# Minor Disasters



## rhiana (Aug 5, 2013)

So Cyber Monday yesterday gave me the chance to realize that prepping helps us in small disasters as well as big ones.

I woke up to discover my bank accounts had all been cleared out by an identity thief. You can read the story here:

http://www.afrugallife.org/2013/12/cyber-monday-hell-with-groupon.html

So after an entire day of calling the bank and the company responsible, I am getting my money back... but not for 10 days. This came before we had paid rent or bought groceries for the month.

So we will be living entirely on what we have in the house prepped for food for the next 10 days and what is left in the fridge... not much.

Good to be prepared!


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## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

That is a wonderful example for all of us. You might want to add some cash to your preps, but overall, you did great!


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

rhiana said:


> So Cyber Monday yesterday gave me the chance to realize that prepping helps us in small disasters as well as big ones.
> 
> I woke up to discover my bank accounts had all been cleared out by an identity thief. You can read the story here:
> 
> ...


I have direct deposits for our S.S(2) and Gene's disability from VA for agent orange damage.
As soon as banks open, the money is withdrawn.
1) what is Groupon??
2) what is Cyber Monday??


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## havasu (Sep 4, 2011)

I believe the lesson learned here is to never link your bank information to the on-line purchasing sites.


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## VoorTrekker (Oct 7, 2012)

I found PayPal to be safer if the merchant honors it, but forget about anything relating to firearms, PayPal does not honor the sale.


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

Wow, sorry you're going through that! 

I know I have vulnerabilities I need to clean up - thanks for the reminder.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

JayJay said:


> I have direct deposits for our S.S(2) and Gene's disability from VA for agent orange damage.
> As soon as banks open, the money is withdrawn.
> 1) what is Groupon??
> 2) what is Cyber Monday??


*
Groupon.* Groupon (a portmanteau derived from "group coupon") is a deal-of-the-day website that features discounted gift certificates usable at local or national companies. Groupon was launched in November 2008, and the first market for Groupon was Chicago, followed soon thereafter by Boston, New York City, and Toronto. By October 2010 Groupon served more than 150 markets[clarification needed] in North America and 100 markets in Europe, Asia and South America and had 35 million registered users.[4][5][6][7]
The idea for Groupon was created by now-ousted CEO and Pittsburgh native[8] Andrew Mason.[9] The idea subsequently gained the attention of his former employer, Eric Lefkofsky, who provided $1 million in "seed money" to develop the idea. In April 2010, the company was valued at $1.35 billion.[10] According to a December 2010 report conducted by Groupon's marketing association and reported in Forbes Magazine and the Wall Street Journal, Groupon was "projecting that the company is on pace to make $1 billion in sales faster than any other business, ever".[8] However, a report from Forrester Research in October 2011 suggested that the Groupon business model was a "disaster" and that the firm had become an example of "how fast an Internet darling can fall."[11]
In its first earnings release as a public company, Groupon reported a 2011 fourth-quarter loss of $9.8 million on an adjusted basis, disappointing investors.[12] Additional investor concern arose after the company restated 2011 revenues downward in March 2012.[13]

*
Cyber Monday.* Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday after Thanksgiving in the United States. The term "Cyber Monday" was created by marketing companies to persuade people to shop online. The term made its debut on November 28, 2005 in a Shop.org press release entitled "'Cyber Monday Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year".[1]
According to the Shop.org/BizRate Research 2005 eHoliday Mood Study, "77 percent of online retailers said that their sales increased substantially on the Monday after Thanksgiving, a trend that is driving serious online discounts and promotions on Cyber Monday this year (2005)". In 2010, comScore[2] reported that consumers spent $1.028 Billion online on Cyber Monday (excluding travel, 2009: $887M), the highest spending day of 2010.


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

Hope you get everything cleared up quickly. I do a lot of online business and although I think I'm careful I'm well aware there are thousands of dishonest people out there with 100 times more knowledge of how it all works than me. My main line of defense has been to keep very little in my bank accounts (not too difficult :laugh. I tend to buy only from companies I have real life experience of or through ebay/paypal. There have been a few times when a deal 'too good to be true' has come my way and I've gone ahead, foolishly :/. I've been lucky so far.......


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

*Tis the season*

Tis the season to be ripped off. And it is the season to be extra vigilant. The police often tell us how, but your story, was a little different than the typical rip-off.


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

This is why my retired banker wife will not use a checking account number or a debt card to make payments or to allow some company to draw on a bank account to get there money.

She will take a credit card and make monthly payments even though this requires her to make the extra work for herself. Charge card have there place and this is it. The card companies provide fraud protection for free.

We have had our charge card number stolen and used illegally of 3 different occasions. 

The first time, I received a call from the card card company that my card was used to buy a $300 boom box in California and they wanted to know if it was correct. I said no, and they said do not worry about it and they cancelled my card and sent me a new one without question. They did not charge me the $300.

On a second occasion a waiter at a restaurant had taken my charge card and never gave it back. I approached him and said that I had gotten my card back and he argued with me. I said i saw you bring it over to the register. so I walked over there with the waiter in toll. I said you must have left it here. I found it behind the register in a crack between the machine and the wall. I told my wife that we need to check the purchases daily on the card. The next day we had charges for music CD's at Amazon. We called amazon and got the shipping address and the person they were sent to. I recognized the name as the wife of that same waiter that had lost our card. (while eating the waiter was a talkative idiot and mentioned his wife's name). Amazon reversed the charges and then we called the waiter boss and told him everything. BTW this was a rare times when we did not use cash for going out to eat.

On a third occasion, the credit card company said they detected a theft from my card without explaining what had happened and they said that they would cancel the card and send us new ones. We were not charged anything.


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## dixiemama (Nov 28, 2012)

E has a distant cousin with the same name and they have the same credit card. Sometimes the computers get us confused with them and vice versa. We just sort it out ourselves.


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