Steve Moseley

You know those vulnerable senior citizens who fall victim to fraud? The folks you read of and hear about and feel sorry for? Sad to say, I am now a card-carrying member of the club.

It has been a tough month on the ‘scam scale’ during which time I shot craps. Twice.

First to be compromised was my checking account. A direct withdrawal, supposedly a debit card transaction, popped up on my bank statement as $330 paid directly to Amazon.

Bells and whistles went off immediately. The few times I have purchased anything from Amazon was always paid by credit card. Every time. Certainly not directly from my bank account.

I have some monthly auto-pays where I authorized the cable folks, gas company, etc. access to my checking account. That way I need not mess with checks and envelopes and stamps. They all work honestly and routinely.

Never in a million years would I authorize such direct access to my balance to Amazon or anyone else for merchandise purchases. So, I dialed up Amazon. After frustration getting a human being to say hello they confirmed, despite a language barrier, what I already knew; there is no record of any such charge.

In chatting with the good and helpful folks down at my bank, I learned others hereabouts have been similarly fleeced by fake Amazon charges of late. I have the dubious distinction of being hit for the highest dollar amount, however I may have lost my Top Senior Scam Dog title by now. All this came down a few weeks ago so perhaps someone has taken me out.

The bank, despite the fact none of this was their doing, still made me whole knowing full well they will not recover a cent. I suppose in their world that’s called "customer service" or "the cost of doing business."

Either way, I hate what they did and appreciate that they did it in equal measure.

The second scams, perhaps a week later, carry a more ‘self-inflicted’ stench than the first.

This time it was my credit card, hacked for several charges of which I have no knowledge. Are you familiar with SMUZIA, SPORTIZAK OR VIXJY? Me neither. But all three extracted shekels from my credit card on this single monthly statement.

SPORTIZAC touched me up to the tune of $34.55. VIXJY, purportedly a streaming service, dipped out $26.79 for itself.

It was SMUZIA that earned unwanted membership in the Fraternity of Addled Old Poops.

Two charges of $19.90 each popped up on the statement, one near the top of the document, another at the bottom. The entries were identical.

This suggested to me a monthly membership fee, but to what?

Good Wife Norma Googled it up; some kind of unlimited access gaming site she reported. What? Yikes!

So deep is my tech incompetence, it’s a stretch for me to add a photo to an email without launching missiles toward sleepy Scandanavia. Online gaming? Not in my wheelhouse. Never has been. Never will be.

The polite, endlessly patient lady trouble shooter with the credit card company took a look at charges on previous statements.

I was sore ashamed (here is where we arrive at the self-inflicted damage part) when she told me SMUZIA has been extracting $19.90 from my underwhelming finances every month, beginning in October. I lacked the guts to ask, “October of what year?” So, I still don’t have that embarrassing detail, which is probably for the best. 

That I was SMUZIA’d in plain sight on five straight statements, perhaps more, right under my nose is what earned me the dreaded Cognizance Challenged Merit Badge.

What have I learned? A whole lot. Now, can I remember these lessons until next month’s statement arrives? Chances of that have been rated 50-50 at best. In this case, prior performance does, sadly, predict future performance.

I’m tellin’ ‘ya folks, this old age deal ain’t for sissies.

(Contact the writer at stevemoseley42@gmail.com)