2016-2017 PCA Press Issue 20 | Page 32

On Saturday October 1st, I woke up early to take photos at the Hudson Tennis match. Before I went, I thought I would give my email a once over, and that is when I saw a message from Discover, my credit card company. It said there had been some unusual activity on my card, showing three balances. One was from Logan’s, where my wife and I had eaten the night before, but the other two were from IKEA and Fiesta Mart, both in Houston. The thing is, I have never even been to IKEA nor Fiesta Mart, much less spent the nearly $1200 dollars it said I had. I was the victim of credit card fraud. The week prior, I had used the Discover card to purchase gas from a local station. A few days later, a news story

ran on how police had discovered a scanner that had been placed on

the exact pump I used.

The scanner scans your card

and steals the

number. The

thieves then

took my number

and bought

furniture and

groceries with it in

Houston. I definitely can’t say

that I wasn’t worried when I

read the email. I really didn’t

want to have to pay $1200

for stuff someone else

bought.

Luckily, Discover found the

irregularity and notified me.

It was a pain to cancel my

card and to wait on another

to be delivered, not to

mention the frustration of

trying to switch over all my

bills

and

payments to

the new card number,

but at least I got the

spending stopped there, before

it really got out of hand. The credit

card company also did not make me pay for the fraudulent charges. They have a guarantee that no customer has to pay for unauthorized purchases.

Credit cards are a necessity in this day and age, at least for me. I have no idea how anyone can function without one. I fought it for years and payed cash for everything, but I finally had to give in. Automatic bill pays, Amazon, and Ebay made sure of that.

Everything worked out in the

end, but I was sure

concerned for several

days.

When trying to

decide on a credit

card, make

sure it has

fraud

protection and

some sort of

assurance that

you wont be charged if

someone steals your card.

It happened to me, and it

could happen to anyone.

Thieves can wreck

credit scores, empty bank

accounts, and do it all

without every even seeing

their victim. It is an

unavoidable product of the

time we live in.