WARNING!!!!!

SAD BUT TRUE

I spend a great deal of time in Detroit and during a recent adventure I received a parking ticket. A small inconvenience, one would think, but certainly nothing of real concern. This is where the story gets interesting...

I opted to pay this ticket using their online payment service via a rarely used credit card the very day I received it. BIG mistake. Within hours my credit card info was heisted by a rather fabulously upstanding City of Detroit employee to charge all sorts of fun things from online grant searches and gaming, to filling up his or her iTunes library with over $400 worth of music. I am now in dispute with the credit card company over all of these fantastic purchases and I think (more like hope) it will be cleared up very soon. While this IS stressful and very upsetting I wanted to take a moment to spread the word and send out a warning - DO NOT under any circumstances give the City of Detroit your credit card number via its online payment service (or for any reason for that matter). While I understand that credit card and identity theft may be common it certainly doesn't make it acceptable; not in my world anyway. Just be careful and make wise choices. I should have known better...