Woman's debit card info stolen online

PITTSTOWN - A Rensselaer County woman believes a scammer tested the waters by withdrawing small amounts from her bank account, perhaps hoping she wouldn't notice.

The good news is Kathy Crandall did notice. The bad news is investigators say other people don't.

Crandall of Pittstown describes herself as meticulous about money, keeping track of it and spending it.

"We don't have a lot we live week-to-week," she said.

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That's why when a charge of $73.83 popped up on her statement from a company calling itself Google Revolution, this grandma was suspicious.

"I went down and I found some other charges on there, smaller charges, but charges I know weren't mine," Crandall said.

The other charges ranged from a penny to five in a row for $48. The withdrawals were from different places and on different days but, one thing Crandall maintains was the same was the fact she didn't make them.

"I'm one who watches my bank account and I knew the figures were way off," she insisted.

A total of $333 went mysteriously missing. So Crandall went straight to the bank and then to the state police, learning she was likely the victim of a scam.

Crandall traces it back to an Internet purchase she made a few weeks ago. It was a company she frequents, but she's guessing an unscrupulous employee or a hacker stole her debit card number.

"You think 'Not me.' Well, guess what, it can happen to you," she said.

Experts say a safer online payment method is a credit card. If someone gets that number, it's still charges, but not direct withdrawals.

"In this day and age there are too many people with access to your information it's not a question of 'if,' it's 'when' you may be victimized," said Senior Investigator William Mosher with the state police Financial Crimes Unit.

"I've had people say 'that's not a lot.' It is when you live week to week and this was money for bills," Crandall said.

Now she is forced to spend more time fixing the problem than it took for a scammer to create it.

According to online complaints Google Revolution has been linked to work from home schemes. Crandall says she never signed up for anything like that.

NewsChannel 13 called Google Revolution, but the operator couldn't answer any questions and when we asked for a supervisor we were just placed on hold.

Google Revoltion is not affiliated with Google the search engine.