The text messages from my bank
It was a nice sunny morning in Kuching, and I was going through my usual routine, and was just drinking my coffee while browsing the news on the internet, when my phone started to beep-beep-beep at least ten times: text message after text message from my bank, informing me of multiple successful purchases on iTunes. Each of them for the same exact amount, for the same “product” which I still have no idea what it is.
My god, someone has stolen my card’s data, I said, and you can imagine the feeling that came with this realization. I quickly checked my bank account on my mobile, and yes, a few euros left, only because that amount was already not enough for the next purchase. OK, get up, grab a cigarette, go out to smoke, walk up and down, and try to cope with the heartbeat rate.
Contacting the bank
Now of course, you need to notify your bank. The telephone call from Malaysia to Europe is very expensive, but what can you do. A woman answers my phone, I explain her what has happened just now. She says this should be handled by the security department, who will call me back in a few minutes. OK, I say to myself, it will only be very expensive to receive a call, but not shamefully expensive, as opposed to making a call. The security department do indeed call me back in a few minutes, and I explain them everything – again. The security guy cancels my card, and says the bank will pay out this money, there is nothing to do against it, but I can file a complaint, or a dispute and they will then examine the case. I say fine. He prepares the file, and reads it all out to me, very slowly, so that I can confirm at the end, that I do indeed want to file this dispute. This “yes, I do” serves as a signature over the phone. Now, in the middle of his reading the text out to me, my phone service provider automatically informs me that my prepaid phone credit is about to expire in a second or two, and the line is cut. Thank you, this is just what I needed. And another cigarette. No whisky at home, shit!
Now I must buy more prepaid phone credit, which I do from a different bank account… Oh yes, never ever leave home with only one bank account and only one credit card – but I will talk about this in a separate post.
Skype credit for calling
But just when I have bought some prepaid credit, I realize that I can actually call free of charge any number through Skype, because that is included in my Office 365 subscription with Microsoft. Oh, god, why didn’t I remember this at the beginning? (No, I don’t blame myself, I think I could hardly remember my own name, let alone my phone credits on my Skype account.)
So I start again: call the bank, the lady promises that a security guy will call me back, hang up and wait. Security guy calls, I explain the whole thing again, because naturally, this is not the same security guy. He starts reading out the text of the official complaint, and I can finally utter the much desired “yes, I do”. He says the bank now has 160 days from now to examine my case. Wonderful! Why not three thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine days? When this second security guy called me, I was already on my way to the police station. And that is because the non-security woman I first talked to wasn’t sure whether I needed to send them an official police report about the stolen money for my complaint to be accepted by the bank. But the security guy assured me there was no need for a police report, but because I was already walking towards the police station, which is a very beautiful building in Kuching, and because I had always wanted to see what it would look like inside, and also because most of those policemen are really good-looking (wink-wink), I decided to go and report the case anyway. Which I did.
Visiting the police station – just because I can
At the police station, only some of the staff spoke English, but they were extremely helpful. I myself had to type the actual report into the computer, and they filled in the rest, and printed out two copies for me, nicely stamped.
Trying to get a new bank card
But the story is of course not over at this point, because what about my card, which is now cancelled, and which I of course badly need? I call the bank again (through Skype, free of charge luckily), and they say no problem, they can prepare a new card for me. But how will I get it from Europe?, I ask them, I am in Malaysia now. No problem, she says, they can send it to any existing address on the entire planet, for about 50 euros or so. Now the next problem is, I say to her, I am just about to leave Malaysia, travel for about two or three weeks before I settle down for a longer period of time in Vietnam. No prob again, I should call them when I am ready, the card will arrive in about a week’s time to any address. Oh, at least this bank is good, I conclude, even if their charges are shamefully high (9 euros per ATM use base rate, plus a small percentage).
Getting my money back and receiving a brand new card
I was trying to forget about this for some time, but couldn’t really. After a few days, I checked my bank account, and couldn’t believe what I saw: all my lost money was charged back to my account a few days earlier, which means, that it must have taken about a day or two for the bank to arrange everything. Bravo, Raiffeisen Bank! A few weeks later, I arrived in Da Nang in Vietnam. I called them again to request the delivery of my new card, and this time they said I didn’t have to pay for the delivery at all, because I was the victim of a fraud. Wow! I gave them the address (just imagine spelling a Vietnamese address to a European bank officer), and I just could not believe it when after about four days, my Airbnb hosts brought me this large envelope delivered by DHL Express, and inside was my shiny new Visa card and my new PIN code.
