Buyer beware at the gas pump...

Several of you have asked about the identity theft thing, and although we haven't heard much as far as the outcome is concerned yet, I figured I'd warn you about something I heard on the news last night.

Rewind a little bit. On my birthday Joni was at KFC feeding one of her cravings when her card declined. After a call to the bank we found out that someone "swiped" our card in NYC at Wal-Mart at about the same time and purchased $185 worth of stuff. Once they realized that it worked, they tried to buy another $175 worth of stuff 2 minutes later but the card was already frozen. The scary thing is that we never lost a card, and we found out that they used our PIN number. Turns out this "person" made their own duplicate card with our number and knew our PIN number just like someone would make a duplicate check or fake ID.

We have always been very careful to discard important documents in the shredder, and watch our backs at the ATM and gas stations. What I heard on the news disturbed me and I thought you should know about it.

Turns out 2 guys were arrested in Raleigh for stealing several identities from gas station pumps. They have sophisticated devices that police have never seen before to take card and PIN numbers from the pumps. You would never even know they were there. They take the card numbers and make fake bank cards, then use your PIN number at an ATM to get cash...or in our case Wal-Mart. The only thing that you can do is check your account often for any suspicious charges or hope your bank freezes the card like ours did. I try to pay for gas inside now instead of at the pump, because you really don't know when one has been "skimmed" as they call it.

I don't mean to scare anyone or cause you to spend all your spare time looking at your bank account balance. This can happen to anyone, and it is a horrible feeling when it happens. Kind of reminded me of the time someone tried to steal our car in Dallas, but since it wouldn't start, they bashed out all the windows, took the radio and tore off the dashboard. We are totally fine now, the bank should reimburse us, and we are paying a monthly fee for a little while to have our bank monitor our credit history.

On a lighter note, Joni found out she has carpel tunnel in her hands from playing Wii for an hour. Wierdest thing ever...