living, thinking and writing
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| PRACTICE living, thinking and writing |
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Sunday, July 27, 2003 Not another scary movie We decided that we are estranged from our Chinese peers too long, so we went for a dinner party last night. Most of the conversation is surrounding job market, gossip about CSE Depts. as always. There was an exception that night: a story told by a hapless couple freaked us all out: In April, when checking their banking account on line, the wife found their registered home phone number was changed and she could not changed it back, she thought it was just a system error. In May, an officemate of the wife got a suspicious phone call and the caller claimed to call from a credit card company to confirm the wife’s employment status. The vigilant officemate asked the man to send an official letter, which did not came for ever. In June, the husband got a phone call from a credit card company asking if they change their address to Florida. It was until then they sensed something wrong, and they check their credit report on line: Gasted! There were 23 credit cards they never applied, with balance of $40,000. However, minimum payment had been made for several months. Then they called all these credit card company and cancelled all cards; the second day, one of the cards called again asking if they re-open the account…then start the Tom and Jerry game: they have to call the 23 credit cards again and add a password for re-open. For several weeks, the wife did nothing but making phone calls to credit card companies and credit report bureaus. It is not scary if the story just ends here. Soon the couple started to receive, from both home and offices, strange phone calls, including one screaming at them and commanded them to reopen those credit accounts, otherwise “we are coming to visit you”. So they had to deal with police officer now, and one day they were visited by two “extremely friendly” FBI agents who provides them no solution but spiritual support. Those crazy calls are still coming in almost everyday. They stop picking up phones and install Caller ID and recorder. Most of calls were from Florida. Callers have unusual accents, such as pronouncing “L” as “H”. When told one day that they would be “visited” on the Independence Day, our poor friends ran out of town to Boston for a week. When they came back, they really received a message from their “old friend” in the answering machine. The Caller ID shows the phone call was from Buffalo area! And the story is not over yet. One afternoon when the husband went to their bank, the representative mentioned casually that they had changed their address to Florida for him this morning. The husband went pale and checked the recent transaction. Thank God, the money was all there. However, there was a withdrawal request weeks ago from New York City, but it did not go through since the signature didn’t fit. As remedy, the desperate couple hasted to place the security check to top level: no money could be withdrawn from any ATMs, nor any other branch of the bank. Now, they only drove to one designated bank branch every week to get some cash from one designated bank representative. Of course, no credit cards whatsoever. The husband got a teaching Job in Georgia and leaving soon. The frail wife had to move out of their home and find a hidden place to finish her degree, while she was alone in this city. When Bin and I left the party for home, the first thing we did was to call and close14 of our credit card accounts. We decided never to apply any new card and stick to our remaining 11 cards. posted by lmeimei @9:17 PM| permanent link| | |
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