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Cheap fraud
As some of youse know, I'm currently being very careful with my spending. The last few months I've been treading very lightly on my credit card, with the last month being rather light. Mind you, I am not an extravagant spender, but possibly a bit more than some. Yesterday, I had placed an order for the three skylights (two 2' by 4' electric venting, and a "sun tunnel" to be precise plus all the flashing curbs and whatnot that go with them) at Lowes to the tune of nearly 2800 bux. My credit card took the hit in stride, almost as if to say, THANK YOU SIR MAY I HAVE ANOTHER. Today after PT I stopped into the little local hardware store to pick up some specific long power screwdriver bits to the tune of fourteen bux 'n' change. My card, the once valiant warrior in retail spec-ops came back to me with DEEEEE-CLIIIINED, MUTHAFUCKAH! WTF? I started laughing, having an idea what was going on, paid cash instead and came home to a message on the answering machine (yeah, I still use a 20+ year-old Panasonic analog answering machine, with two cassettes, I love it) with an automated message from the credit card company's fraud prevention system, timed precisely to the moment I tried throwing the national debt level of 14 dollars on the card. I call back, give the usual security answers and was asked if indeed the charges were mine. We both had fun with it, as I said the big charge is so typical that they had to be certain that a mere 14 clams just had to be fishy. It was all straightened out immediately. It was more entertaining than an actual problem at this moment, I'm glad I did not have to make some emergency purchase and have it declined and be SOL. I have a second card as a backup that is not used except for very rare occasions, so I would be fine for the most part.
While a minor inconvenience, I'm glad these safeguards are in place. I've had friends get their cards or card numbers lifted and the thieves had gone on extravagant spending sprees without a notice from the card issuers, or at best after a large amount had been charged. This causes all sorts of grief for my friends, though they aren't responsible for the charges, the issuing of new cards, having to change over auto payment info for recurring charges and the lingering credit wariness is a pain. I've never had that happen to me yet, as I am very careful where and how I use my cards and numbers. Still it can happen due to events out of my control no matter how careful I am. At least this little humorous call the the card company was not such an occurrence. This is actually not the first time I have gotten such a call, and the previous time was much like this one. The auto response system gave me a list of charges and the dates, I was to press a key on the phone when I heard something amiss. A hundred dollars, okay, 230-something, fine, 88 dollars, cool, one dollar, Whoa! BEEEP! I never charge such a small amount, and when the voice on the other ned came on it was explained that the charge was a ping of some sort from a hotel or gas station that verifies an account then erases the charge when the true charge is posted. A bit of laughing on both sides happened then as above, and everything was fine. I think it was after Jeff and I had taken a vacation or something.
How dare they charge me so little! lol
While a minor inconvenience, I'm glad these safeguards are in place. I've had friends get their cards or card numbers lifted and the thieves had gone on extravagant spending sprees without a notice from the card issuers, or at best after a large amount had been charged. This causes all sorts of grief for my friends, though they aren't responsible for the charges, the issuing of new cards, having to change over auto payment info for recurring charges and the lingering credit wariness is a pain. I've never had that happen to me yet, as I am very careful where and how I use my cards and numbers. Still it can happen due to events out of my control no matter how careful I am. At least this little humorous call the the card company was not such an occurrence. This is actually not the first time I have gotten such a call, and the previous time was much like this one. The auto response system gave me a list of charges and the dates, I was to press a key on the phone when I heard something amiss. A hundred dollars, okay, 230-something, fine, 88 dollars, cool, one dollar, Whoa! BEEEP! I never charge such a small amount, and when the voice on the other ned came on it was explained that the charge was a ping of some sort from a hotel or gas station that verifies an account then erases the charge when the true charge is posted. A bit of laughing on both sides happened then as above, and everything was fine. I think it was after Jeff and I had taken a vacation or something.
How dare they charge me so little! lol