For the past year I have been taking control of my finances. I do all my banking online, put the figures in a spreadsheet and see where we could be doing better. Well I say I do it all online but as I said recently we have been putting by £20 a week which involves me going to the ATM and withdrawing the cash. Apart from that though its all virtual figure shifting. Online theft has been a worry of mine for a while because details can be so easily captured in so many ways but to be honest its mostly insured due to the trail any theft would leave.
Still though it was a shock today and log in into my bank account and find it had been cleaned out. Panic set in quickly and didn't go for a long time after. I was home alone with the boy while my wife took the youngest girl to her school induction. I was climbing the walls and not sure what to do. My head was spinning too much to think and I was shaking to much to do anything of worth. It was a literal state of shock.
We are quite lucky in some ways. We have a joint account in which we just about keep our heads above water. Its used for everything. Its used at supermarkets, online, petrol stations, bills, etc. When we opened the joint account I insisted in keeping a separate account. My idea was to save with this one and use it to transfer funds as needed for excess bills, car problems, house items or anything else out of the norm which needed extra funds. And that is the account I have been using for savings withdrawals too. I think that is what shocked me most as it was this account that was cleaned out. Unlike the other card it does have a chip and pin facility nor double as a debit card. So the only way to use it is physically in a bank or at a cash machine. Yet in 5 days a series of withdrawals had cleaned all of it it of our savings.
Being the way I am I know exactly what has happened. The card stays in my wallet until I use it for a withdrawal and I know for a fact my card has not been used. So the only other explanation is identity theft. To do that the details must have been swiped at the ATM and being agoraphobic I only ever use the one ATM- the nearest one pictured above where people are standing in line to take money. So last Wednesday afternoon when I lifted £20 from the bank unknown to me at the same time something was reading my details to empty the account later. Also unknown to me was that I was being held up by invisible highwaymen. They are professionals and I have been robbed by them.
So it led to the best part of an hour on the phone trying to calm myself while dealing with the anxiety of being stuck to an ear piece for so long and trying to convince not only the guy on the other end but also myself that it wasn't me who was the criminal. The case is now with the fraud time and although I don't expect we will see the money again I live with a bit of hope. Because its not an online crime how can I prove it wasn't me that withdrew the money? I know it wasn't me because it was taken from all over the county in different places but that is not something I can prove to the police if they ever come knocking. Since then the panic and anxiety have subsided with the acceptance that I cannot do anything about faceless criminals and instead the emotions have turned to anger which at some point I'll have to give in to acceptance too.
My mind has been filled with so many questions. Why didn't I check the online account sooner? Why didn't I withdraw money two days ago like I always plan to and then I would have been alerted to the fact that there was insufficient funds? That would at least have saved 40% of what was taken. But these questions serve no purpose now. And when everything calmed I had another thought, a rather eerie one. I remember when I took that money out last week thinking about this very thing- ID theft and cloning. I remember pausing and wondering whether someone had placed one of those devices in the card reader. Admittedly its not the first time I have had the thought but it is rare and having the thought doesn't mean I could have done anything about it but it was there nonetheless.
The hole in the wall actually belongs to a different bank from the one I am with. My wife went there tonight but it was shut. It had been her intention to make an enquiry about whether they knew if there had been thefts there. But she did notice the screen was not allowing transactions yet I used it today. So it may be that it is getting investigated but if it is no one is telling us and as this is a holiday weekend coming I doubt we will hear anything for a good bit yet.
