Collect All Four!

Two blog posts ago, I mentioned that I had been stolen from, conned, and had then had been robbed. I assumed that this meant that I finally had the complete collection. However, I forgot one: identity theft! I can now proudly say, I have collected all 4 specially marked thefts...

Last Saturday, I realized that I had not paid the school for the next week so I went to an ATM. Oddly enough, not one of the ATMs I went to were working. They all said that I had problems with my card. However, I knew that I had plenty in my account and it was telling the same thing to everyone else who tried to use the ATM that morning. This was even happening with ATMs from different companies. I wasn't able to withdraw anything but I paid with my card at a restaurant on Sunday and had no problems. On Monday, I went back to the ATM and all my money was there and I made a withdrawal without any problems whatsoever. After this, I put the situation out of my mind.

Thursday, a friend of mine told me that she went on Saturday too. Somehow, somebody used the machine (maybe a virus of some sort) and stole her number and was using it as a credit card. Her bank caught it and she didn't lose any money. However, it canceled her card so she no longer has money to live here in Guatemala.

I decided that maybe I should look at my account online...

I was $400 in the hole!!! I had over $400 the last time I checked. That means I lost over $800 dollars!!!!

Yeah.

Apparently they did the same with me but my bank did not catch it quite fast enough. There were a series of withdrawals made Monday morning after I made my withdrawal. however, they did eventually cancel my card. So now even if I had money in my account, I could not use it.

I am currently trying to work with my bank from afar, trying to figure out if I can get any of the money back. Please pray. Also, my family plans on visiting and bring a card or some money so I should be fine. Just pray that it will all work out and pray for anyone else who was a victim--tourists who would be stuck here, locals who would not have $800 to lose. There was even a little elderly Guatemalan lady in front of me in the line having the same problems. It was actually quite a large line.