Fraud!!

As the title suggests we have experienced fraud...not good and certain things about the whole thing are quite astonishing.....

Background story...about 10 days ago i went to the cash machine round the corner at 10 pm or so.....needed to grab Richie some quick stuff down your face food as he'd been at work since 9 am and was tired and hungry. He realy fancied a pasty and some other crap so off i went, machine wouldn't let me have anything came up with a big message announcing that today i could have NIL pounds....odd, so pulling out a balance sheet i was horrified to discover we were £130 overdrawn....and we have no overdraft facility(that would be silly because we would spend it all!) I am never overdrawn so i rushed home and checked out the online banking to find 2 transactions for £318 and £236....i know i hadn't spent it and checked with Richie, who wouldn't have but i asked anyway before phoning the bank to find out what was going on. They immedietly stopped my card and told me that two holidays had been booked with Thomson Travel on my card over the internet or the telephone.......gave me another phone number to ring in the morning and some instructions.
Thursday, 8 am i am on the phone to Thomson Travel armed with amounts, times and my debit card details fuming and also having to wait an hour until i can speak to the fraud team at the bank. What i did manage to get from the lady after explaining my problem to her ? It was that whoever it was had tried to book 5 holidays.....yes, 5, but only 2 were accepted, Thomson told me that they thought something funny was going on, so didn't actually make a booking, but they did take my money(wankers!).....even better was that the people who booked the holidays booked accomodation only and used my card details and address but no name......no name? who the fuck books a holiday with no name? how does that even work? have you ever gone on holiday without a name? so onto the bank, spoke to the fraud investigation team who asked me a whole bunch of questions while setting up a case, i found out what the other amounts were.....£780, £518 and £260......also found out 3 were declined....1 was settled and the other was cancelled. They put one of the amounts back into the bank the same day and were waiting to see what was going to happen with the other transaction as to whether they would need to do anything with it. Luckily all the direct debits were paid *phew* or that would have caused more problems, although i would have had any fees incurred reimbursed by the bank :)
I decided after having to spend all day on the phone to various people, having no cash card and worrying all night about what was going to happen, that i wanted to make sure that the people involved would be caught and prosecuted, as its still theft, so on friday morning i phoned Thomson again, they didn't phone me back as promised on thursday with the other details of the transactions so i was a bit annoyed.....they were less than helpful this time, and i really wasn't in the mood for their shit as i had spent a total of 55 mins waiting in queus spread over 3 phone calls and several departments who all had about as much idea as a dead dog, and bearing i mind i was also paying 10p a min for the priviladge of speaking to such twats. Apparently, because of data protection laws, even though it was MY card, and MY money taken from MY account as it was someone else who spent it they couldn't tell me any more information, but they would tell the police if they asked, or even the bank....sooooo off i go to the bank again, but as luck would have it, they've already closed the case as "we only do the financial side of it" but have the police been told? "well sometimes we pass on the details....why don't you open an investigation yourself? we would share our information with the police when they asked...." really? can i do that? "yes i don't see why not, but you've had your money back, so why bother" well its still theft, some wanky fuckwit still tried to cheat me out of £550, its about catching thieves in the end. Next stop the friendly people at Norfolk Constabulary, who are unsure if they can help so offer to send round an officer to have a chat, at some point....
Friday evening the local police decide to pop in, and after explaining whats happened say and i quote "i know this may sound like we are fobbing you off but........." and guess what? they can't help at all either, why? because my card wasn't PHSYICALLY stolen then they can't do anything, if my card was stolen then they could get forensics in and open an investigation blah, blah, blah blah.....its the bank who is a victim as you were refunded, so its up to the bank to ask for our help.....then we'd help them if they asked. So that was atotall waste of time as well.

The thing that has annoyed me the most through all this is people can't be arsed attitude, i know that its only a small amount, out of the £2000 they tried to get they got nearly £550 of my money, and then i got that back, but whats happened to MORALS? We don't have much, we aren't mega rich, we are a normal couple with children and what we have we have worked hard for, i'm not one for letting some scumbag come and take whats mine and my family's with no repercussions. Its not about the money, its about the fact that everyone bleats on and on and on about fraud, but when it actually happens, no one wants to do fuck all about it. Don't we try and catch criminals anymore? its about the fact that they are free to do it to someone else......Although i did learn a couple of things from this....that i should never use atm's, chip and pin machines in shops, restaurants or petrol stations. Oh and i should never buy anything from the internet or over the phone......because these are all the main places where card fraud takes place....

Now its all sorted, i have a new card, money is sorted, and life is back to normal, it was a horrible 48 hrs, but its still so frustrating!!!!!What is wrong with people today? Am i the only one who thinks this is totally wrong? I don't steal, cheat or lie, i consider it wrong, very wrong and i can't be the only person who feels this way. GGGRRRRRR......

Tthere rant over!! :)

Have fun:)

Lara

General update

Well as i've not updated it for a bit as we've been busy, here goes:)

Its been the summer holidays and we have had really quite crap weather. Not been hot enough to use the pool, so thats sat there the last few weeks unused,had a few park trips and we have grown HUGE sunflowers which started out with 12 and now are down to 2 because of a) wanky local kids who thought it would be fun to come into the garden and pull them down(this happened twice) b) gale force winds and c) lots of rain......next year i'm putting them out the back. My 5 year old daughter loved her sunflowers and got very upset when the kids came and ripped them up. We have also successfully grown some tomatoes and we have hatched some butterflies:) We currently have two painted lady butterflies in a net habitat, one got stuck coming out of her cocoon in the middle of the night and as a consequence we had to help her out but by the time we did her wings had already dried folded up so we will have to keep her as a pet until she dies, she is still quite spritely though!. The other one is fine and we will be releasing her at the weekend.
Our youngest daughter Gemma turned 3 a couple of weeks ago and we are preparing for our other daughter Katie who will be 6 on wednesday, cue party at a play warehouse as i really can't be arsed with having one at home.

We went to see Sepultura, with Gama Bomb and local band Shrapnel supporting at the Waterfront and all i can say is WOW what a gig, from the minute Shrapnel stepped on the stage and started playing till the end of Sepultura, it was thrash, thrash and more thrash, with a side serving of thrash :) Normally at gigs there is one of the bands who aren't that good, but i can honestly say that all three kicked ass!! i shouted so much i couldn't speak for 3 days which pleased the kids no end and they took full advantadge of it! and it took over a week to talk properly:) and i even managed to get a bass pick from Sepultura so was really pleased with the evening.

They all go back to school on friday(friday?), and i have to attend a nursery morning with Gemma ahead of her start at nursery in a couple of weeks time. It willl be a bit odd not having any of them at home but i can think of a few things i can do with them not here!! Aiden will be starting the second year of his GCSE's and preparing for his exams and we will have to start looking at the options for Aaron who will be starting his GCSE's next september, so it will be all go go go for a bit. Apart fom that just the usual shit has happened, apart from one other thing but thats going in a post all of its own......

Have fun, till next time,

Lara