Halloween traditions. There's pumpkin patches, haunted houses, watching your favorite

creepy creature terrorize a small town for the umpteenth time. Here at This Is Uncomfortable,

we like to get your skin crawling with some money horror stories. Our first tale of financial

fright comes from Abigail. Abigail Keele's day started out normally enough, which is how

a lot of horror films start, right? She was sitting in her office in New York just trying

to power through those final hours of work, hours that feel like they might never end.

And as she's sitting at her desk, her cell phone rings. It's a number that I don't recognize,

but it does have a Missouri area code. I'm from St. Louis, Missouri, so I notice that,

but I don't know the number and I'm like, yeah, don't answer numbers you don't know.

I ignore the call. 15 minutes later, Abigail's in a meeting when she looks down and sees

another call from the same number. She ignores the call a second time. Then after the meeting,

she heads back to her desk and she gets yet another call, same number. She started to wonder

if someone from back home was trying to contact her about something important. So I'm like,

okay, I'm just going to pick this up. And there on the other end of the line is someone

with news of something that I've actually had nightmares about. Hello, this is Agent

So-and-so with the FBI. I don't want to alarm you, but your social security number has been

compromised and we've noticed something wrong.

Abigail's mind immediately started racing. Did someone break into her accounts and take

all of her money? Someone racking up debt in her name? Oh my God, she was already annoyed,

just thinking about all the extra tedious work she'd have to do to take care of this.

Aaron's that are the worst kind of errands, like getting a new bank and like trying to switch

your money and like, you know, am I going to have to wait in line at the Social Security Office

...