I suppose it was bound to happen, eventually. This past weekend, I was down at Geek Heaven MicroCenter picking up a new surge protector I needed after rearranging Turtle's office. After standing in the checkout line for… well, ever… I finally got my turn at the register. I swiped my credit card and prepared to snatch my receipt before sprinting to the door.
“Sir,” the kid behind the register sirred me. “Would you mind swiping your card again? It didn't go through.”
No big deal. The card was only a few months short of its expiry date, and the magnetic strip was probably on its last… um… bits. I swiped it again.
This time, the cashier picked up the phone and started punching in some numbers. When I asked what the problem was, he explained that the bank had flagged my card. Flagged. My. Card. Remember Galileo's experiments with gravity? The pit of my stomach is where his cannonballs struck (at the same time).
When I got home, I immediately logged on to my credit card company's web site to check my recent transactions. As I feared, there were a couple small charges from merchants I'd never heard of. I called the bank's fraud number and quickly learned that there was a handful of additional charges that the bank had already flagged as suspicious. The young woman on the other end of the line canceled my card right then and there.
So, props to the bank for noticing the suspicious charges – how, I don't know – and tipping me off. I still can't guess how someone got my card number. Or maybe I can and just don't like to think that our favorite waitress at the nearby bar & grill is the one who ripped me off. But I'm glad the situation was flagged before someone got a chance to take a big chunk out of my credit limit.
No matter how careful you are, there's always some scumbag who's thought of a way to get 'round you.
6 comments:
I never get mad when that happens to me - the card getting denied, I mean.
I love it that the credit card people watch the cards so well.
Glad they didn't get anymore into you!!
That stinks. I really hope that's the end of it for you.
People sure do make it hard to have faith in them anymore... I'm glad the bank caught it, but I'm sorry it happened.
WV: jaratick. A very tiny storage space... or a new and more gross version of catching bugs.
I had mine stolen from the YMCA parking lot. I apparently left my car unlocked and also left my purse in plain view. The criminal was smart - he didn't take my purse or wallet. He only took my card. Therefore, it took a while before I noticed it was missing. He apparently took several others and when he used the one from me which had HubbaHoney's name on it, the police came to my door thinking the name on the card was the criminal because they got his picture on a security camera at Target. It was interesting have the police vehicles in front of my house - gave the neighbors something to talk about.
Word Verify: shropork
It's amazing that the banks can detect fraud so easily...I wonder what kind of program they use for that? But it's unnerving that, despite our best efforts, these things still happen. In this economy, it's especially unnerving. I had a dream the other night that I went to the bank and all my cash was gone, swept out the night before, to help pay for the Economic Stimulus package ("didn't you hear the news, you were supposed to come get your money out by yesterday if you didn't want the government to take it?"). Scary times!
BTW, my bank only called to tell me we were overdrawn and that I needed to make a deposit.
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