430$ of fraud

The most dangerous and biggest frauds in America are the IDENTITY THEFTS. And I am writing this piece as this week I was the victim of that. 

Its early Thursday morning and I am freaking out of this networks assignment and the sudden and unjustified correction of the mid - term of the class to which I am the TA. I see a pile of letters in the room and curiously check them to find if there are any for me. I have received very less letters since my arrival here and most of the letters are Balaji's bank transactions or his parking tickets. But I manage to find one. One from the bank.

And lo! Three online transactions back to back on the 17th and the 19th. Two of them web and one ifs a telephone. Telephone!!! This is the last surprise one wants early in the morning. I am all shaken up and wrap up the homework quickly and put the fucking papers in a plastic bag and rush to the bank. All way things kept cropping in my mind:- withdraw all money, create a scene at bank. I check my balance at the bank. 83$ more gone. Now I am car without a brake. I approach the lady at the customer service and tell her all my story. I am angry and terrified. Fear of losing my support for the summers over here.

She listens calmly and then makes a few calls, contacts the concerned companies and helps me file an affidavit for getting my back. It takes an hour and i am missing the OS lecture. That did not concern me one bit. This is MY money. I earned it. Joking. I would have been more concerned if it were my parent's money.

Everything said and done. I return home and talk to Jagdish about it. His rich knowledge begins to flow and I am all ears. He puts a lot of possibilities affront such as the Debit Card theft, the cheque number fraud etc. I do not own a debit card and if that was the case then the person knew a lot about me, my SSN , my postal address and my DoB. First time after months I was thinking like a detective.

He tells me to get my facts right about the transactions right and know all about banking here. He said be very careful about your money here. He says that this is perhaps the downside of having a highly technological edge in very possible field. It gives the bad a very fair chance of wrecking havoc on you.

Do not know whether the money will come back or more money would go(hope not. I blocked all debits. But then who knows!). First time I clearly understood the difference between the CREDIT and DEBIT. Yes! I never thought it was important at all. Big lessons learnt. Watch your money(oxygen) all the time.