The gibberish entry that’s been appearing on my checking account statements, “gkard add [some bunch of random numbers]” always bothered me, but I figured it was probably one of the many legitimate automatic payments I’ve set up through the card, and they were just using a weird merchant ID. Besides, the $30 a month was always too far below my pain threshold to inspire me to check it out.

Until this month, that is, when my check card expired and I had to go through all my payees to update their info. I couldn’t figure out who these people were, so I called my bank. All they could give me was a phone number, no merchant name or anything. I called the number and got some kind of automated “card service” line, and I couldn’t even talk to a real person without an account number.

So I Googled for the phone number, and discovered it belonged to GKard, which is a company that sells “prepaid credit cards”. Got a second phone number from their site, called, and talked to a real person this time. I wanted to speak to a supervisor, but evidently they had all left at 5 PM (the call center is in Florida). I told them I’d call back the next day.

Still didn’t get to talk to a supervisor today, so I explained that I suspected fraudulent charges were being placed on my check card. I gave them the number, and they told me there was an account in my name. They also gave me a Hotmail address, and asked if it was mine; it wasn’t. (I quickly wrote the address down; I don’t think they were supposed to give it to me.) Evidently the account was used to purchase a subscription to some Russian (?) website. (I haven’t visited the site yet, as I’m betting it’s not work-safe.)

I told them I wanted the account canceled, and all charges refunded. (I knew this wouldn’t happen, as my bank statement show charges going back through April of last year. Don’t say it… I’ll be quicker to question unusual charges from now on.) I managed to haggle them up to 4 months worth of refund, and I promised I’d be calling back to get the rest. (I may or may not.)

Next task was to call my bank and cancel the check card. (Now I get to call all my automatic payees AGAIN and give them the new card number. Wheee.)

I then set up a new Hotmail account, for the purposes of writing my new friend. The e-mail was short and sweet, to the effect of: “My paypal account isnt working. Can you give me your address and Ill mail the auction payment to you instead?” We’ll see if he bites (or if he’s even monitoring the account any more).

GKard said they’d report this to their fraud department. Now I need to figure out who else to report this to. (Police? FTC? I really don’t know.)