Thought I was pretty savvy, but they got me

[BWdem4life]

I was dealing with a recurring problem with FedEx delivering heavy packages to my neighbor's house. I was on edge about it, just near the end of my rope.

Then comes a text from FedEx saying they had tried to deliver a package but I was not home. I was furious, because I had been home, so I assumed they delivered it to a wrong address again.

Since I was not thinking correctly, I missed several red flags that I would probably have caught. In fact, I would probably have just known right off the bat that it was a phishing attempt since I would have thought, "I'm not expecting a package."

But that's how they get you. They spray these things out, and sooner or later they get someone who IS expecting a package. Or whatever other scam they're pulling.

So. Angry me clicks on the link, and is taken to a page which further infuriates me (adding to my inability to think straight) as FedEx wants me to pay a nominal "redelivery fee" of $1.25 or something like that.

And claims they can only hold the package for a couple days, then it will be returned.

I am livid, but I don't want any further delays. So what do I do? I put in the damn credit card info. Meanwhile my wife is in the bathroom yelling "Don't do it!" But do I listen? Hell no, I'm too pissed to listen or think straight.

Then comes a page I've never seen, where Visa is telling me they can't process this payment without me entering a code they've sent to my phone. Finally some sanity begins to return, but I've already entered the card info. The code never comes, the payment is never processed, and I lamely assume that Visa has somehow protected me. Going back over the steps it took to get me there, I finally start looking more critically at it all. I go to my online portal and check every day for suspicious activity, for a couple of days. After all, who wants to go through the hassle of ordering a new card if they might not have to? Apparently not me.

Once I've mostly forgotten about it - two weeks later - the hacker strikes. The portal I've been using to look at my credit card info is my Fidelity investment portal, which is linked to the card. However, the card itself is actually issued by Elan and I did not create an separate online account with them. The hacker does so. Then somehow they get a back door into my Fidelity account from there. They make two separate payments to my Visa card, one from my investment account and one from my credit union account. They do this to inflate my available credit limit on the card - planning to quickly use the card before those payments are rejected due to NSF (one payment is more than $5K, well over the paltry amount in my credit union account.)

But then the hacker screws up. He apparently still needs something from me, so he calls and leaves a (scratchy) message saying he's from Fidelity fraud prevention and wants to discuss unusual activity on my account.

But rather than calling him back, I log in to the account and see the unusual activity. I call the number on the website, not the number he gives me, and am therefore connected to the correct person to actually solve the problem.

Mr. Fraudster doesn't give up easily, even after I have the card blocked, and the online Elan account created by him deleted. I go back into the Fidelity account and see that my phone number and email address have been changed. I quickly change them back, as well as my username and password, then call Fidelity and ask them to block access to that account (meaning not even I can access it).

Mr. Fraudster calls me multiple times (I don't block his number because I want to know that he's still trying, but I never pick up either.)

Then he sends me like 80 text messages, all from different things saying I have subscribed to this or that. I delete all and report junk. I put this down as him trying to get me to panic and answer his call.

Story is not yet completely over, I still have to talk with Fidelity and regain access to my online investment account, and see what else needs to be done. The credit union was kind enough to reverse the NSF fee.

So, overall, just a stupid thing that is all FedEx's fault for not delivering my packages to my door.

Ok ok, I know. But now you know too.