I was robbed in Spain, and I didn’t even know it was happening.

It was our last day in the historic city of Toledo, just a half-hour outside of Madrid. I was lounging in my bed, stomach full of dinner and wine, thinking about what might await us as we headed to Granada the next day. It was midway through my week-long vacation in Spain, so I figured I might as well put my daydreaming to good use and figure out my budget for the next few days.

I squinted in the dim lighting as I looked around for my phone, spotting it resting at the foot of the bed. Grabbing it, I relaxed back into my pillow and tapped on the app for my bank, thoughts already drifting ahead of me. I’d been doing pretty well with sticking to my budget, so it really shouldn’t be that bad, right? The screen changed colors in the corner of my eye and I snapped back to attention. But nothing could’ve prepared me for what I actually saw.

$20.

My mind froze. What? There’s no way. This must be a mistake. I refreshed the page.

$20.

I stared at the screen in abject horror, refreshing the page over and over again, but the number refused to change.

$20.

$20.

$20.

No way. There’s no way.

Something was off. I came to Spain with over $1,000 in my account and I’d only been there about 3 days. And more than that, I’d actually been staying under budget. So there’s no possible way that I’d blown through my entire budget in that time, not when I’d been being so careful! With shaking fingers, I clicked on my account history to try and see where things went wrong.

A lump clogged my throat and tears flooded my vision as my eyes raked over the transactions. Withdrawl: $105. Withdrawl: $240. Withdrawl: $357. Withdrawl $87. Over and over again, multiple times every day, until all that remained was a mere $20.

Pretty much since I’d arrived, someone was stealing all of my money, right out from under my nose. And I never even noticed. I felt violated. I felt angry. I felt scared. How could someone do this? How could I not have noticed?

This was my only access to money. How was I going to get through the rest of this trip?

Okay, I thought, taking a deep breath. I couldn’t let myself fall into a panic attack; I had to think about this rationally. Obviously, someone had my account information; and obviously, they had only my account information, because I still had my card. Every single withdrawl was at a Spanish bank, so someone must’ve gotten ahold of it after I’d arrived. Well, the only thing I’d used my debit card for was at the ATMs… but wait, Lauren withdrew money at the same time as me! As far as I knew she wasn’t having any issues.

And then I remembered: the first ATM I used was before I met up with anyone. That was it.

I had become the victim of card theft, and now I was stranded in Spain with twenty dollars to my name.

What you just read was how I found out that I had essentially been robbed over the course of several days while vacationing with my friend in Spain. Realizing that some stranger somehow got ahold of personal information like that can leave you feeling a myriad of things: anger, fear, and frustration, to name a few. It leaves you feeling used and violated and disappointed in yourself for not realizing it was happening.

To put things plainly, it sucks.

And what’s worse is that when sensitive information like this gets out to people who want to use it maliciously, there really isn’t much you can do about it. So, on top of everything, you feel utterly powerless. And, just to slather the icing on the cake here, I was in an unfamiliar country, and I’d be stuck there for the rest of the week. I didn’t have access to any other money, I didn’t have my family there to talk it through – heck, I didn’t even speak Spanish!

But what I did have, thankfully, was a phone with a roaming plan.

So, brushing away my tears, I called my mom and talked through the situation. She managed to calm me down and told me she’d send me some money through Western Union, which would be enough to get me through the rest of the week. Then I called my bank and cancelled my card, and they said they would refund all of the money that was stolen. And finally, I called Lauren, and she came over so we could work out a gameplan for the rest of the trip.

And then we got McDonald’s.

So what can you learn from this story?

Make sure you have access to a phone that can make long-distance calls. This is so important; I can’t even imagine what I would’ve done if I couldn’t call my mom or the bank.

Brush up on scams to watch out for – ATM or otherwise. I’ve always thought I was pretty careful when it came to withdrawing money; I made sure no one was around me, I covered my pin, and I kept a tight grip on my card. But, obviously, there were a few scams that I didn’t know about. Theives are constantly coming up with new ways to try and steal your information, so you should definitely read up on them periodically. It’s always better to be prepared.

If you deal with anxiety, talk to or spend time with someone so you don’t have an attack that spirals out of control. Thankfully, I learned a lot about myself and my anxiety after the panic attack I had in Rome, so I was able to calm myself down before things got too crazy. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: figure out your coping mechanisms. If you know how to deal with a panic attack once it starts, it’s much easier to shut it down before it really begins.

Find a way to ground yourself in reality. This may seem kind of unneccessary, but it’s a crucial step for letting your mind process the incident and move on quickly. Surround yourself with something familiar – in this instance, I had my friend take me to Plaza de Zocodover and we got McDonald’s. Being able to sit there with a McChicken (or rather, a McPollo) and eventually joke around saved my night – and my trip – in the end.

Don’t stew in your negativity. This is a trap that’s easier to fall into than you think, so do everything you can to avoid it. When I had my money stolen, it was late at night and I was only halfway through my vacation; it could’ve been so easy to just sit there and cry about it. But the trip had been absolutely fantastic up until that point, and I really didn’t want all of the great moments to be overshadowed by one stranger’s horrible actions. So you know what I did? I let myself wallow for one night. And then the next morning, I got on the bus headed to Granada and forced myself to make a list of all of the wonderful things that happened. And by the time I stepped off the bus into a new city, I felt infinitesimally better. I was a new person.

If I’m being honest, I barely even remembered that this happened by the time I got back. I can’t even imagine how sour my memories of Spain would be if I’d just let myself stew in my anger and frustration for the rest of the trip – but I didn’t. I pushed past it, I learned from my mistakes, and I moved on.

And in the end, it all worked out, anyway. So, as much as I hated that stranger in the moment, I ultimately have to thank them for stealing all of my money. Because without them, I wouldn’t have learned how to deal with this situation or the aftermath. I wouldn’t have learned about all of those crazy ways people try to steal your money or identity. And most of all, I wouldn’t have learned that I was capable of brushing off bad experiences like this and not letting it ruin my vacation. I learned that, no matter what life throws at you… just keep on keeping on.

So yeah, it sucks. But it’s not the end of the world.

Adventure on, my friends!

Have you ever been victim of a scam? What about credit card fraud? How did you deal with it? What is your advice to others? Did you learn anything new from this article? Leave a comment below and let me know!