i needed to do some self-care these last few days.
i need to take breaks to recharge.
i’m definitely not super fox up in here.
sometimes,
it takes one thing to have you sink,
but this latest only made me angry instead of depressed.
i think being able to detach helped.
so i wake up this morning to all hell breaking loose…
my bank sends me a message early in the morning.
There were numerous fraudulent charges on my account
when i went to check,
it was a name i have never done any business with.
i’ve been keeping my spending to a minimum.
rent
bills
groceries
random quickies of fast food and other necessities
when i have no job,
i go on complete lock down until the coast is clear.
the crazy part is i’ve been using my cash app card 95% of the time.
( x check out a cash app card here )
i don’t understand how got “got”,
but i won’t lie and font that i haven’t swiped my debit card in a pinch.
so i had to shut my card down today.
i gotta wait for the money to go back into my account.
it wasn’t a lot,
thank God,
but it was “money i don’t have”.
there goes the haircut i was trying to get today tho.
i’ll say i’m grateful i try to check my account every night.
on my calendar,
i have time blocked off to go over the details in my account.
there is an app called “monny”:
( x check out monny here )
…that i manually enter my spending to keep track of shit like this.
so when shit hits the fan,
i’m not left wondering “wtf?” and “how did it happen?”.
since i’m tapped at the moment,
i guess they may extend my self-care a lil bit longer.
it’s not like i have a choice.
It’s that time of year. We are already in the Christmas season and the scammers are out, especially in NYC. If your cards are not chip enabled it’s very easy to use a Radio frequency scanner (that attaches directly to a phone) to scan nearby credit/debit cards. This is called RFID Skimming.
Recommendation 1: Purchase an RFID wallet. Some say they don’t work but I say otherwise. It’s called Defense in Depth…
Recommendation 2: Make sure your bank has chip enabled cards. If your bank doesn’t have this feature yet for credit/debit cards, find another bank. They’re in violation of PCS-DSS.
Recommendation 3: When using your card to make a purchase, check the POS terminal by trying to remove the face. Most card skimmers use an overlay of the POS terminal. It simply fits “over” the device. I usually wiggle it to make sure the POS terminal face doesn’t move.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb4Q2ZpComY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJo9PfsplsY
^great advice!
thank you ct for this!
Stories like this is why I rarely utilize my debit card. For certain purchases I’ll just use my credit card, or cash. I became paranoid after watching a news report where they had the guys on camera placing one of the skimming devices on a machine in Target, 7 Eleven, and a gas station. For the incidents in Target and 7 Eleven, one guy distracted the clerk, while the other slipped the device on the machine…and he did it so fast they had to show you in slow motion.
Now before I use my debit card, I tug on the area around the slot before I insert the card. That’s not even 100% because there are devices that they can use to remotely from a distance to record the information on your cards.
It’s crazy and scary. We have too much reliance on technology, and it’s going to be our downfall.
^damn that made me paranoid af.
ugh.
i might have to start using cash nowadays because this is ridiculous
Wow, that sucks…I got got several years back; woke up and for some reason checked my balance on my bank app and was like WTF. Someone had charged like almost $200 within like 2 hours at the Walmart, Family Dollar, and a liquor store (so you aaalready know…smdh) in an area about 100 miles from me. They were able to get my $ back in pretty quickly, but of course I followed up w/ the investigation and the cops and the last I heard they were tryin’a obtain surveillance footage…idk what ever came of it, as long as I got my $ back fast I was like whatever. I think it was due to my use of drive-thrus at fast food joints; lookin’ backc, there were a few times when the swiping process took too damn long, and it’s not a rare thing for mofos to carry portable card swiping gadgets small enough to fit in their pocket ‘n shit…I mean I hate to sound all conspiratorial, but I couldn’t understand where else I could’ve been compromised cause I never pay at the gas pump and always check ATM machines before I slip my card into ’em cause I knew this kinda shit happens, but yet I got got…smdh…hate e’rybody!
^RIGHT!!!!
i barely use my debit card so i didn’t understand.
they are planning on putting my money back,
but i don’t have any cash on me so i’m pretty much grounded until my new card comes.
smh.
^i’m about to light a candle and sage my crib.
it’s about that time.