A Horrible Warning!

They say when you have a little case of blogger's block, you should just power through it. Since I have a severe case of  blockage right now, that's what I'm about to do.

You see, I've found it difficult to be creative for about a week or so because I've been in a big pout. 

If you want to know what caused the big pout, I'll tell you. If you don't want to know, I'm going to tell you anyway.  Someone else out there might need the horrible warning.  

Listen up, folks. I was hacked. 

It wasn't my blog account or my email account.

 It was my bank account. 

I didn't even realize I had been hacked until the drunken sailor who obtained access to my account had gone on a little shopping spree and whittled my balance down to the bare bones.

I discovered it when I stopped at one of these things.

source

Now, I used to use the ATM all the time, but these days, I rarely use it. I don't really need cash;  I have a debit card. I love my debit card and have named her Debi. 

Debi  has made my life so much easier.  No longer do I have to stop, write a check, and show ID  for my large purchases. I just whip out Debi, and she does all the work. No longer do I have to consider whether a small purchase is worth the wasting of a check. Debi doesn't play favorites. Debi thinks the small charges are just as worthy as the large ones. No longer do I have to keep cash on hand for Dollar Trees and fast food joints.  Debi is welcome there too.

So much easier. 

In fact, the only place in town where Debi isn't welcome, is our local Habitat ReStore.  That's where I was headed the day I stopped at the ATM. I was out to do some thrifting, and I needed  wanted twenty bucks.  So...

I pulled in, punched in the magic numbers, got my twenty bucks and the receipt to go along with it. As I was pulling away, I glanced down at that receipt, and nearly had a stroke.  I was so upset that I pulled Ebenezer into a parking place to look again. 

The "available balance" bore no resemblance to the amount that I was supposed to have in there. What?

I did what any rational 50 year old housewife would do in said circumstance; I called the husband and hyperventilated. Since he could do absolutely nothing from his cell phone on the interstate outside of Atlanta, he told me to go home, get online, and see where the purchases had been made. That's what I did. 

Now, I've heard about these hackers before. Generally, they clean you out in a matter of days, one maximum purchase after the other. My little pirate was craftier than that. Mine seemed to have gained access to the account at the beginning of the month and whittled me down, one small purchase at a time. 

Hobby Lobby....
TJ Maxx...
The Dollar Tree...
The Dollar Tree...
The Dollar Tree...

Yep.  There it was, the cold hard fact staring me in the face. I had met the enemy, and he is a she.  She goes by the name of... Debi. 

You see, all that inconvenient check writing back in the day also encouraged inconvenient check recording. And all those purchases too small to be worth a check? Well, they were generally resisted. And that cash that I had to keep on hand? It actually ran out.  

But not Debi. She spends and forgets to record her purchases, and she nickles and dimes her way into the poor house,  one Dollar Tree noodle at a time. 

So I called the husband back, and I made a full confession.  I told him I was putting myself on austerity measures until my checking account is back where it was supposed to be and Debi learns her lesson.

It's been almost two weeks since the Great Hacking Discovery of 2012. I'm managing fine on the meager allowance I've assigned myself.  I drove by Hobby Lobby and The Dollar Tree the other day and noted that they have managed to stay open without me. Good thing. I would hate to be responsible for another great American recession. 

I'm filing this one in the Stuff I Should Be Ashamed to Yak About category and throwing myself on the mercy of good counsel.

Are you a debit card person or a cash person?  How do you manage the debit card? Do you record each purchase immediately or do a nightly check of all purchases?

And does anyone want to buy 4,728 slightly used pool noodles?