You’re going to tell me about identity theft??
Recently I was at one of my favorite stores with a friend. I was in line to pay and my debit card was declined three times. Moments passed as I stood there furiously searching my brain. I am notorious for forgetting my PIN. Was this another one of those moments? A quick look back - the line grew tenfold in those few seconds. No, I’m pretty sure this is not one of my awesome moments - I had the PIN right. I looked at the cashier who began to explain that my card was locked out after three tries for identity theft protection purposes. At this point I was slightly frustrated - not only are they not going to accept my card but now they are going to tell me about identity theft protection. Really? Does it get more insulting? I was half tempted to conveniently have my business card fall out of my purse onto the counter but, after thinking about it a couple times, I resisted. A pulled out some cash and stepped aside for my friend to pay. The same thing happened to him. We left my favorite store slightly disgruntled.
Next stop: the video store. As we stood in line still commenting on the episode and the plethora of skilled workers my favorite store hired, he pulled out his card and suddenly placed it in front of my nose. His card had my name on it - our cards had gotten mixed up when we paid for dinner earlier. While I walked away with my tail between my legs that night, there was some good news: I hadn’t thrown my business card around and my friend’s debit card still worked despite the multiple tries with the PIN number (ok -this is mostly scary that it still worked. However, it was good in my case since he was paying for the movie).
How many companies out there are feeding consumers information regarding identity theft policies? How much of this information is correct? The store employee tried to tell me their identity theft policy but it appeared incorrect when the PIN was not timed out after three incorrect tries. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America. Are employees receiving enough up-to-date training? It is doubtful so the only thing we can do is question, question, question; you can’t do enough to protect your identity.
