This is a personal story that I want to share because it has taught me a valuable lesson – police officers are not immune to crime.

This weekend I attempted to purchase a muffin for my daughter using my debit card but it was decline.  My first thought was that I did not have sufficient funds to cover the $2 muffin.  My heart beat a little faster wondering how I had been so careless as to spend every penny I had, and then the embarrassment of a declined payment while other patrons stood behind me waiting.

I quickly asked what the "declined" meant and was told that my card was not active.  What a relief!  I had not exceeding my monthly budget on coffee.

My next question was Why?  Why was my card suddenly deactivated?  While I pondered the problem, I pulled out my other debit card and thankfully was able to pay for the muffin.

Later in the day I went on-line to check the status of my account and was rudely met with “Login Failed”.  I was given direction to contact a phone number but of course missed business hours for the number and had to wait until Monday to call.  For the rest of the weekend, I had to rely on my husband to pay – now, that is never a bad thing and really is the silver lining behind my story.  My husband is a very generous man!

At work this morning, I called the bank and was told my card had been cancelled.  I was given the numbers to my new card which I quickly entered into the on-line banking site and finally got to see what all the fuss with my card was about.

The first thing to jump off the screen was the negative sign in front of my account balance!  Now my heart was definitely beating faster, not because I thought I had been duped, but because I thought I had drastically overspent.  I saw the debit purchases for coffee on Saturday night and then the dinner out with my daughter.  Those were all good.  The next two purchases caught my attention because they were withdrawals of $500 each and had both been done at different locations in the lower mainland.  I quickly scanned my memory bank to confirm that after dinner in Saanich with my daughter, I had not ferried across to Vancouver in order to withdraw $1000 and have a shopping spree at Ikea – I am quite sure I would have remembered such an event.

It was at that moment that I accepted my bank account had been compromised.

Was there something I could have done to prevent this?  Likely.  Will I ever know what it was that I did toexposed my account information to the criminal?  Unlikely.  Will I be much more careful in the future?  Definitely.

I share this with you in the hopes that we will all be a bit more aware and a bit more cautious in protecting our money.

Sgt. Julie Fast