Last night, I received an email notification that my checking account showed a pattern of suspicious activity. I reviewed my account transactions immediately and, sure enough, discovered that someone made a series of 8 charges at various Wawa Markets and a Giant Foods store in Pennsylvania yesterday. We don't even have Wawa in Chicago.
The perp dinged my account for about $500. The bank will cover it. Reviewing my transactions, the bank rep said that my card was probably cloned at a local gas station.
I
don't think the financial industry likes to talk about it, but losses to
electronic theft add up to billions of dollars every year.
The banks want us to be security minded, but not so security minded
that we stop using our cards. The cards are an extremely profitable business. One way or another, banks these days get a cut of everything we purchase.
For me, this is more irritating than two home burglaries we experienced. The burglaries caused much greater inconvenience, but I find that when I imagine a junkie burglar versus a smart ass techno thief, I'd much rather see the techno thief face his comeuppance.
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