I'm so stooopid... but fortunate.

Today at work I got a call on my cell phone from an unknown number. These calls I don't usually answer for obvious reasons. I figure if it's important, whomever it is will leave a message.

For some reason I decided to answer it and I am glad that I did.

My bank was calling me because they noticed that someone was trying to use my Visa debit card, trying to make a purchase from Italy. Fortunately, their attempt was unsuccessful and they did not get any of my money (what little of it I have, anyway). The person I talked to closed off the account number and advised me that I'd need to go to the bank as soon as possible and request a new card.

I just discovered why their attempt to steal from me went bad. I just looked at my checking account balance and it's negative!!!! For once I'm glad I bounced some stuff, however briefly, since the bounced fees are going to kill me.

So that's where I went as soon as work was done.

But now I'm without my debit card for 7-10 days, until I get my new card in the mail. Now I'll have to write checks whenever I go to the stores I go to that I always use my debit card at without thinking twice. What a pain in the -.

Why am I stoopid? Because I got an email from Paypal that said there was a problem with my account and they needed my number. I get these emails frequently and never respond to them, though I wonder why I did last night. Obviously, it wasn't the real Paypal but some hacker slacker who is trying to earn money the old-fashioned way - by stealing it.

Bottom line is this - and it's a lesson to be learned by all of us: never click on an email link that asks you to enter personal information like credit card numbers, etc. becasue you'll never know where you'll be redirected. These scammers make their pages look like the real deal and sadly fool many of us.

This incident will not deter me from the convenience of on-line shopping, however. One bad incident out of hundreds. From now on I'll just have to be more careful to report, forward and delete these emails without entering anything.

So let that be a lesson to me -- and you.