December 10, 2007

Beware of online shopping!!

Robbed...right out from under my nose. I got an e-mail this morning from my bank stating that they wanted me to call them because there were some charges on my account that didn't look right. So I called. It seems that on Friday, 4 charges were made using my debit MasterCard # (which I have used to shop online recently and is linked directly to my account) to Walmart totaling $1083.85. I'm a single mother who just got paid on Friday and they left me with practically nothing and lets not forget the checks I already have outstanding. Fortunately, my bank (Citibank) had their act together and contacted me right away. I was always cautious about shopping online, but its become so popular I figured, WHAT THE HECK!! Funny thing is, I bought a few things from Walmart.com over the past couple weeks and all of those charges are for Walmart. Coincidence?? Inside job maybe?? Now, I have to wait until they actually post (the bank is holding the money like its a debit charge) and then send something in writing to the Fraud Department. It will take an additional 10 days to investigate and for them to give me my money back. Lets see, Christmas is 2 weeks from tomorrow....I guess that means I will be doing the remainder of my shopping Christmas Eve because some sorry, sick, thief decided to drain my account so that he/she can buy presents for themselves and/or their family this year. I just want you all to be warned, don't shop online. I don't care if there is a safety lock in the corner, obviously that means nothing!!! All I can say is, we reap what we sew. Karma comes back ten fold and I hope those people get what they deserve.

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4 comments:

Don said...

Lori,

I feel for you! I was robbed of nearly $5,000 from my home equity line when someone got ahold of the debit card number attached to my line of credit. It sounds like CitiBank is on it much quicker than my bank was, and hopefully it will all go quickly for you.

For me, it turned into a six month nightmare after being bilked slowly for six months before being able to uncover what was going on.

Lori said...

Thanks Don. I have heard many horror stories about this type of thing. Im sorry it took so long for your issues to be resolved. Heaven help them (my bank) if that happens to me. Im putting alot of faith in Citibank and the Fraud Division. Thank God I have money in savings, otherwise, this REALLY could have been much worse. Not many people have 1000.00 dollars to spare this time of the year,(actually anytime of year)and Im one of them!!

♥.Trish.♥ Drumboys said...

that is outrageous and so callous.
I want to shop online but I worry - we only use a card with a $500 limit usually.
I hope you get all your money back and they get a bite from karma

SandyCarlson said...

Good for Citibank for contacting you. I hope you are okay until it gets resolved. I do a lot of shopping online, and so far so good. Wal-mart better beef up its security!