Friday, January 30, 2009

Victim of Fraud

Yep, it's true. I cannot believe it. I cannot believe I did not catch it sooner! The other day while doing bills on-line, my husband Trey, questioned me about a bill that posted to our checking account that he assumed was a scrapbook kit club charge since in the item line description it said "Paperstreet". I recently cancelled my last kit club membership (boohoo!!) so I too was somewhat surprised and looking at the description of the charge that posted, I also thought it was a scrapbooking related charge. I knew I had not purchased anything lately on-line or otherwise, so I started investigating the charge. The post to our bank account on-line also had a web site notated which was Epoch.com. Epoch is an Internet Payment Service Provider (IPSP) which enables merchants to accept payments online. I had never heard of them before, but maybe some of you have. I proceeded to call them only to be told that somehow someone accessed my debit card number and was using my debit card to pay for a subscription to an on-line adult entertainment website!! Not only that, but this subscription charge has been posting to my account on a monthly basis since Aug. of 2006!!!!!!!!!!@@@@@!!!!! $24.87 a month since Aug. 2006!!!!@@@@@@@@ !!! How both my husband and I overlooked this, I will never know. Epoch told me they had some email address linked to my debit card that neither my husband or I recognized. They said whoever was at this email address had been using my debit card to pay for the adult website. Epoch said they would stop all payments and could refund me up to 4 months (going back 120 days) of payments but that was it. We also called our bank and spoke to the fraud department. They said if we filed a claim with them, they could only credit us back 60 days, so suggested that we wait and see if Epoch would credit us back, since they would go back as far as 120 days. The bank said this kind of thing does happen more often than you think. Weird. I feel violated. Still seems fishy to me.

Well, enough of THAT story. I finally took some pictures of my latest Valentines project. I've done an album like this in the past - "What we Love" - the Adams Family. In fact, I had one published last year in Paper Trends Feb./Mar. 2008 issue!! My very first publication!! It was pretty exciting being it was my first publication and they did a two page spread on it!! It's fun to look back at each family member's list and see how it has changed over the years. This latest album is made with a chipboard album from Maya Road. The papers are from KI Memories Wild Things paper line and the embellies are a mixture of KI Memories and Making Memories.







10 comments:

Kate said...

Gorgeous mini book! Sorry about the fraud that truly sucks!

liz mataraza said...

wow! love your banner and the mini rocks! sorry to hear about the fraud. i hope it all works out ok. i had my share of it with paypal and it's NOT FUN!

lisatoronto said...

I love your mini book-- great use of bling! Good job catching the fraud-- some people never even notice for a long time!

Kristii said...

Soooo sorry about the fraud!!! That is just wrong!! Love your projects!! Absolutely awesome!!

Davinie Fiero said...

Oh my gosh, I am so sorry about the fraudulent stuff! That's really scary! I hope you can find out who's doing it!
On the bright side... that's an adorable Valentine mini.

Linda said...

Oh goodness - that totally bites about the fraud! Love your mini album and all the bling! :)

Sweet Peripety said...

that is just unbelievable- i just don't get people that steal money like that!

i love your blog design- you are so very talented!

Cricket said...

Oh my gosh, that is awful about the fraud thing!! We've had our credit card stolen a number of times, it's really scary realizing how easy it is for people to access and use your stuff!!

Love the mini, it's fabulous!!

Have you checked on dates yet for scrapping? LOL

smiles,

Lisa Dorsey said...

Oh that really stinks. I had someone steal my credit card a few years ago and I completely understand the feeling being violated.

Your mini album is absolutely adorable! I especially love the white fur on the front. So much fun!

Tracy Lathrop said...

Love the mini and how it turned out!! It is even prettier in person!! The banner turned out absolutely gorgeous Girl!! Love it!!