Uninsured motorist

Yesterday I found out that my identity was actually worth something. Worth stealing anyway. The bank phoned and asked me to call the fraud department. They read off a list of charges from my debit card that had been declined, including my latest car insurance premium. (Nice to know after the fact that I was breaking the law.)

Initially the thief made a charge for $1 at Home Depot, then tried to pay five months of their cable bill and two months of a T-Mobile cellular bill, among other random charges. Thankfully the bank took action and halted my debit card. They asked if I had the card in my possession and if I had made any of the charges. Luckily I am not responsible for any of them (I will have to dispute the $1.00 from Home Depot though!). I was told to cut it up on the spot. The inconvenience is that I will not have a card for the next week and that I will need to update all my bill payments to a new number.

How did this happen? The purchases were local, so it there is very little chance that my identity was stolen online. Most likely a waiter or someone had kept a copy of my receipt and used it to make a new card. I'm sure that Comcast has some sort of customer privacy policy, so that won't lead anywhere. But the police might be able to get that information.

Regardless of the outcome of my personal investigation... thanks, Chase. And hurry up with my new card.

Scott