On a personal note: 'Identity theft'

I put that in quotes because no one can steal my identity, but lately they've been trying to steal my money. A few weeks ago I noticed two charges on a credit card statement that weren't mine and immediately called the credit card company. They cancelled the charges as being fraudulent and have since sent me a new card. I have yet to hear anything back from them regarding their investigation of the transactions.

Then this week, someone was whisking money out of my checking account, over the telephone, using my account number and the bank's routing number. They extracted $300 on Tuesday and $290 yesterday as recurring payments to an account at another bank. I look at my bank accounts online every day and immediately notified the bank about the transfers. After yesterday's fraud, the account was $30+ overdrawn (they're not charging for the overdraft).

At the advice of the bank's claims department, yesterday I went to my banking center and put a hold on the checking account and opened up a new one. I also ordered a new debit card and put a new lock on my mailbox here at the condo (a key to which B. still had*). Hopefully no more surprises. (Knock on wood.)

Whether the two incidents are related, I don't know, but I have some suspicions. The credit card was a card I use for purchases at Amazon.com and never left the house. After I reported the fraud to the credit card company (while I was at work), I came back home to find the card missing.

The moral of the story is: Keep a close eye on your bank accounts and don't leave your credit cards lying around the house on top of the furniture, just in case, say, alienators of affection may be lurking (among other things) in your house while you're not there. I'm just sayin'.

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*In case you didn't know, B. was "stolen" away from me in a classic case of alienation of affection. B.'s bad judgment, I think. He's now living with the guy. Bootsy's still here, however, keeping an always uneasy company with Lucy, but it's still company and Bootsy is safe here and well cared for.