Who in the hell left the gate open?

As a kid, I loved to watch the gospel commercial with the preacher yelling, "Who in the hell left the gate open." I loved it because the religious joke was funny and of course no one really wanted an answer to the question. Today, the gates I'm referring to are the flood gates of identity theft. Now, that aint funny. And I want an answer.

You guessed it folks. I have been the victim of credit-card fraud. This may not be shocking to you, but for me, I was blind-sided. See, I am the "I know you're trying to get my social security number" and "I'm not using my pin at a gas station" conspiracy theorist. Yes, I'm borderline crazy when it comes to my personal information. AND CREDIT-CARD FRAUD HAPPENED TO ME. SO RUN FOR YOUR LIVES PEOPLE! just kidding...

Here's what happened...

I logged into my account and noticed consecutive charges totaling more than $300. I immediately called my bank, filed a claim and started working with the vendor where my card was used. I should preface that by saying, "where my NUMBER was used." See, the THIEF does not have the card but somehow has my card number and according the investigator, cloned the number, created a card for themselves and hit the town set to paint it red. Bastards. I digress..

Of course I'm not one of those idle citizens. I'm filing a police report and calling the state attorney general.  Did I mention that the charges were at a gas station/food mart in another state? Wait. It get's better.

In the process of investigating all of this, I politely put on my journalist "hat" and my "I'm very pissed off" scarf, and started asking questions. Here is what I found:

• Did you know that there is a maximum of $100 that can be spent at a gas pump? (How the hell this is allowed, I don't know.)
  
• Did you know that not all gas pumps require that you enter the billing zip code to use a credit card? Remember if you use your debit card, a pin is needed; if you use the credit option on your debt card (or if you use a regular credit card), the billing zip code is needed. Newsflash: It is not required nor mandatory state wide for consumers to use the billing zip code at the pump when using a credit card or the credit option of your debit card.
  
• For gas stations, did you know that if someone clones your card but tried to use it inside the mart, the correct owner's name will appear BUT NOT AT THE PUMP? WHY!? (Sons of @$!@##!! )
  

I'm going to post an article on my Mickey Talks Topics blog with more sensible solutions and details about identity theft.

For this blog, I just had to say AHH COME ON!!


Mickey (pissed off and getting justice for all)