A Brief Explanation of How The Patriot Act Protects Each and Every One of Us!

So I received a message that my credit card company wanted to speak with me. It was investigating “suspicious activity” on my credit card and I needed to call them back. I did. I grew suspicious when the person answering the call was barely able to speak any English. She wanted specific information but, since it has been a long day, I told her I wanted to speak to her supervisor. I was transferred to someone who had even less ability to speak English. I asked this person where she was located and I was informed that she was in Costa Rica. Hmm, I said to myself, someone is calling about “suspicious activity” on my credit card and I get someone who can at best barely speak English? I told the person I wanted to speak to someone in the United States. I was put on hold and after a while the person came back on and said she was going to transfer me to “Alena”. I asked where is “Alena” located. I was told “Eurasa”. When “Alena” got on the phone, always interested in geography, I asked her; "Where is “Eurasa” located? She told me that “Alena” had said “United States”. I laughed... and said….”No.” She said that she was in Richmond Virginia. Then “Alena” asked me for the same information and I repeated the history I have set forth above, and told her “No”. I asked her to explain why it was that they called me, they left the last for digits of my account number, they asked me to call them back, and now, that I have called them back just like they asked, they tell me that I have to give them information to identify who I am. She said that under the “Patriot Act” they had to follow this procedure. I really laughed with this new tidbit of information. I was so impressed that the Patriot Act was concerned about my credit card account, that I told her to give me the precise citation to where in the Patriot Act they are required to demand and I am required to give someone from Costa Rica specific information for me to get information about my account. She responded by saying, well we did call you, and you called us back, sooo if you will give us a working telephone number to call you back on, we can do it that way. I gave her my office number and she did call back and, you guessed it, there was nothing she identified that would fall under the category of “suspicious activity”. I guess, perhaps, that the moral of this story is that it is not a good idea to call me on a Monday afternoon from Costa Rica?