try to be private on line, but with Facebook and working for a university? Well...I'm *out there* if someone really looked. I had my Ebay account hacked last year and it was quite unnerving...I hope things get back to normal for you relatively soon...

Yum Yucky said...

Ugh. someone stole our credit card number and tried to do a cash advance at a bank. I don't know how you heck you do a cash advance without the actual card. Did they make a fake one?? I dunno, but this identity/fraud stuff in general might only be getting worse. :(

Charlotte said...

So scary!! I'm so glad you caught it fast! The worst I've had done (knock on wood) is had my facebook account hacked but they resolved it really quickly. I hope nothing else happens! Huge hugs!!