I got an email this morning from Amazon.com, telling me that my card had been used to open a new account, and that as they thought this was suspicious, they’d cancelled the new account. Now, not having fallen off the turnip truck yesterday, I did not “click” on the provided “link,” but went to Amazon’s website to confirm. I couldn’t find any info there, because the transaction had already been cancelled by Amazon. But, I went to my bank’s website to check my account, and there were, indeed, charges pending to Amazon, Yahoo, and iTunes.
Aieee!
I’m pretty careful about computer security, so I was wracking my brain, trying to figure out how someone could have gotten my card number. And then I remembered that I’d had to do some computer troubleshooting over the weekend. My printer had stopped working, and I suspected that my firewall may have started blocking my USB ports again. I couldn’t get it to play nicely, so I turned it off long enough to make certain that that was, indeed, the problem.
In the couple of minutes it took me to test my theory, some jackass must have accessed my computer.
In all, there were five transactions: one to Amazon.com for $1, one to the Apple iTunes store for $1, and three to Yahoo Voice totaling $11.42. None of those are large amounts. Hackers usually test out a card by charging small amounts, to see if it’s live. If I hadn’t noticed there was a problem (and with small initial charges, many people wouldn’t!), I’m sure Mr. Jackass would’ve soon hit me with a large charge. With my luck, it would’ve happened on Friday, when my car loan, insurance, and student loan payments are due to be automagically taken out of my account.
Thankfully, since Amazon emailed me, and I was able to report it promptly, my bank said that I won’t be accountable for any of the charges, even if they cause overdrafts.
No serious harm done, considering what can happen to folks who get hacked, but that’s really not how I wanted to spend my morning. And to top it off, when I tried to go back to work, I couldn’t find a parking spot. Meaning, I’m getting another unintentional afternoon off, but also meaning I’ll have to work Friday to make up time.
Grrr.
Oh, and it’s pouring down rain. Just to make things even more bettererererer.
Alsotoo, I won’t have a replacement card until next week. I’m glad I bought gas a few days ago, because otherwise, Id have to go to the bank and withdraw cash the old fashioned way, then I’d have to pay ahead at the gas station, which I hate doing.
On the bright side, I stopped on my way home for a little retail therapy. I needed a new black printer cartridge, so after looking online, I realized that OMG, there’s a Staples and a Barnes & Noble right by my house. Duh. I don’t know why I don’t pay attention to these things. I only drive past them every single damned day.
Anyway, I stopped at Staples and got my printer cartridge plus some spiffy new pens (Uniball Signo retractables with pigment based ink). I killerated a couple of my favorite Sarasa gel pens last weekend (I did a lot of writing), so I felt justified to indulge my pen fetish. The pigment based ink means that the ink enters the paper instead of sitting on top. It dries fast, so it’s good for doodling. I gave them a quick test, and they seem to write very smoothly.
red paper boat 