We've been defrauded!

Yesterday afternoon we traveled South to help some friends hand out free religious books at their County Fair. The purpose was not only to give away free books, literature and magazines, but it was also to promote a Prophecy Seminar that is being held in their area the last weekend of this month. We'll be going back to help them with the seminar.

During the fair we met some interesting people and had several good conversations. It was also nice seeing our friends again. We haven't seen them in over a year. The weather was just perfect for it too. We made it home quite late and after checking our email, we went to bed and slept in pretty late-- 9:30a.m. to be exact. Oh I know-- shame, shame!!

While my husband was looking over our bank account on-line today, he noticed a strange withdrawal for $50.00 and another for $10 something. He knew he didn't make them and was certain that I didn't. Of course he was on the phone with the bank in no time flat. After talking with our bank and being put on hold a few times, it was determined that someone from South Korea had somehow, gotten the number to my husband's debit card. Turns out, they were making purchases through the Internet with his number, therefore not needing the pin number. What a scary ordeal! According to the lady at our bank, she explained that this happens quite often and it would seem that people can pilfer your card number relatively easy. What's worse is that these guys just get away with it. It's disgusting!!

Anyway, we wound up having to drive to our main branch and get it straightened out with them. My husband had to sign some paperwork so that we could get reimbursed and so that he could get a new card issued to him. When we got there, we were shown an updated bank statement and it proved that more withdrawals than we knew had been made. It just made us sick! We certainly don't have much money and my husband told the lady at the bank that $50.00 might as well be a million to us! It's true too. We are pinching everywhere we can pinch and it's very hard to keep our ends met.

Strangely enough, my MIL noticed today, that a charge had been made to her account as well. She had to spend time on the phone to get hers straightened out too. My husband thought that these people might have gotten hold of some database list and were just going down the line. He called his older brother to warn him to keep an eye on his account too.

I guess these aren't isolated events. Their happening everywhere, all the time. So whatever you do, keep a close eye on your money.