We are home. Rolled in around 4:30 this afternoon. I have never been so glad to be home as I was today. It was a trip to be remembered but for all the wrong reasons.
Last night I got a phone call from a guy who said he was from the fraud department of my on-line bank. The call came in with caller ID as my bank number. He told me someone had tried to Zelle pay $2,000 out of my account and they were checking to see if I had done that. I had not.
He kept me on the line for about 45 minutes as he froze my accounts and collected information. He told me he would call me back this morning.
He called as promised and this time told me someone was trying to wire transfer $37,800 out of one of my accounts. Jim was listening to part of the conversation and got nervous. Jim suggested we call the bank and confirm this guy was legit. I borrowed Jim’s phone and called my bank to confirm that this guy was legit while the first guy was still on the phone. The second guy I spoke too seemed to think it was OK so I continued with the conversation with the first guy.
After about 45 minutes he said something that made me get nervous. Not sure I remember what it was but something felt off. I think he could tell I was getting nervous and he ended the call with a promise to call back.
I immediately called the bank again and this time asked for the fraud department. They checked their records and told me no one had spoken to me except for the second guy I spoke to earlier.
After another hour conversation and filling out a fraud report, they froze all my accounts, are going to close them and reopen them with new numbers. She recommended I report all my credit cards as stolen and change all my passwords on every account I have.
I’m still a bit nervous that I still have all my money in my accounts. I can’t access my on-line information for a day or two. I sure hope the three people I spoke to weren’t working together and that my phone wasn’t compromised somehow. I will call the bank tomorrow morning using Jim’s phone and confirm what is going to happen next.
I have cancelled all my credit cards, changed my Apple ID password, and a few other passwords. I notified social security. I have a credit report monitoring program. I notified the other two banks I have accounts with and put an alert on those accounts. The bank sent me a free malware program to put on my computer., What else can I do?
I’m concerned that while I was talking to the guy he was able to gather any and all information I have on my phone somehow. Not sure how to check it and protect it. I changed my Apple ID password and will change the log in code. Any experts out there that can advise me of what else I need to do?
I sat in the car and shook for about an hour after I figured out what was going on. I feel so violated. Not sure if this crime was related to the car break in. The lady in the fraud department said they could have taken pictures of my car registration, passport, etc. and gotten personal information. I don’t know if I had a checkbook of checks in the glove compartment of the car that was stolen. I can’t remember if I had one in there or not. The two crimes may not be related but it sure is a huge coincidence that this happened shortly after the car break in.
The guy that first called me used the same terminology as the lady I spoke to after I spoke to him. I wonder if he used to work for the bank?
It is going to take me several weeks if not months to get this all sorted out. I use auto pay on all my bills and now I have to change the bank account information when I get new bank account numbers. I hate password changes and I need to change every password I have in case those all got compromised. If you hear some naughty language echoing in the hills it is me trying to straighten this all out.
We had a safe journey of over 3,500 miles the last two weeks. It was wonderful seeing so many members of my family and Jim’s family and meeting three of Jim’s friends from college. I need to remember all the good and wonderful things that happened on the trip and allow the energy of the two crimes to dissipate. It will happen someday but right now it feels too raw to let go of.
My house sitter left the house in wonderful shape and the critters were all well taken care of. I went out and mowed most of the yard when we got home. I needed to be outside and get grounded. Mowing does that for me. The grass was knee high and way past due to be mowed. I have done three loads of laundry and have one more to go. My soaker bath will feel good tonight.
Grateful for a safe journey, grateful for gut instinct that told us something was off, and grateful to be home.