I got a phone call yesterday from someone claiming to be from my financial institution. They started asking personal questions about my banking account, my email address, and other information.

I immediately became suspicious.

I told the man on the other end, “I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m going to hang up with you and call my banking institution myself. I would rather initiate the phone call than receive one from somebody I have no clue who they are.”

Anyone can call you and claim to be your bank. There’s really no way for you to know for sure who is on the other end of the phone.

He told me, “Well, it will just come right back to me.”

I told him, “Well, I’ll take that chance.”

I immediately checked my banking app on my phone. I didn’t notice any fraudulent charges, especially the $190 charge he claimed had been made on my account.

I then called my financial institution myself and explained that I had just received a phone call claiming there was a fraudulent charge on my account.

That’s when I found out there actually were fraudulent charges.

In fact, there were multiple charges, and thankfully, my bank had already blocked them.

They immediately stopped my debit card from being used and told me that a new card was on the way. The whole thing had been handled in probably 20 minutes.

At that point, I was thinking, “Okay, everything is good. They caught it, the charges were blocked, and I have a new card coming.”

Then I started thinking about everything else.

I had just gone through this recently when I got a new card, and I remember all the trouble I had trying to reconnect all of my automatic payments to the new card. Now I was going to have to do it all over again.

And then I remembered something.

Not long ago, I received a suspicious email with a PDF document attached. It was supposedly a bill from a company I didn’t recognize.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

I opened the email.

I downloaded the PDF.

And now I’m pretty sure that’s where all of this started.

I’m not saying that’s definitely how they got my information, but it sure makes me wonder.

So, there I was, sitting around thinking that everything was taken care of. My fraudulent charges had been blocked, my card had been canceled, and my replacement card was supposedly on its way. All I had to do was wait seven to ten business days and then spend the next several hours reconnecting all of my automatic payments.

Then today, I received a text message concerning my wife’s debit card.

Apparently, there were at least four fraudulent charges on her account.

Now I’m really confused.

When I called the bank, they couldn’t help me because the card is in my wife’s name. Unfortunately, she’s not home right now. She’s taking our daughter to the doctor, so I don’t know when we’ll be able to get everything straightened out.

Thankfully, they have her card blocked, too.

So, at the moment, neither one of us has a usable debit card.

That’s comforting.

Nothing says “financial security” quite like looking at your wallet and realizing both of your debit cards are basically decorative pieces of plastic.

The whole situation has me thinking about just how difficult it is to know what you can trust anymore.

A phone call?

Could be a scam.

A text message?

Could be a scam.

An email?

Could be a scam.

A bill that arrives with a PDF attached?

Apparently, that can be a scam, too.

At this point, I’m beginning to feel like if somebody knocks on my front door and says they’re delivering a package, I’m going to ask them to prove they aren’t trying to steal my identity.

Sadly, we’ve gotten to the point where you can’t simply trust something because it looks legitimate.

You have to question everything.

You have to disregard everything you’ve been taught about trusting people and verify everything for yourself.

If someone calls claiming to be your bank, hang up and call the bank yourself.

If you get an email you aren’t expecting, don’t open the attachment.

If you get a text about a charge you don’t recognize, don’t click the link. Contact the company directly.

And if somebody tells you, “Don’t worry, I’m from your bank,” that’s probably the exact moment you should start worrying.

I’ve always tried to believe that most people are good and that you shouldn’t automatically assume everyone is out to get you.

Unfortunately, these days, it seems like the safest thing to do is assume nobody is who they say they are until you verify it yourself.

And apparently, even then, you better double-check.