Just wanted to warn you all, start watching your accounts very carefully.

I was just online on our bank account (to see how little we had before payday,LOL) and found a debit (without a pin number) done at a McDonalds for $2.00, in a suburb town, all the way across the metro area we NEVER go to. As well, we found out from that city, the address given on the bank tape, is not even in a business area, only residential.

Now maybe $2.00 would not be noticeable enough, but I have two kids with me, pretty much all the time, and we do not go that direction, as well...$2.00, I have a teen son and 11 year old daughter, it would have far exceeded $2.00. I contacted the bank and they said this is "account phishing" and they would have tried for more with my debit card number, but we canceled it and no more purchases can be made, or will pass through my account via that number.


Now here's the catch, had I NOT been keeping up with my account online frequently and caught this, we could have been in serious financial trouble.

So, I asked the bank about contacting my police department, and they said "no, it's really not necessary". Don't believe it, it is. This means my information is already floating around out there.

I went down to our local police department, and the desk officer of the day said they have seen a recent upswing of these happening. What is one of the ways it happens is when a store takes your card and has a credit only way to pay, and as an example, the clerk (who may have less than good intentions for being a clerk) says "oh, the card did not go through right, let me try that again..." it is a possibility that it DID go through fine, but he/she ran it through a hidden card reader, which collects the numbers. They can either try themselves, or sell off these numbers to criminals with the means to commit fraud on your account(s).

Police said I need to now call all three credit reporting agencies to report identity theft and put an alert on my reports.

Mind you, the bank said it was not necessary.....thanks Washington Mutual, you could have really screwed me big time, and I have very little to lose.

People, keep track of your accounts, cards and all else, as much as you can. Catch things early on, and save yourself from a horrible situation, I hope and pray I did.