SCAMMED--A Very Expensive Lesson I Learned (please read, so it doesn't happen to you).

I never thought it would happen to me, but it did. Actually, I’m a pretty easy target for credit card fraud. I’m gullible. I’m trusting. I’m inept when it comes to handling money or finances. I failed math in college and I don’t do well with numbers.

So why in the heck do I run an eBay business? There are two reasons: 1) I love to buy stuff 2) I like to sell stuff and make money so I can buy more stuff. Just don’t ask me to total up my expense or ask me to keep my personal spending separate from my business spending. I mix it all together.

This attitude of mismanaging my account came back to bite in the butt—a $830.0 bite in the derriere. Somehow, somewhere, someone got a hold of my business credit card and for the last 12 months slowly ciphered money from my account—up to $100 dollars a month.  The culprit, a company that changes its name every so often as not to be caught, though the phone numbers always send me to the same message. Same people. Same company. Same scam.

Here is a list of names that they go by (for your own knowledge): Grant Finder, Web Cleaner, Google Chest, A1 Member, SearchChest, Safe Lock, Grant Masters, Web Training GRP, Grants-R-US, Auction-Support, Grandegrants, Member Area Billing, GrantSX, Google King, Products Resource, Work Net XP, Clean Web Service, Web Services. (These all came from my statements)

They change their name every month, so it’s harder to catch them or notice them on your statement. Their tricky. Their smart. They hope your not.

How was it that I never noticed this money disappearing from my account? Well, the sad, plain fact is—I never once opened my bank statement. Never. I would use the internet, look at my balance and that was all I needed to know.  I never looked at the transactions taking place. I didn’t think I needed to. It’s a small account. I didn’t think this would happen to me. Am I stupid or just plain naïve? I leave that up to you to decide.  

My husband alerted me to this scam. It is tax time, and he was reviewing my account for me. Things started looking fishy and that’s when it all came to a head. Just look up: http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/grant-masters-c210409.html That’s how we found out I was truly being scammed—others had been scammed too.

So, tomorrow morning I am going to call my bank first thing and see what advice they can offer me. With most scams, you only have up to 60 days to file a dispute. I am out a lot of money, because of my stupidity. I will more than likely have to completely close this account, since there is no way to stop this company from changing its name and withdrawing more money from me (they just took out $30 yesterday).  My eBay business is put on hold because of this.

More over, I feel dumb—real dumb. It could have been fixed a long time ago. All I had to do was slice open the envelope and take a peek at what was going on. I learned my lesson—the hard way. Please don’t let it happen to you.

**Scott handles our personal finances and reviews our statements weekly (thank goodness for that). 

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