Eight months of travel and I hadn’t yet had any of the major travel mishaps that most people fear. That was until two days ago when I got an email from my mom saying that one of my banks called the house to report fraudulent activity on my card. I immediately called them and was notified that someone in Guatemala had attempted to charge over $5000 on my card. Five minutes later I get another email from my Mom stating that yet another bank called to notify me about fraudulent charges. At this point I was so sure I was being PUNKED. I called the second bank and the charges were over $3000 and all from Guatemala.
First of all…what the SAM-HELL in Guatemala costs that much?? And second…WHO THE SAM HELL STOLE MY CREDIT CARD INFO?? Now with two cards down and one card left…which just so happens to be the master card that I can’t use at any of the local ATM’s in Costa Rica.
I spent hours wrecking my brain trying to figure out how someone was able to acquire my credit card numbers when I hadn’t even used them in the country. All clues pointed to the guesthouse where I was staying and the “SAFE” I used to keep my belongings secure.
After feeling completely bamboozled and led astray by these seemingly kind folk I sent an email to curse out inform the guesthouse that I would be involving authorities and posting information about the incident all over the internet. Steal from me if you want to sucka (Nod to the 70’s) and I will make sure you never make another dime from another tourist…..BOOP!
A situation like this has the potential to send you flying over the edge but since there was absolutely nothing I could do to change the situation I just took a deep breath and said a short prayer that went a lil’ sumthin’ like this this: “Oh sweet baby Jesus swaddled tightly in the manger…please grab hold of wheel before I lose my religion!!”
Whew, all better now 