Hi guys,

For those of you who are firmly in the 21st century and have succumbed to your bank's lure of making extensive use of your debit card, here's a bit of advice....do not feel that as a rule fraudulent transactions against your debit card are subject to the good ol' $50 exposure that your credit cards have. These are essentially cash transactions and have very different ramifications.

Just prior to our trip to SP my 25 year old daughter had her number taken from a transaction at a local pizzeria (Number ONLY!) When we returned home she had been hit for over $2,000 using the number only. All of this was face to face with several local merchants so there would be several conspirators to process the transaction without the card. The best part...this is cash out of her account!! Even when the account went negative Bank One kept processing the transactions and charged $25 for each one. (Over $250 in overdraft fees at this point)

Unravelling this is not an easy task, and even though the bank cooperates, it is a slow process. The sheriff's department is actually working harder on the fraud than the bank. Keep in mind this is your CASH, not future credit obligations. In it's simplest terms this is a real nightmare.

By the time the overdraft charges reach your home via the mail the damage is extensive. (These guys even had a buddy at a local watch store "mistakenly" issue a $700 credit to the account so that they could "reload" the cash and keep going)

OK, back to the good stuff...i.e Temptation Island" Yeoowwwww.