I’m a statistic
My credit card got hacked and someone tried to use it for a purchase of $1.01 from Tires X.
Fortunately, for some reason I still don’t understand, the computers at the bank saw this transaction and since it wasn’t from Publix, Wal-Mart, or X-Mart (the only stores I frequent) they put a flag on my card.
So I’m in training (learning some SharePoint 2007) and go to lunch with one of my co-workers. Swipe the card and declined. What!? I say, confused and concerned as the line at Atlanta Bread Company gets very quiet. (I also go to this store, and now I’m being looked down upon like… like… I’m one of those people! Argh! I almost shunned myself at that moment.)
But I pulled out my Black American Express and everyone immediately showed respect. (Don’t tell anyone but it’s a regular Amx card I just painted it black to impress the ladies.)
Back at training I go online and check my bank account - BLING! - all my money is there. Nothing missing. Hmmm… this is weird.
Later that day, I’m at Lowes (I sometimes shop here also.) and this really cute women is ringing me up and we’re chatting and the banter is flowing so I swipe my card to pay when suddenly _DENIED!
She looks at me like I have a huge herpies zit on my lip. (It was a razor cut!) But the damage is done, I’m a dead beat.
I call the bank. They answer in two rings, no voice system. Real person on the phone. Awesome!
Escalate to the Super Manager and they say the card was flagged for suspicious charges. We’re cancelling your current card and sending you a new one.
Great. So why didn’t you also send me an email telling me the card was going to be declined and I needed to call before I lost social points among my co-workers and complete strangers in town? Huh? Why?
That would have been nice but they didn’t. Still I am happy they put the jinx on the card as soon as a charge for Seattle showed up without warning. That was cool. I hope they catch the criminals and shot them in the head. No warning. Bam! Emeril has spoken.
In the mean time this gives me an opportunity to flash my black plastic. Wait… wouldn’t that attract identify thieves even more?
I feel your pain, except for the declined-in-public part. Despite the fact that I am SUPER careful about where I shop online and save every single piece of receipt tape with anything resembling personal/financial data on it I’ve gone through this 3 times in the past 12 months.
First was my Amazon card which was used to purchase something really huge from a Lowes in Reading, PA (and I’m a Home Depot girl, myself), that was fun. Then, on Christmas Eve I found a fraudulent e-check had cleared my bank account so spent some time dealing with that (closing a bank account on Christmas Eve is no fun, just saying, and if one should have to do that one should first print all previous electronic statements or risk having to pay $5 per when you need records for tax time… paperless can suck it) instead of last-minute shopping and then, just last month, my debit card was hacked and must have been on a list that disreputables go to to find ways to pay for stuff with someone else’s money. Charges ranged from video game memberships to an International Skype purchase.
Just goes to show you can be as careful as possible and still get screwed. Thankfully everything has been dealt with, but, still. No fun!
I had two cards recently that they canceled, and send new ones. I suspect they had some kind of data leakage and just did it to be safe. I never saw any weird activity on my account. Maybe I should have gone shopping and said someone stole the card.