The saga continues

What a week it's been, folks.

The long saga of solving my debit card situation last week took some wild, frustrating and frankly disturbing turns.

A quick refresher: Last weekend my debit card was flagged for sketchy activity by my bank. Looks like someone skimmed my card and quickly tried to buy multiple Apple cards at $300 a pop, plus a $600 purchase from what was labeled as USPS. Most of the purchases were blocked with the exception of one $300 Apple card reload and the $600 USPS transaction.

After calling the fraud number twice and still noticing $900 missing, I decided to just go straight to a US Bank here in town.

Before I go further, I want to give a big shout out to my banker who helped me. Julie Long, you're a rock star. Thanks for taking the time to help me get all of this sorted out.

After some calls to the fraud office and a look at my profile, not only did someone get my card information, they got into my account. Whoever it was changed my phone number and email address. Thanks to that, each time I called the fraud number and provided my phone number and email, it was wrong on their end.

You read that right: The scammer changed my account's phone number and email to prolong the reporting process.

Now I was a bit irked that I wasn't informed of this until going to the bank in person and seeing the flags. From what I've gleaned, that seems to be the reason those two charges went through, all because I “wasn't able to provide the correct phone number and email address” when reporting fraudulent activity. I don't know about you, but in all of my years of writing this column, I've never heard of a scammer calling a bank to stop fraudulent charges.

Thankfully, Julie and the local branch on The Esplanade were able to get me a temporary debit card and had my new credit card fast-tracked. Again, thanks a ton for the help.

Unfortunately, I'm still currently out $900 until the bank reverses the payments.

Stay safe folks and check your accounts regularly.

Scam of the Week generally runs every Tuesday. Readers are welcome to contact reporter Jake Hutchison to report scams and potential scams they have come in contact with by calling 530-828-1329 or via email at jhutchison@ chicoer.com.