Time sure has flown. And we've been so stinkin' busy! Most of August just flew by. Making sure mom was settling in to her Assisted Living sitation, getting back into our empty nest schedules (we hadn't been out to lunch or dinner by ourselves in several years!). A new rythym.
Then, the end of August hit us with a huge sledgehammer - our bank accounts were hacked. Not just hacked, really HACKED! Evidently, it is fairly rare for them to be able to get into your bank account. They normally steal your ATM card number. They got into MY banking info and compromised not only my and John's checking and savings, but mom's checking and savings as well. I caught it and called the bank Fraud Dept. just 2 minutes after they caught it. Our accounts were only available to the thieves for about 9 hours (they got in around midnight) and the bank froze everything right away. They got about $1000.00 but the bank reimbursed us immediately so we were not out any money at all. That's the upside of this whole thing. The downside? Well, our accounts that were hacked are frozen but can not be closed entirely till our direct deposits (retirement and social security) are changed over to new accounts - that takes almost 2 months. I can not get online to check our new accounts till the old accounts are closed. So, as the bank told me, "We are your new banking assistants!" If I need to move money around or pay our mortgage, I need to either call or go into the bank and have them do it for me. It took us almost a week to notify all our online accounts of the new account numbers for monthly payments. Retirement deposits will start in October and the Social Security payments will begin in November. In the meantime, banking is a weekly chore! Sigh!!! I must say, the bank has been amazing. Sadly, they have one of the largest Fraud Departments in the banking industry. Gladly, they are very good at their job. We are very fortunate that the only thing we lost was time - time used to change all our accounts. We didn't lose any money. I thank goodness for John....he was my touchstone in all this. He kept me off the ledge several times. I just got so mad!! And, the sad thing is, there was absolutely nothing that we did that allowed them to get in...it was all the luck of the draw for them. If they would use their incredible knowledge for good, they would be Gazillionaires and work only as hard as they do to steal from folks. But I guess the intrigue is part of the rush for them. Sigh!!
In other news, Mom is settling into her new digs really well. I called her one day a few weeks ago and she answered with "I need to call you back, I'm at Bingo". The next day, she told me she needed to call me back cause she was at Beach Volleyball! They have a Wii platform at her place and she loves going and watching beach volleyball or bowling! There is always something going on there - arts & crafts, bingo, exercises in their chairs, a lecture on history or mental health or mermaids, you name it, there is probably a program for it. She rarely calls me crying cause she's lonely or confused. I try to see her at least once a week but mostly twice a week. And I call her every day.
The weather is finally turning to crisp autumn breezes and fall-colored leaves are on the trees. Fall is my favorite time of year. The colors, the temperatures, just the feel of the air makes me happy.
2 comments:
Oh no, Sally! Just as well your bank was on the ball, and helpful. Makes you feel like keeping your money under the bed, doesn't it?
Absolutely terrifying your account was hacked. There is definitely a down side to our digital age.
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