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My mom has notiticed a few strange transactions on her bank statement and has accused me of making them. But I did not. I told her I did not make them, and she plainly said "I don't believe you".
Her logic is that she thinks I'm an untrusworthy person and I spend a lot of time on the internet. You see I was a pretty bad teenager... but I'm graduating college this semester (BS in molecular biology) and I've become a much more honest person in recent years). And the charges appear to be for internet-related services.
The charges seem to be recurring charges (they each occurred last month and this month).
One charge is for NETZERO*VOICE and the other says GNI*GIGANEWS.
Netzero voice is VOIP, which as I understand requires a microphone to use (something I don't even have).
And the Giganews, I'm really not sure what this is for... it looks like some kind of service for anonymous web surfing.
I know my mom checks her bank statements, and I'm not so stupid as to put something on her CC without permission. My mom's had strange charges on her card before, originating from various asian countries, and she had the bank remove the charges and issue a new cc. But now she has made it up in her mind that these recent charges are of my doing.
So, can someone please tell me how I can PROVE to her that these charges are not mine?
Thanks,
-john
But I would suggest telling her again (calmly, without a trace of frustration, anger, or condescension) that the charges aren't yours, that you don't know a thing about them, but you're going to pay her for them anyway, double, and that you'll do the same for any future charges she thinks are yours. For one thing you probably owe it to her anyway (who among us doesn't?) and for another thing, this could go a long way toward re-establishing your credibility with her.
If that doesn't provide satisfaction, your mother should tell the credit card company those charges are not legit and should be removed. It is up to the companies to prove they did, indeed, deliver the goods or services.
It will take several weeks, but the charges will either be validated or removed.
You should note that many online services renew automatically, so this might be a charge for something you purchased a year or more ago or you were offered a free try for a service you didn't want or need. If so, you'll need to cancel.
I think my mom has some doubts in her accusation of me but she's just stubborn so probably wont admit that she could be wrong. I think by paying her I would be admitting guilt...and I don't have any spare cash anyway.., I'm saving so I can move out after graduation. I'll probably talk with her in a few days and see if she'll re-evaluate the situation.
fischer, I spent about an hour the other day trying to understand what the usenet is. I'm still not really sure :) and I thought I was in the know... but maybe not.
weeks, good point... i racked my brain to make sure the charges weren't some random "add-ons" to services either I, or my parents may have purchased. But they surely are not. So my dad and I will be calling the bank next. They'll probably remove the charges... but will my mom come to her senses... hopefully.
I spent about an hour the other day trying to understand what the usenet is. I'm still not really sure :) and I thought I was in the know... but maybe not.
USENET was created about 20-30(?) years ago, before HTML and web browsers were invented. USENET was computer users' answer to "discussion forums" before you could visit an internet forum like this one using Microsoft Internet Exploder.
The Internet was very primitive back then. You could sent email, and use the USENET discussion groups - but the messages might have taken 24 hours to get out instead of "instantly" like they do today.
You hooked up to these functions usually thru a BBS, a Bulletin Board System, which was another ancient type of online community. Some BBS systems were hooked into the internet, and some were not. If the BBS was not hooked to the old internet (it was called ARPANET and FIDONET back then) then you could only "talk" to other BBS users. Most BBSes were popular for playing games too.
Anyhow, USENET is still around, although it has lost popularity. You can participate in the USENET for free by going to Google. I think the address is groups.google.com
USENET
One of those things that (like IRC) has not had a legitimate purpose in the last 10 years.
That's what I call a very ungrateful generalization.
Then, I have been illegitimately sharing opinions and knowledge in the rec.music.classical.guitar for years, just to say one.
Shame on me.
Have you run a decent antivirus prog on your computers?
I had a problem with someone from Eastern Europe (god bles 'em) charge £750 to my card via a gambling site, I suspect thats how they got hold of my card number
Well, here's an update:
The card was cancelled and a new one was issued.
Turns out there were several other strange charges. One for about $700 that luckily never went through because the bank intercepted it after my mom called them. The other two were from fonts.com and dr regsoft. So of the four charges now, 3 either dont have a phone or dont answer it, netzero answered the phone and told my dad to deal with the bank (and the bank said to deal with the companies). So its a classic case of the runaround. The four charges total to about $100. I'm not sure if its worth $100 to spend hours calling/emailing between the bank and these companies trying to get the money back. Who do you think is more liable, the bank or the companies, or the cardholder?
Essex_boy, you may be right about the viruses/malware. I scan the computer about once a week with several free products. I'd been having problems installing windows updates (getting the blue screen of death), so I used panda's activescan and removed a virus, then the windows updates installed just fine. I also removed some trojan that apparently is known to log screenshots, so that may have been how the card info was stolen.
