This is a post about how stupid and dumb must one be to do something like I did. It all started when I was in rush and getting ready to go out, had to go buy some stuff, go to get my car fixed etc.. and I received a text which was claiming to be from my bank, that I needed to reenter my information to keep using my app otherwise it will get deactivated. Which of course me being in a rush didn’t think much of it and just clicked on the link, which was conveniently in the text, and it took me to the bank website.
Where I could enter my information to log in, so I started to put in all my info which also included the card info and 3 digit code. Filled everything out and yeah it went through and it seemed that that was all I needed to do. Didn’t think much of it at that moment. I started to close everything and as I did that I noticed the number from which the text came. It was something random like 112233.
The moment when it sank in my soul left my body from panic, my hands started to shake, sheer panic. I tried to open my app to check if my account was already emptied, it just told me that my account might have been compromised and it advised me to deactivate it which I did right in that moment I couldn’t even check my balance, I tried to calm down, scour the internet for the tech support for my bank, it never felt harder to find a number in my life.
I finally found it, tried to call, finally got to an agent and then of course my phone disconnected the call because my prepaid phone card run out, I couldn’t even call back and they didn’t call me so the only option I had was to rush to the nearest store and fill my card which I had no money in my wallet for and paying through internet required authentication from my app which I couldn’t do because it was deactivated.
I remembered my mom was coming from her work at this time so I took the route she takes when going home(her work is fairly close to our home) so I went that way and thank God, she was there on her bicycle just on the way home, I pulled over told her to please let me use her phone that I will explain everything later, she was in shock(understandably) but she gave me her phone and I finally could make that call again.
So I spent about half an hour on the phone with the agent just explaining everything and him working on freezing my account and submitting an order to get my money back, they basically emptied my whole account… as expected, they took around $22,000… Which may not be that lot to a lot of people, but believe me, to me, it’s a LOT.
He told me that there is a chance I will see my money back, but nothing concrete, that I should go to the bank and finish everything and sign the documents. So I went, still in shock, my hands shaking, home to return my mom’s phone and tell her to please fill my phone card so I can make a call if anything happens, so I took a ride to the nearest bank, walked in there, explained the situation, they told me how dumb can I be, that they send information about stuff like this all the time so people know about it(of course not in these exact words).
So after all that they just basically checked everything, told me straight away that I will probably never see that money again, ripped my old card and got me a new card, the whole time I was sitting there, I was half dead just contemplating my life choices. Finished everything and walked out of there with 2 dollar on my account and no will to continue my existence.