Cloned and loose in Philadelphia

I was sipping on my morning coffee when the phone rang. My immediate reaction when I heard the recorded voice on the other end of the line was to hang up. After the endless recorded political messages we received during the past political season I want to poke myself with something sharp.  But I listened because I’m good that way.

BOY DID I GET A SURPRISE.

The recorded voice on the other end on the line said “this is the fraud alert department on your MasterCard and we have detected some suspicious activity on your card.” If you used your credit card at the Shop Rite in Philadelphia on Nov 5^th you can hang up; if you did not incur this charge then press ONE.

Philadelphia? I hadn't left the house in days. How was this possible? My card was safe in my purse, Bill's in his wallet.

I PRESSED ONE

I was connected with a representative from the bank who went on to tell me that my credit card was used eight different times on that day in seven different Shop Rite grocery stores in and around Philadelphia and in a gas station store. The charges ranged in amounts from $49 or less seven times at the groceries and $1 at the gas station once. Since we were still in possession of our cards the conclusion was this.....

MY CARD HAD BEEN CLONED

They had already declined further use of the card once they became suspicious. After I confirmed there was a crime being committed (rotten thieves). We immediately closed the account and generated a new account and new cards would be issued and password was generated.

WITH SCISSORS IN HAND I CUT MY CARD INTO TINY LITTLE PIECES.

After hanging up with the bank gal I went onto Google.com and looked up cloning credit cards. I was curious to see how that was done.  This is what I found; you can read about it here. As I read thru a few other articles I was surprised to read that thieves were getting sophisticated to the point of posing as representatives of the bank to gain access to people’s information.

I RAN TO THE PHONE

And called the bank, thank The Lord the lady I had spoke to was legit.