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My 'Dexter virus' credit card experience

A Fin24 user tells how he spent R17 000 on his credit card in Canada without ever leaving Cape Town, or letting the card out of his sight. He writes:

When the Dexter credit card virus story broke last week, I got mailed quite a few links to it. Not because I watch the series, but because of what happened about two weeks before.

I received an odd phone call from the bank as I arrived at work. Before I could say: “No, I don’t want a gold card”, they told me the were seeing ‘strange activity’ on my credit card and would like to know what was going on.

Finding this odd, I logged in on my online banking and got a massive punch in the gut – my balance was R17 000 lower than the last time I checked. Ouch.

To add to the drama, the next minute I was called to our morning meeting at work. Needless to say I was a bit distracted, what with “OH CRAP WHAT AM I GOING TO DO” being stuck on repeat in my head.

I felt like a total sucker, concluding that I must have been reckless with my card at some stage, but I couldn’t think where - I’m generally careful.

The ‘no PIN, just swipe and sign’ feature which was a cool convenience the day I got my card came back to bite me hard. The eerie thing is the till lady at the cafeteria downstairs had actually pointed this out just the other day, as I was paying for lunch.

I finally arrived back at my desk and had a look at my statement. In the week since I last used my card, there had been swipes for around R17 000, most of them at ‘PetroCan’ and ‘Walmart’, all with suffix ‘CA’ (which I deduced is short for Canada, although ‘con artist’ is also a valid guess at this point).

Seeing the statement made it worse. It made it real; confirmed - not even stuck in the little “uncleared items” box at the bottom.

So I called the bank back, and kindly informed them that there had been ‘strange activity’ and that they must please stop the card immediately (all said in my best “trying to stay calm after just losing nearly 20 grand” voice).

They told me that they would open an investigation, which should take several working days. I tried to determine my chances of a refund, but the lady was very vague.

My wife and I discussed it that night. (She appeared not to take it too badly, but was likely just trying to support me.) Neither of us know of any success stories of people getting their money back. I had no idea if there was any form of fraud insurance on the card.

What if the bank said I was negligent, and I had no way of proving otherwise? All that came to mind was “Huisgenoot editor and others lose hundreds of thousands due to banking fraud”. On the other hand, “Rich people get their money back after fraud” wouldn't make such a good headline.

The next day I got a call from the bank: my case had been opened, and I needed to fill in a form. Usually I despise forms (especially when companies ask for info they already have). But not this one - I loved it, completed it quickly and neatly and sent it off. Anything to keep the possibility of a refund alive.

After a week of anxious waiting, I finally got an SMS from the bank: “Your account will be credited with 17k”. I was so happy, I did a little dance. What an absolute total relief.

Getting refunded is a weird thing though – you feel like you won the money, and for a minute you start thinking you should treat yourself, and then you remember you never had it in the first place.

Kudos to the banking industry for manning up and footing the bill. I must be honest and admit that I don’t really know what went wrong, or who’s to blame, but it’s admirable of them to take the hit.

What I learnt: chip and PIN. Always.

And three days later I got mailed a bunch of articles about the Dexter virus.

 - Fin24

Have you been a victim of the Dexter virus? Share your story and you could get published.

Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyFin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.

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