Hacked
In the middle of the night, I heard my cell phone vibrate softly, but thought nothing of it and continued to slumber. When I woke up, I checked my e-mail and saw some PayPal. The first said that an e-mail had been added. The second, a credit card had been added...and the third stated that I had authorized a transfer for $898.00 to from my bank. I responded to third one and panicked.
I tried to dispute the claim online using my phone, but was having no luck. I called my boyfriend, freaking out, who told me to call PayPal. I got them on the phone and they removed the unauthorized e-mail address and credit card, but were unable to stop the transfer. I called my bank and they didn’t see a transaction. I’m assuming because the transaction was sent at 2:00am my bank’s time and hasn’t begun processing on their end.
Living in a time where someone’s personal info is a click away is terrifying. At least in the old days, criminals researched their mark. If this person had researched his mark, me, he or she would have realized wasn’t temporally nor fiscally worth it.
To the person who attempted this act,
I’m not going to ask why; you either needed or wanted the money. I will hope it’s the latter of the two, for the simple fact that just taking money because you want it makes it easier for me to dislike you. I hope you didn’t need it. I hope you are not in such dire need of money for fear of your life or the lives of your loved ones are being threatened. I also wish you had just asked the world to help you if you needed money that bad. Now there are websites like kickstarter and gofundme to help if there’s something wrong. Nothing is guaranteed, but it would have been better than trying to steal from someone who doesn’t have the means/funds.
I wish you knew that I didn’t have anywhere near the amount of money you wanted in my account. I wish you knew that I have student loans so overwhelming I pretend they’re not there in order to try to live my day-to-day normally. I wish you knew that I am going back to school and working only to pay for school out of pocket which leaves me living hand to mouth with little to no savings.
I can’t do anything about what you did, not really. I will be closing my PayPal account as soon all of this is settled and I sincerely hope that you get the financial help you need in a way that doesn’t hurt people, especially those who are already hurting.
Good luck.
