Speaking of identity theft; about a week ago I got brand new matching his and hers credit cards from Chase for my mother and father. These were not replacement cards for the Chase account they had and which I closed after their deaths, I had even sent Chase certified copies of their death certificates to close that previous account.

Nope, these new cards were Chase Freedom cards at a ridiculously high interest rate and an equally shocking credit line of $24,000. As soon as I got the cards I called their customer service and tried to have the account deactivated but all I was getting from them was the run around. I would have to send in new copies of the death certificates and a copy of the court order showing that I was the legal representative of the estate.

I figured I had done my job by trying to warn them and forgot about the whole thing. They already had copies of the death certificates from me closing the old account, mom and dads social security numbers are on the “dead list” and the old credit line had been shut down almost two years ago now.

Until yesterday that is, when I received a statement in the mail from Chase showing a $49.99 charge on the new Freedom account. I knew it, I knew the whole thing was a theft scam by someone from the moment I saw the damn cards. The charge was made to some kind of German third party shopping cart app that lets you buy things from hundreds of sites with your mobile phone.

No telling what the charge was actually for, and how much do you want to bet the purchase was made from a throwaway cell bought for cash from a convenience store or the like? Anyway I called Chase again and told them that the account was now being fraudulently used and that they at least needed to put a hold on it until we could straighten this out.

Nothing doing, they are more worried about someone possibly trolling them into shutting down a valid credit line then they are about identity theft and fraud. I especially loved it when the customer service rep told me that they would try to limit my responsibility for the false charges.

That was when I got fed up and told them in no uncertain terms that they would never see a single fucking cent from me or my parents estate and that if they wanted to let a hacker in Germany take $24,000 from them then it was not my problem. I then hung up on them…

What kind of bullshit two-bit computer data system do these people have when they are issuing cards to deceased people whose death certificates they already have on file?

Arrrggggghh!

(not to mention how much I love arguing with them about whether or not mom and dad are actually deceased, stupid fuckers :( )