Monday, October 16, 2006

Sometimes Identity Theft Can SAVE You Money

So, Ed gets a call today from the Fraud Department at his credit card company, saying there has been some unusually high activity on his card, which alerted them to possible fraud.

They explain that they noticed several out of state purchases, some totaling more than $100 in one transaction. Ed is asked to verify some information to assure the customer service rep that he is who he states he is and when done, she begins going through the charges she said were posted this week.


She starts to rattle them off:

$33.00 at Chili’s…

Yep.

$9.00 at Dunkin’ Donuts….

Yep.

$199.52 at Travel Centers of America…

Yep – oil change.

$14.00 at Starbucks…

Yep.

$19.68 at Waldenbooks...

Umm Hmm.

$18.08 at the Flying J...

Yep.

$56.35 at The Outback….

Yep.

$27.42 at Bob Evan’s….

Yep.

$14.00 at Barnes and Noble….

Uh huh.

$137.39 at Interstate Connections…

Yep – wireless headset I’m talking to you on right now.

$9.00 again at Dunkin’ Donuts….

Yep, that's mine.

$632.00 at Travel Centers of America...


Yep, fuel.

$3.59 at Walgreen's...

Yep.

$23.01 at Sbarro’s….

Yep, me again.

At this point, I’m laughing thinking that this woman must think all he does is travel around the country, eat and just buy random stuff. Come to think of it, I guess that is what we do.

He gets these calls every once in a while since he has a fraud alert option on his account. Being all over the country flashing your debit card can be cause for concern; I guess all it takes is one unsavory person to get your account number and it could turn into a huge mess. But for us, it’s a lot easier (and safer) than carrying cash everywhere.

In any case, it’s still amusing to hear the person on the other end of the phone rattling off dollar amounts and cities that we’ve been to; often naming several states in one day.

We’d probably actually welcome someone stealing our card; there is no doubt that a thief would spend less than we do. After all, how many identity thieves do you know that use $50,000 a year in fuel??

3 comments:

Minal said...

WOW I want to be in your shoes
:)

Lisa M. said...

*Laughing* Yup 700 bucks for fuel. I totally understand~!

Fun

Timothy said...

Haha, I'd think your credit card company thinking your spending is so out of control that your identity must have been stolen would certainly be a nice reality check.

"I spend HOW much on Dunkin Donuts coffee every week? Damn..."