According to both online and published reports, credit card scams are up.

But what’s that got to do with addiction?

Just ask any parent of a teenager or young adult.

It’s bad enough when your card is hacked from someone “outside.”  But when it happens inside your household, it is even more painful.

Today it’s too easy for someone to order drugs online, pay with a credit card, and watch for the mailman.

I guess we got lucky.

When Jacob was still living at home, and his addiction worsened in late teens and early twenties, he never abused our credit cards.  Instead, he tried to sneak checks and cash them at a local bank – until the day an alert teller called me.

Ironically, it was a credit card that restored our trust in him.

He was in his first year of recovery and trying to buy a car. But he needed a down payment. Given a sobriety that seemed worth supporting, we agreed to help him.

One summer evening his father and I were at an outdoor seafood restaurant when my cell phone rang.  Over cracking crab shells I heard my son ask, “Mom, I’m at the car dealer.  Can I get your credit card number?”

Crab mallet stopped mid-air, I turned to my husband.  Do I do this?  Do I give my newly sober son my credit card number now, here, over the phone?

After all, I had no idea where he really was, or what he really was buying.

But in that twilight of a summer’s eve, forced to make a quick decision, I decided on trust.

Today, Jacob likes to remember that call when others ask, when did you start trusting your son, again? and we both laugh.

A test of his recovery

And mine.