Fraudulent bank charges?
Posted Sunday, January 10, 2010 by admin
My fiance and I have a joint bank account. We have ONE debit card, in his name. I keep track of all purchases made. I leave enough in the account to cover the bills, since that is the only thing we use the account for.
Well, last October, we received a charge for $4.95, which came out by surprise and I was charged a $17.43 overdraft fee. The charge listed a website, some online ebook website. I called the bank, and they told me to call the company. So I called the company (which is based it LA) and it was a message machine. I sent an email also. I never gave out any more information that my name and email address. They returned an email saying they have given me a refund, which they had. Also, my bank refunded the $17.43 overdraft charge. I emailed them back asking how they knew WHO and what ACCOUNT to refund-never got a reply.
Then I bought a gift off gamestop.com, and it automatically enrolled me in some “Reservation Reward” program for $12/montly. Surprise Charges!
I called Reservation Rewards and got it cancelled and a refund.
Then just a few days ago, I got another charge from a company listed as GAMMA, which provided a telephone number and was based in TX for $9.25. I searched up the number online, and called the number but everyone gets a messaging machine. It does not state the business or anything.
All of these were charged from the debit card (without a pin number needed).
What should I do?
I have several things that come out of my account monthly by automatic draft (like insurance and such). Would I call them to change it over to the new account?
But all of my auto charges come out within 3-8 days… could everything be changed over before then?
you need to freeze your account NOW!!!!
Call your bank ASAP!
i agree with sunny, freeze the account right away. after you get everything situated, close that bank account and get a new one [maybe even at a different bank]. if i were you, id like reinstall my computer, maybe you have a virus that collects information as such. if thats the case, i bet your hacker was just testing the water to see what they could get away with, but you never know when they could hit you real hard! change all your passwords to everything that would contain your personal information such as email, and get the geek squad to come over and put some really good anti-virus software on your computer.
hope i helped