Buyers beware!

My last post about being robbed in Brooklyn hasn't even been published long enough to get stale and a friend just called me to say he also has now been hit by card # stealing bandits!! Apparently having a fun day out on the town on someone else's dime is easier than ever!

Anytime you swipe a credit card or debit card, say if you're buying discount office supplies, it gets processed in mass transactions and those who know how to...can and will hack in and gain access to our card #s. Supposedly they don't have the actual expiration dates so a successful transaction on their end is not guaranteed. However, I don't think they care! If they go to one store and shop to their heart's content and get turned down every other time, they just move on to the next store of their choice. I'm guessing they are still happy with those odds. My friend got robbed in Virginia, still on the East Coast but I seriously doubt it's the same person. Unfortunately, there are more than a couple bandits among us. My friend vented, "$160 at Game Stop and then a nice restaurant after; sounds like a fun day...too bad I wasn't there even though I paid for it!"

He'll get his money back, I just hope it goes quickly. I was so very pleased with the way PayPal handled my fraudulent charge. I had the $ back in my PayPal account within 24 hours of it being cleared through and the balance from my PayPal account has now been completely deposited back into my checking account and it's only 4 days later (and the Christmas holidays were in there too!). All-in-all I was only "out" the money for about 6 days. Great job PayPal!