And This Is Why I Hate People

Do I have a beacon on my head that brings the psychos and dishonest people my way? Because I’m really getting sick of this shit. Yesterday morning, after dropping off my Husband at work and The Diva at school, I went to the bank to withdraw my rent money. Imagine my surprise when I found that there was $670 missing from my account. That’s more than 3/4 of my rent money. When I asked the teller what the hell was going on, I was informed that a check for $670 had cleared last night. A check neither I or my husband had written. Someone had forged a check made out to themselves, made it seem like my Husband had authorized it and deposited it in their own checking account. And this is why I hate people.

They’re mean. And dishonest. And out for themselves. And they will screw you the first chance they get.

And if these “people” happen to actually be employees of a company? They’re even worse.

You see, the person who forged this check wasn’t an individual, it was a company.

A company we’ve never heard of.

A company that, according to the Google searches I’ve done today, routinely practices illegal business.

PERFECT.

I supposed it’s fitting that this month’s NaBloPoMo theme is “Between”, seeing as how I am between, literally, right now. I’m between having money and not. Having a roof over my head and not. Being able to buy groceries and not…you get the picture.

I hate this. I’d like to be slightly more normal now, K? Thanks.

Did I mention how weird, random shit ALWAYS happens to me? Things that people who have normal lives find unbelievable? Yeah, that’s my life.

Back in 2000, my husband’s identity was stolen and they used it to obtain a job {We didn’t find out about this until February of 2001. We’re STILL fighting with the State of California over the taxes on that. TEN YEARS later}. What we did know was that over the Thanksgiving holiday, someone used his ATM Debit card to buy copious amounts of internet porn. That cost us over $400. We didn’t even own a computer then. And yes, we were with a completely different bank at that time. One that no longer exists, by the way.

In January of 2010, my checking account was hacked in some weird way via my Paypal. The hacker made a copy of my Visa Debit card and bought two big screen T.V.’s, which we did not find out until later, after the fraudulent charges were discovered.

YEP.

Then in April of this year, my checking account was compromised because of the Epsilon breach. Uh, huh. And the bank didn’t admit to this being the reason until THREE WEEKS later.

In 2010, we were advised to only cancel our ATM debit cards. So we did. And everything was fine until April of this year. Because of the Epsilon breach, we had to close our account and get a new one. And now this one has been used fraudulently. I love it.

Really.

I need this drama and to constantly be reminded that I am the walking, talking manifestation of Murphy’s Law.

It’s good for me.

NOT.

I hate that I have to open yet another checking account, change all of my bills, change Hubby’s direct deposit and that I cannot get to the money that is left in my account because my bank locked it.

Because of fraud.

I have EIGHT DOLLARS in my wallet. I need groceries. I need my migraine medication. We need milk and toilet paper and bread and cereal and food…oh and I need to pay my rent.

I really, really want to go to this company’s headquarters and throw a Molotov Cocktail through their window. Then I want to take a baseball bat to the person who authorized this fraudulent check and can still walk around like he/she has done nothing wrong.

My bank said they will “try” to get me my money back. Umm, it was a fraudulent check. RETURN IT. I’m sure it’s just a few keystrokes and then POOF! my money is back in my account. Did I also mention that I cannot open the new account until the current account is brought positive and I have $100 to deposit in it? Yeah. My account is overdrawn because you cleared a check that had a check number that was THIRTY-FOUR CHARACTERS LONG!!!!

AGAIN, this is why I hate people.

Was this not a bright red flag to anyone? Not even the precious “system”? What the fuck, Chuck? And I MAY or MAY NOT get my husband’s hard-earned money back so we can pay rent and buy necessities. I’ll know sometime early next week.

Want to see what was passed as a legal check? (The check number shown on the face of the check is not the same one that shows on my statement. Another red flag, maybe?)

I spent 2 1/2 hours in the branch yesterday trying to get this straightened out. I was charged for the stop payments and freezes applied to my account. The check I wrote for The Diva’s school pictures Thursday is going to bounce like a rubber chicken. And I can’t provide the basic needs for my family with the money my Husband works his ass for at a job he hates because some jackass thinks it’s OK to forge checks for their company and cash them on innocent people’s checking account.

I would just like to NOT have the weird, random shit happen to me anymore. It used to be mildly entertaining, but now it’s just plain ridiculous.

And it hurts my family.

Did I mention that we paid of ALL our consumer debt in August so we were completely debt free? Did I also mention how I was looking forward to this month as the month we would have breathing room and be able to put some money away, finally?

This cosmic joke that keeps getting played on me AIN’T FUNNY ANYMORE. Please stop it.

Tags: Bank Fraud, Check Fraud, NaBloPoMo October 2011, Stolen Money

Category: My Opinions, The Free Range Stupid