apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

well guys, all home improvement plans are now put on hold even more. sunday at 4:30 i got plowed in my car by two cars that had previously wrecked and were stuck together, going 40 miles an hour. we are okay but had pretty bad back spasms/whiplash and my car is...well....dead. then, the next day, i looked online at my bank account and someone has gotten my debit card number and has wiped me out. i have nothing. at least i already bought the paint for my hallway...

elizabeth:

Yikes. I'll send some positive thoughts your way.

Oh, my God.

holy cripes! i hereby send a gazillion good vibes your way, all the way to AL. take care!

Elizabeth! That's horrible. I'm so sorry this happened to you!

EEK! Well, I AM HAPPY YOU DIDN'T SUFFER A SERIOUS INJURY!! Was everyone else OK? Good thoughts will be sent your way this week.

As far as your account, hope your bank will sort it out.

Take it easy and continue with your life.

Elizabeth--call your bank, then put the fraud in writing, immediately. Banks today will generally reimburse you for up to a certain amount for that type of fraud. So you may not have nothing after all.

Then of course call all three credit bureaus and put them on fraud alert.

thank you so much everyone! i have really just had an awful week - it's ALMOST hilarious how bad it's been.

we are ok - just really sore backs and headaches but we had ct scans and x-rays done and everything's fine.

the bank has hotcarded my account, and THANKFULLY they hadn't opened any credit cards yet - i just issued a fraud alert for equifax...and whatever the other two are called.

but just so everyone knows - how it happened was i filled out something for paypal - and i'm a smart kid - i know better - i never put my name or any information unless i know what it is - and it was CONVINCING. so much so that i did fill out my information. i didn't think of it again until i got ANOTHER email. (they sent me an email, and it sent me to a site that looked EXACTLY like paypal) I then sent the email to pay pal and the confirmed that it was a phishing scam. so, everyone watch out. i'm not sure if i'm even going to continue using paypal or buying anything from the internet if it's that easy for someone to rob you.

thanks again everyone for the good thoughts. i need them. i love you all, AT!

Good luck Elizabeth, glad you escaped serious injury. Hhope the money can be recovered. I heard debit cards are risky like that.
I entered a Home Depot constest, answer a survey and enter a drawing for $100 locally and $500 nationally and filled out a survey before I realized it was not the official HD but an imposter. The computer was loaded with cookies. I am very suspicious now of all computer transactions.

i think the thing is now that they can make it look exactly like it, we just need to call whatever company before we do ANYTHING and say "i got this email, i'll forward it to you, are YOU asking for this information..." etc etc. i mean, i'm not kidding, it may as well have been paypal for all i'm concerned. i'm now very apprehensive about anything on the internet. i'm probably going to go on and change my email address - everything. what do i do about my ss# and home address? meaning, what can they use that for? just credit cards and stuff? good thing i put down a different address than the one that is linked to my credit. i'm going to post this on all the blogs i'm a part of so as many people can see it as possible. the lady from one of those three credit companies told me that the majority of frauds they get lately are from paypal phishing scams...so...for what that's worth.

Elizabeth, I can understand your paranoia about the internet after something like that, but every article I've read says statistically you are more likely to be the victim of identity theft and so on due to regular transactions not online shopping. Still its a cautionary tale for all of us.

Hope its is resolved to your satisfaction.

That is terrible, glad you are unhurt---the $$ part sucks but its just $$, not lives.

Re: paypal scams, etc, an easy way to tell if they are bogus is to look at the url/website address of the page. If it starts with anything other than http://www.paypal.com, like a string of numbers or other word, its a scam. Its impossible to tell from the page design because they are made to look identical! Yuck.

Elizabeth - I am so glad you are OK and, unlike the things that really matter, money and objects can be replaced.

In terms of emails from ebay and paypal and the like, most of them will address you by your full name and not just with a generic greeting or your username. I never click on links in emails either. If I truly think it's not a phishing email, I type in the address of the website manually to verify. It's very easy to disguise links and email addresses to look legitimate.

Best wishes for a much much better week to come!

If there are links in an email, the best thing to do is right click on the link and go to properties. This will show you the actual address. If it doesn't look legit (not www.homedepot.com) then don't click on the link.

you guys are so right - and i knew about the url - just didn't think to check (kicking myself). how it got me was that it did address me by my full name, and i even opened a new browser to go to paypal and see about this validation stuff - there was some "account unvalidated" on my actual paypal account so i thought it was legit. but it would have all been for naught if i looked at the url. good thing to remember.


the sunny side is that my very dark hallway is now a sunny/mustardy/yellow!

for DCers:




TLC is currently seeking homeowners ages 25-40 in the DC Metro area who would like to go green with projects around the house for a TV series currently in production. If you know anyone or would like to apply yourself, please e-mail handymancasting@gmail.com and send us photos of the projects you would like to tackle as well as a short description. Condos and apartments unfortunately cannot be considered, single family homes or townhomes only. Thank you!

This triple click thing is really annoying

Yes, it is :(