I had the misfortune of having a firewall go belly-up on me and I wasn't aware of it at the time. This happened on the so called day USA Credit approved one of their crappy cards in my name and without my knowlege. They also saw fit to immediatly withdraw $149.95 from my checking account, they never notified me of the transaction via phone or e-mail (I'm sure they had my phone no. & e-mail address if they were able to get my chk'ing account no.).
I figured they got my checking account number either from banking online or reordering checks online. These are the only two web sites I have ever used my account number. I was under the impression that this information is encryped and in some cases never written to the hard drive.
Since then I have replaced the firewall software with a different one which audibly notifies you if it falls to stop an invasion and if it the software itself crashes. I also clean all personnal information from my C: drive after each internet session and store any personnal info, credit card, banking accounts, social security number, etc., on a different drive which is removable.
I called USA Credit and cancelled the card then called my bank imediatly and reported the incident. My bank is giving me back the amount withdrawn and they are going to go after USA Credit themselves. I'm foryunate that my bank is a county wide community bank only and feel their customers come first. The key was acting fast and notifing the proper parties in time.
Steve
Magalia, California
U.S.A.
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