TL;DR: stole our identity.
A few weeks ago H was looking at our account online and noticed a Target red card charge for $45. Probably wouldn't have thought anything of it but we hadn't been to Target in a couple weeks. We also noticed that the charge said Brea and we weren't sure what that meant, so we called.
People in Target's customer service couldn't see it so we got passed along until finally we got to collections or something and they could see it. Brea is Brea, CA, near LA. Someone bought barbies and froot loops. They said it was a mix up where our account numbers were close and so hers was accidentally linked to ours (what?) and it would be fixed. They refunded us the money.
Well a couple nights ago he was looking again. A charge for $96 or something in Fullerton, CA. Again around and around on the phones, they couldn't see it, until finally someone could. It was Friday night so collections was not open. We cancelled the red card. Called again yesterday morning when collections was open. They asked if we knew a Kristy Clark. Apparently the account thing was bullshit and what actually happened was this person added herself as an authorized user. They weren't able to tell us how she managed to do that but she must have our social security numbers, account numbers, something.
Interestingly H noticed that the refund for the first charge was not in our name. It was in hers. Apparently no one on Target's end thought this would be a problem? We got the refund since it's our account but you would think someone would notice this and un-authorize the bitch.
So we went to the bank to close our account. Problem with red card is it's a debit card that is linked to your bank account so it's a waaay bigger problem and hassle than if someone steals your credit card. We also noticed a check we couldn't explain. We don't write many checks, pretty much just rent and some horse related stuff. There was a $148 check from Christmas eve with no image, so we asked about it. Apparently it was made out to- wait for it- Target, but the one that we actually do shop at sometimes. But we never write checks at Target. We use the red card, or if we forget it we use our credit card. So strange checks stick out like a sore ass on our account.
Banker thought this was some black market shit where someone sold our account numbers and were able to make a fake red card out of it. We went to Target to ask about this check and the person had never seen something that looked like this so they recommended we come back on Monday to talk to losses and to file a police report so that they can look into it further.
So yeah that was our Valentine's day. We are thinking we will try to contact Target and police in the LA area to see if we can catch this person. You would think it wouldn't be difficult- receipts show time and which checkout lane and there are cameras everywhere. Not a huge amount of money stolen from us but if they are doing it to a bunch of people? And if we were still dong a lot of shopping at Target like we used to we probably wouldn't have noticed.