Laura said:
I know how that feels! A few years ago my CC bank called me to verify that I had ordered a dozen basketballs.... they were pretty pricey, too! The order came from Italy.
I had a very similar experience two to three years ago at Christmas time. I had ordered a bust of Bach for myself via an Ebay bid. And, I had contacted an online vendor of commemorative baseball bats to purchase a Chicago Cubs bat for one of my sons. Bingo, the CC called me first thing the next morning asking if I had charged gift certificated in New York City! Well, of course I hadn't. Like Laura's example, the CC company immediately deactivated the card, issued me a new number and said that they had caught several sales which I would NOT be liable for; turned out that's all there were so I was out nothing.
This is one good thing about the debt industry. They do have marvelous programming that churns each day looking for known keys that might expose theft and fraud. They've got the money to develop them and no doubt it does save them money in the process.
I also called them once when I suspected a possible problem with a vendor I had just spoken with. They immediately deactivated and issued another number. I never heard anything further.
My CC has phantom numbers, specifically for one-time use only for Internet charges, that are database linked to the real account. But, I've always had trouble getting it to work with Firefox. I'm pretty sure the problem is with me, not Firefox. So, I have not taken advantage of this maneuver yet. It does seem to be worth the effort.
Iconoclast said:
just wanted to say that i had to cancel my credit card since someone seems to have acquired my number and has been spending about 1.900,- euros over the last month.
My best wishes to you Iconoclast. It is a painful and disheartening experience to go through, not to mention the financial trouble it causes. I hope you turn out whole in this mess.
