Egad, Cindy.

I trust you've contacted the credit card issuer.

Cindy! What...? More details, please. God, I hate this stuff, it's so unfair and evil.

Um, Cindy? Are you alive over there?

Hi vw!

Someone take Amazon and iTunes away from me before I decide to go spend money. Bad Internet stores! No cookie.

It's particularly unfair and evil when your credit is having such a good time.

The late lamented Webvan delivered great produce. It was such a luxury to shop online. Now there's no one who delivers, although Publix keeps saying it's working on delivery. I imagine Atlanta is a challenge because it's so spread out.

Deena! How are the little demons? And vw needs to get that job right now. If only I had any influence at all over the universe.

The late lamented Webvan delivered great produce.

Yes! I LOVED Webvan. They were in the Chicago area too. Loved, loved them.

And vw needs to get that job right now. If only I had any influence at all over the universe.

Yeah! What's up with that?

Wishing Cindy would check in...

It's worse. It's our debit card. Someone got the information, and must have had their own card made up, because the bank can tell the card was swiped (as in run through the little reading machine).

Scott's been on the phone with the bank. To be clear, we didn't lose the 800 bucks. The bank's fraud division caught on, and denied the transaction. We just have to make sure they haven't done anything else, and we have to shut off all our cards tied to the account, and close our checking, and of course all our bills are due right now.

Are there only the three big credit reporting agencies? What are they, again? How do I contact them? I know I could google this stuff, but my brain is too busy being upset and in a panic.

It's worse. It's our debit card.

Someone tried to do this to our debut card twice in the last few months, with phone charges, which the bank caught because they didn't have that little three-digit number in the signature line on the back of the card.

Do you need to report it to the credit reporting agencies, since it's debit? And they didn't actually get the money?

Calm~ma. Deep breaths.

I'm about to google for you, but wanted to mention that when you do call them, there's an option on the phone thing that asks if you want to put a fraud alert on your report. You say, yes, and they'll do so and send you a copy of your report lickety split. With a fraud alert, they are supposed to contact the other two agencies, but I found that didn't work out. I had to contact both Equifax and Experian, and one of them (the second one I contacted) contacted Transunion for me.

That's my experience with putting a fraud alert on my report.

Oh, Cindy. That's awful! I'm so sorry.

Yes, there are three major credit reporting agencies: TransUnion, Equifax and Experian.