They stole my wallet and it cost me 12,000

by Anonymous
(Brussels, Belgium)

I'm not sure that this was identity theft, but I was recently the victim of a credit card scam.

While travelling home from work, carrying a large item, on the Brussels Metro system, I had my wallet stolen. They got all my cards.

I had used one of the cards a few minutes earlier and I think that someone must have seen me type in my PIN number over my shoulder.

By the time I realised that I had lost my wallet and started phoning to cancel my cards, it was too late. It turned out that two of my credit cards had been used to make withdrawals of 5,000 euros each! Add into that that they had made normal ATM withdrawals, and my accounts were down by about 12,000 euros in under an hour.

The police don't seem to be overly interested in this, but because two transactions to withdraw 10,000 euros were made from the same night shop at the same time, they do have something to go on...

I think that the banks will cover the money via some form of insurance, but it will take many months for it to be reimbursed - they tell me.

This has been a total pain and for about 4 weeks it made my life a misery. Luckily it wasn't all the money I have.

Anonymous in Brussels, Belgium.

Editor's Comment: Thank you for passing this on to us. We hope that you can resolve this as quickly and painlessly and possible.