Be Careful This Season and Secure Your Accounts

Well, here's my first sad post. Today, I had over 600.00 stolen from my Green Dot account, and I am sorry to report that these were all of the funds that I had. This money came from my recent tax refund, and I'm sitting here wondering how those funds can be reimbursed. I contacted Green Dot as soon as I noticed the money missing from my account, and I'm heartbroken that people that steal from others even exist. I was having such a great week, and this happened. Not to mention that I feel targeted. I have had a lot going on, and I guess I was just too damned optimistic. I have been doing a lot of work, and often it seems like those who try to help others the most, like in the instance of me trying to help a friend out this week with her needing to pay 300.00 in rent and my attempts of drumming up support for her. I'll be the first to admit that I will go to bat if a friend needs it, but I often feel unappreciated.

I've bent over backward to help others succeed, and I know it doesn't go unnoticed here, but I can't say much elsewhere. I suppose I have reason to be sad as that was all of the spending money I had. It's going to be tough making ends meet until I can get a refund if I can get a refund. If not, then I guess I will have to take that on the chin and be more cautious from now on, even more so.

Sure, some good people are left in this world, but many bad people are wandering around here looking for someone to rip off. Just my luck, today I was the one person who they were able to steal from, and these people don't care. They don't consider whom they're hurting or if they just stole all the money a person had, nope. I'm sure they're spending my tax refund in a bar somewhere on the other side of the world, probably laughing among themselves about how easily they were able to unstash my Green Dot funds.

I promptly called Green Dot customer service and was able to get in touch with a representative after waiting in line for about ten minutes. I told Aimee as accurate information as I could, and she told me I needed to mail a letter stating my knowledge of the incident, my personal information, and to list the unauthorized transactions I needed to list in the letter. I'll have to find a place and a way to buy an envelope. Thankfully, I have just enough quarters saved to do that, and I'll be getting it in the mail as soon as possible.

I then called my local police department's non-emergency number and let the dispatcher know about the incident and that I wanted to file a report. I will be following up on all of the necessary steps.

I filled out an Identify Theft Affidavit (Form 14039) and will be submitting whatever I can to any local and state government offices about this blatant fraud. I also looked for websites within my state where I could file a claim.

I'm fed up with the bollocks coming from scammers both online and off. This is the second time in the past six months I've been ripped off and stolen from, and I don't know what more to do about this but refuse to communicate with random people unless they can prove to me that they are whom they say they are. I am tired of giving my money away to people who don't deserve it and who certainly aren't thankful to be receiving it, especially since they didn't go about acquiring my money the right way in the first place. That's nothing compared to giving to people who feel entitled and are owed something because they're your "friend." There's much more to being a friend than sticking your hand out and demanding something just because you're there.

Don't let this post turn you off from being a continued reader, and please always remember that I am genuinely thankful for each reader. Hopefully, things will get better, and I'll be refunded the money, and these idiot criminals will get what's coming to them. We'll see.

Here are some steps to help you protect your money and hard-earned assets.

Never give out information over the telephone, especially to unsolicited callers.

Protect your social security number.

Keep track of your funds.

Change your passwords often and use a string of alphanumerics that are hard to decipher.

Check to make sure the data you submit online is being sent over secure lines if at all possible.

Don't write down your PIN, and don't reuse the same PIN for different accounts.

Don't use the same password on various accounts. Passwords should be unique for each secured website.

Know that you are shopping with a retailer or merchant that cares about your privacy, identity, and security.

Above all, stay safe and mask your PIN when in-person shopping at kiosk machines and ATMs.

I hope my article helps someone today; good luck out there.