I hired a mechanic through a friend at work. I thought he was a little "odd" but the price was right so I asked him to put brakes on my Jeep. As soon as he had my vehicle he searched it and found my debit card receipts in the console. I kept them in there, never reading them, not paying attention to the fact that many of them had my full account number and exp. date printed on them.
The day after he fixed my Jeep, charges for 900 numbers (adult oriented) showed up on my checking account. Hubby and I were working feverishly on our yard at the time, so we just thought we were spending A LOT of money at the Garden Center. That's what I get for not paying closer attention to our money I guess.
By the time this jerk was caught, he had spent $1400 cash out of our account, and opened up 2 other accounts in my husband's name for a 900 number company in California. It has taken me since June 2004 to get this all straighted out and his hearing is June 9th of this year.
The DA has told us he probably won't even serve time for this, even though the total was in excess of $4000. We did get all of our money back in the end, but I get porn mail all the time and it has been so much aggravation dealing with these disreputable companies. Please watch what you do with receipts. I never dreamed someone would do this to us.
By Sandy from Pittsburgh
