In today’s fast-paced world, technology has made life easier in many ways, but it has also brought with it new dangers. One of these dangers is the ease with which a person’s finances can be compromised.
This became a reality for Toby Wilson of Manchester, England when he woke up one morning to find that a significant portion of his bank balance had been spent on a single purchase. This purchase, however, was not made by him. It was an unfortunate mistake that could happen to anyone, but for Toby, the stakes were higher.
Toby, who is 35 years old, had gone out with his friends in York for a night of fun. On his way back home, he stopped at a food truck named Efe’s Kebab Kitchen and ordered a veggie burger and chips for dinner. He had no reason to suspect that this seemingly innocuous purchase would cause him any trouble. However, when he checked his bank balance days later, he found that the burger and chips had been charged to his account at an exorbitant rate of £666.50, which is equivalent to a little over INR 66,000.
The shock of this discovery was compounded by the fact that Toby is a non-drinker and had not consumed any alcohol on the night in question. He told Ladbible, “Maybe it would be different if someone was drunk and just stumbled into to get a kebab and got it all wrong. But that’s very much not the case.”
He immediately reached out to one of his friends who had been with him on the night in question and asked him to visit the Kebab Kitchen to inform them about the mistake.
The HR of the food outlet, Ahmed Abdullah, advised Toby to speak to his bank to resolve the issue. Toby was confident that this would be a simple process and that the bank would quickly rectify the mistake. However, he soon learned that it was not as straightforward as he had hoped. The bank reportedly required him to produce a receipt of the transaction, but as is often the case with such purchases, he did not have any.
He told Ladbible, “No one has a receipt for things like that. I have a mortgage and bills to pay. It is just very worrying. The point is the money is mine, and it’s a significant amount.”
The business owner of the Kebab Kitchen, Efe, insisted that they had asked Toby to contact his bank only for safety reasons and that it was their legal way of handling things. Toby, who has worked in the hospitality industry, believes that Efe’s Kebab Kitchen would be able to prove the payment if they just looked into their account.
Toby’s experience serves as a cautionary tale for everyone. It is a reminder to always keep an eye on our bank balances and to be vigilant about the purchases we make. With technology making it easier for fraudsters to access our finances, we must take all necessary steps to protect ourselves. Whether it is keeping receipts or regularly checking our accounts, we must all do our part to safeguard our hard-earned money.