I woke up this morning to see that my UK account had been entirely cleaned out over the weekend. Somebody had managed to repeatedly withdraw 10,000 Baht at a time... and 20,000 Baht twice. Luckily the mortgage has been paid but now there are cards to cancel and replace, an investigation as to just what's going on, long waits on hold to the UK and a burning sense of resentment. It took me 3 years to build the savings that we had in the UK and to see it all gone in the space of 48 hours makes my stomach churn, it really does. The bank was sweet - but pointed out that there was a huge backlog of fraud cases involving them, new cards and Thailand. I have a new card. It's never been used. And though I'm wearing Thai pants I've not been in Thailand for a while. So I'm going to take it that I'm one of the many and try not to get too annoyed that the bank knew that there was fraud going on in Bangkok and could see money leaking from my account at a rate faster than silicon a Californian's breasts after a road smash and yet did less than a sloath on a go-slow
It'll be a week before they issue a form. And a month before they start an investigation. Thank God that the UK is my 'safety net' rather than an account I rely on. That said if it's not sorted by the 4th of October we'll run into all kinds of mortgage problems.
What a start to the week. Sept 11th too, so taking my gas mask on the subway and charging through Grand Central like a rhino at the Macy's basement sale.
3 comments:
Gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
You poor - and getting poorer - sod. Just had my CC cards ripped off online, but at least that's insured.
Double check all your computers tho' with several different virus and spyware programs - I'm always super careful, but a password stealer snuck past the other day, and now I'm getting bogus requests from 'Barclays' to update my address.
Good luck... now if I can just get a good deal on the Baht exchange rate...
just dreadful... latest thought is that a 'Thai gang' got hold of all of the new card numbers for cards starting in september. by all accounts around 20% of new cards have been 'compromised.'
had never used the card online - new card, new number
as for a good deal on the baht - I kow that 20,000 Baht is around GBP300... that's what they take each time...
Poor you!
My brother's entire bank account in Slovenia was emptied two years ago. A guy walked into a branch of his bank, presented a forged passport, with a completely different signature from his, and yet was able to empty the account (his life savings). Worst thing was, he knew approximately how much to withdraw, so my brother felt he had been watched. The bank eventually paid him back, but it was quite a trauma with two small kids at home...
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