we've been hacked!

so today i was checking my bank account as i often do. i noticed two weird pending charges on our account. the first thing that stuck out was "tampa, fl." that's strange, i haven't been to florida. ever. however, i wasn't sure if the location was a routing thing that restaurants or store do. i immediately called the officer to ask him what his last couple of transactions were. everything he mentioned was already accounted for. i looked closer at the charges. two charges for $4 each at a place called seven one seven pa (that's all it said) in tampa, fl.

i called the bank's handy dandy 24 assistance line. i told the customer service rep that i had two charges on my account that i was not sure about. she took a look at the charges and said, "oh yes, that's strange. you didn't get just get back from florida did you?" i wish, but no. she found out the charges were on the officers card. she also figured out that the charges were for a parking garage/lot. since the officer is often downtown, the parking charges could have been possible. so the customer service rep requests that i call the officer on another line and ask him about it. of course i can't get a hold him the first time, but the second time was a charm. the officer confirmed he had not paid for parking yesterday. not that the customer service rep wanted to know, but i told her the officer had been home earlier than usual yesterday because he wasn't feeling well. i was almost tempted to tell her about my impressive raw meat cutting experience, but i didn't. maybe if i talk to her tomorrow we can chat about it.

anywho, in the end we closed the account, ordered a new card, and tomorrow i will have to call back to see if the "pending" charges post to my account. if they do, i will have to call back the lovely customer service reps to "dispute" the charges. my bank was very helpful and patient with me. they had told me that "these people" often will start out by charging something small to see if they can get away with it and if they can they will use the card to charge something much bigger. so.... keep your eyes on your bank account and if you see anything fishy, get right on it. get it taken care of quickly.

thank you "michelle" (customer service rep) for all your help.