In Focus

Well, I guess 2020 had one more thing left up its sleeve for me. My year was about to end on a downward note...

On Wednesday, I logged into my bank account to check a few things and I noticed three strange transactions.

At around 5 a.m. on Tuesday, three withdrawals were made with my debit card number for $298.95, $196.95 and $6.95 to “popmoney.com.” I have never heard of this website before.

I called my bank to inform them of the fraudulent charges. They canceled my debit card to prevent further theft and gave me the phone number of the popmoney company to see if they would do anything about this fraud.

I Googled this company and found out it is like PayPal, a way to transfer money.

The first time I called I was on hold for nearly an hour and eventually had to hang up to do a story for work. I called again later and after nearly an hour and a half of being on hold, I actually got to talk to a live person on the other end of the line.

I explained the situation to them asking for my funds to be returned. The representative said they would start a fraud investigation. He also said “I” had created an account two days prior. Whoever it was also had my name and cell phone number. I told the representative I had not created the new account and why would I send money at 5 a.m. when I was asleep? I also asked them to close the account, to which he responded they couldn’t until the investigation is complete. I thought that was odd, considering the claim was it was “my” account...so, why couldn’t I close it?

After looking at the reviews of this company, it did not look good. Many had been defrauded and either their funds never got returned or they were charged fees to have the money returned. Really?

I called the bank back and told them of the conversation and what I had learned. A claim was started and they credited me the missing funds until they could finish their investigation.

The next day I received an email from popmoney saying “my” account was suspended and another supposed transaction didn’t go through. This person tried to take another $49, and there were a name and email address to the person to who the money was going. Needless to say, I sent this person a nice little email with some...choice words...saying I hope they used the funds for an...umm... “rectal-cranial inversion” and other things. I also put the email address on my Facebook just in case anyone wanted to spam this douche bag.

I’m just glad I caught this so quickly. It could have developed into a larger amount of money in no time at all.

Thanks for the one last “screw you” 2020!