Tonight after a yummy sushi dinner I got a call on my phone. Strangely it showed as No Caller ID. This is strange because even spam calls usually show the number. I assumed it was spam. A short time later a voicemail showed up, which I assumed was spam in voicemail form.
I was wrong.
Instead, it was VanCity Visa calling to verify several suspicious transactions made today. I called the number they provided and it turns out that at least three transactions were made, up to $189 or so, to companies or places in Winnipeg. I confirmed I had not made these transactions and was rewarded with my Visa card being cancelled.
I’ll have a new card in 3-5 business days, delivered to a nearby branch. Then I’ll have to go through the process of activating the card, creating a PIN and updating the info for everything that uses the Visa as the form of payment–which is basically everything online. I’ll also be getting a call from a fraud agent in a few days to ask questions. I’m not sure what kind of questions, since I assume they can see my transaction history and will have the list of fake transactions. I’m hoping they can confirm where the info was grabbed. The guy on the phone tonight said it was through some online source. The last two online services that processed payments were Netflix and Branzone, which hosts my websites.
In all, a big pain in the tuckus and confirmation that some people suck (on a side note, if everyone committing fraud of this sort got beamed to an island–let’s call it You Are a Bad Person and Should Feel Bad Island–how big would the island need to be? I’m thinking pretty big). Apparently the fraudster in this case is well-known in terms of the purchases they use with the ill-gotten numbers. The worst part is I now have to rely on my debit card in the interim, which would normally not be a big deal, but it was getting fairly unreliable on POS machines, which is why I’d switched to using the Visa.
Maybe I’ll just pay for everything using cash. Crisp one dollar bills from 1987, perhaps.
Or just never buy anything ever again and learn to appreciate a simpler life, free from the trappings of rampant consumerism.
But yes, that island would be neat, if we could beam all those people to it.
