A Chinese woman in Los Angeles County was recently stolen more than $8,000 worth of property, including cash, gift cards and brand-name wallets, and 11 bank cards in the bag were also taken by thieves. In the days that followed, a number of cards were stolen one after another. caused such a huge loss, just because the Chinese girl forgot to lock the car door and left her belongings in the car, and now she regrets it.
Ms. Chen's stolen LV wallet contained cash, gift cards, and multiple bank cards. (Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee).
Ms. Chen, a Chinese resident, recalled that at around 9 p.m. on January 24, she was tired when she came home from overtime because she forgot to lock the car door in a hurry, and the car was parked in the open garage of the apartment building. The stolen property included two wallets in the drawer of the car, and a bottle of expensive perfume, a purple BV wallet and a LV limited edition wallet with as many as 11 bank cards, more than 2,000 yuan in cash, and several thousand yuan in gift cards, and even car insurance cards and checkbooks were stolen, with a total loss of about 8,000 yuan.
Ms. Chen said that when she drove out on the morning of the 25th, she found that she had not locked the car door the night before, but she did not know that the contents of the car had been stolen at that time. As for forgetting to lock the car door, Ms. Chen explained that because she had been driving a Tesla car before, it could be automatically locked when leaving, and she had recently changed to a new car, and she was tired and anxious that night, so she completely forgot the step of locking the car door.
According to her description, on the third day, that is, on the morning of the 26th, she went to the airport to pick up the airport, because the BV wallet was a birthday gift from a friend, she thought that she could take this bag to catch up with the other party, but she did not expect to open the drawer in the car to find that the wallet had disappeared. After carefully analyzing the itinerary of the previous two days, Ms. Chen concluded that the property was stolen on the night of the 24th.
Ms. Chen's stolen purple BV wallet was a birthday present from a friend. (Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee).
Because 11 bank cards were stolen at the same time, including multiple credit cards and debit cards, Ms. Chen quickly checked the bank consumption records and found that a credit card from Chase Bank had been stolen four times in a row, and the last purchase of 491 yuan was intercepted by the bank security center in time and the payment was not successful. At the same time, a Bank of America (BOA) debit card was also stolen, and a Venmo debit card was stolen nine times in a row, and many purchases were made in the Covina area.
Regarding the Venmo debit card with cash, Ms. Chen said that it was originally for the convenience of splitting accounts with friends, but since the card was opened, she has not been able to use the card to make purchases, and it shows that it has not been successfully activated. I didn't expect that after being stolen by others this time, I could brush so many strokes in a row. Ms. Chen said, "This is a big doubt, and I still haven't figured out what's going on. 」
Ms. Chen's Venmo debit card was stolen nine times in a row. (Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee).
After discovering that the property had been stolen, Ms. Chen quickly contacted the banks and asked to freeze the stolen card to avoid further losses, and at the same time to report the case to the police. Ms. Chan shared her experience and shared her experience as a warning to everyone because she didn't lock the car doors, which led to heavy property losses, saying that it was a very bad habit to leave her bag in the car often. 」
As for why she kept as many as 11 bank cards in her bag, Ms. Chen, an accountant, said that it has become a professional habit to often carry multiple cards and a large amount of cash to deal with banks and other relevant departments because of her work. However, what was lost this time was Ms. Chen's personal bank card, and each of my cards was used for different types of consumption, because of the convenience, I often left these cards in the car and could use them at any time. But I didn't expect that because of carelessness, I was taken advantage of by thieves.
11 bank cards were lost due to the theft of property in the car, and the thieves stole them one after another, causing a lot of property losses. She said that these cards are ordinary backup cards, and in addition to this, she also has a number of commonly used cards, including credit cards and debit cards, but she also understands that more cards are not necessarily convenient after this experience.
When asked why she has so many bank cards, Ms. Chan explained that because each card has a different purpose, especially different credit cards, which are used to pay for different types of purchases, you can get the maximum cash rebate discount.
It is reported that many banks in the United States often use credit card consumption rebates to attract customers, some credit cards in supermarkets, gas stations, cashback as high as 5%, some online shopping consumption, cashback is particularly high; And some credit cards will have discounts for travel, air tickets and hotel consumption. Ms. Chan said that it was for this reason that she owned multiple cards from multiple banks at the same time.
In addition, Ms. Chen also owns a number of popular fast payment apps, including venmo, PayPal, etc. She said that these apps can also apply for bank cards issued by the company, and these popular fast payment methods bring convenience but also inconvenience.
For example, PayPal is widely applicable, easy to use, fast and secure, but the transaction fee is high, and it is usually difficult to recover when there is an error in the transfer. Venmo transfer is fast and simple, suitable for group consumption, AA system sub-account, but when transferring to a bank account quickly, you need to pay a handling fee, otherwise it will take a few working days to arrive. Apple Cash can be transferred through Siri, but it is not available on non-Apple client devices.
Ms. Chan has multiple bank cards and various payment methods at the same time, and she admits that she is often tired. For example, it takes a lot of effort to manage the username and password of each card. As a professional accountant, Ms. Chen is good at account management, but it may not be easy for the average consumer to manage so many accounts at the same time.
Some Chinese pointed out that they have applied for many bank cards before, but some cards have not been used for a long time, resulting in unnecessary annual fees and late fees, and sometimes bank cards are stolen without knowing it.