Losing a wallet can be a traumatic experience. I had the misfortune to loose my wallet recently. It so happened that we were returning home from an evening out and there was a news item on radio that gas prices were to go up. So I raced to the gas station to fill up.
Everything went fine. I remember taking out my wallet; give my VISA card to the attendant and returning to the car. Between the times, I went to the car and paid for my gas, I must have dropped my wallet. I didn’t realize that it was missing until next day. Back at the gas station the attendant recognized me but no one had returned a wallet.
Panic-stricken, I went home and started canceling my credit cards. Top on the list was VISA. I have a VISA in Canadian dollars and another one in US dollars. When I reported to the VISA office, I was informed that someone had tried to withdraw $300.02 from my US VISA. Don’t ask me why $300 and two cents. May be two cents was for good luck.
A week before this happened, I was scheduled to go to Michigan, so I had US and Canadian cash ready for the trip. The wallet also had my driving license, citizenship card and social insurance number. This meant that I had all my identity papers with picture gone. Unfortunately, had to cancel the trip due to a death in the family.
What I didn’t appreciate is that it seemed that the guy who found my wallet was after money. Why didn’t he take the cash – over $600 – and return my papers instead of throwing the wallet somewhere in the dustbin? I had my business card in the wallet so my name, address and phone number were all available if he wanted to do a good turn. But no way, the selfish idiot didn’t want to do any good turns.
I couldn’t drive the car without a license, so off I went to the nearby registry. Gave my details and was issued a temporary license, but in order to drive, I was advised to carry my passport, the only identity papers I had left. If you don’t have a passport, you’re up the creek.
Next stop, the bank. Fortunately, my regular teller was on duty and she issued me with a temporary client card. On the suggestion of the teller, I stopped by at the police station to report the incident. The officer who took down my report informed me that one should never carry one’s SIN card in the wallet. SIN cards are issued for life and that number is your till you die, he explained. His suggestion was either memorize the number or deposit it in a bank vault with your other valuables. I can hardly remember my birth date so memorizing SIN number is out of question for me. This was news to me; no one had told me about this. I guess you always learn something new.
Then I was given two numbers of credit companies and told to inform them of the loss and an attempted fraud. I was given a file number for future reference. Since the VISA office had given me the exact time and name of the branch at which the attempted withdrawal of funds took place, I reported the information to the police in the hope that they could request the bank to allow them to review the surveillance tape.
By writing about this episode, I am hoping that several people are like me, careless and approaching an age when remembering numbers is a problem. I am hoping readers will learn from mistakes and take precautions necessary.
It was an expensive, inconvenient and traumatic experience. The biggest lesson I learnt was I’d make a list and jot down all numbers on a piece of paper and keep it somewhere safe. When something like this happens, you have a list to follow instead of trying to remember names and numbers of cards issued.
