STAY AWAY FROM NIGHTCLUBS

John McDevitt, an Army reservist who served for one year in Afghanistan is staging a protest outside of a local Bank of America branch in Utica, New York after he claims the bank refused to reimburse him for supposedly fraudulent charges he incurred while on two weeks leave in Athens, Greece, a local NBC affiliate, WKTV reports.

McDevitt says he was charged more than $25,000 by an Athens nightclub even though he claims he only bought a few drinks there, but BOA's investigation has concluded that he'll have to take the charges up with the Greek Nightclub if he hopes to recoup the lost funds, according to WKTV. McDevitt says he planned to use that money for his daughter's wedding but now, he will have to use another credit card and go in debt.

Personally, I don’t doubt at all that a Nightclub in Greece stole his money, seeing that the nation of Greece is in the worst economic state of all the nations of Europe. It doesn’t take an economics professor to see that Greece is one of the worst nations to visit let alone use your ID or credit card information.

LESSON: However, whether McDevitt spent $25,000 on a drunken, stupid night or the Greece Nightclub stole from him, we must walk away from the lesson STAY AWAY FROM NIGHTCLUBS. I mean, come on now! Especially these days where we hear of Identity thief is happening 24 hours a day. And worse, VISA and MasterCard just reported they were HACKED and millions of card information was stolen.

Moral of this story is; 1) stay away from places that attract criminals; 2) When using your credit card or ID, never let it out of your sight and; 3) Check your online bank / credit card accounts every day – especially when you are in another country. Ask me how I know!!!

© 2012 by Dr Tim McClure