My luck continues

Will my luck in Thailand ever get better?! Weekly food poisoning, car accidents, bike accidents, giant bug bites, evil land lord, terrible job..... and now theft. YAY!!!!

Last month I got money from an ATM and I noticed that my account balance seemed really low. I checked my online banking the next day and low and behold: 12 charges in Australia totaling $4,950. made four days earlier. Great. I canceled my card, contacted my bank (which is in the States), and filed police reports with the Thai police, the Australian police and even Interpol. I assumed that the purchases were made online because I hadn’t lost my debit card.

After my bank started their investigation they told me that a debit card was physically present when all the charges were made which means that my case is “suspicious” because I never lost my card. It’s clear to me that someone stole my card number/expiration date and created a fake card in Australia. Brandon and I googled that scenario and it’s fairly common. It must be what happened. The customer service person at my bank was exceptionally rude to me over the phone and told me at least five times that if I “insist” that the bank continue their investigation and if its revealed that I’m committing fraud (“which appears to be the case”) I will be criminally prosecuted. Unbelievable. It’s great to have your own bank (whom I’ve had an account with for almost my whole life) treat you like a criminal. I obviously had them resume their investigation and I was assured that a final decision regarding if they’ll return my money would be made within ten days. Of course, I asked why my debit card was allowed to be used outside of Thailand which is the only country that I authorized use within. The CSR told me that it’s “not the bank’s responsibility to play big brother” and that they would never freeze a debit card while one of their customers is traveling internationally. That’s right – somehow I found the one bank in the world that doesn’t freeze accounts when you travel. I’ve seen three friends have their cards frozen when making one little purchase in Vancouver BC (500 miles from home) but apparently my bank thinks it’s ok for charges to be made on my card ON A DIFFERENT CONTINENT. To my bank’s credit, they did “flag” the charges as suspicious so they contacted my mom (whom I added to my account prior to leaving). All they did was ask her if I was using my card internationally. My mom told them that I was in Thailand but they should have already known that because I had them “put a note” on my account before I left. They never mentioned to my mom that the charges were in AUSTRALIA at high end jewelry stores!!

Long story short, it has been over a month and I still have yet to hear back from my bank about if they’ll be replacing my stolen money. The police have been surprisingly unhelpful. I only use my debit card at one particular grocery store and ATM machines so I’m 95% sure that my debit card’s information was stolen (and sold) by one of the rude little cleaning ladies at our old apartment, but the Thai police absolutely refused to help me because they think that the Australian police should be doing the investigation. And guess what the Australian police said? The Thai’s need to investigate. Great. And now neither department will return my e-mails at all – same with Interpol in BKK. Thanks cops!!!

I just found out a couple days ago that my bank finally obtained copies of the receipts. 32 two days after the charges cleared. God. Survallence tapes? Still no. I’ve been promised a decision by my bank on July 25th at the latest. Holding my breath…