The other day I was looking at the charge card bill online and saw two charges I didn't recognize. At first I thought they were from our recent vacation, but underneath each charge was an additional line labeled 'Foreign Transaction Fee'. When I opened each item up I saw that the card had been used for gas at two stations in the Dominican Republic.
Our vacation was in Denver, not the Dominican. Yikes!
I had plans to leave the house that morning, but I immediately changed those plans and called the charge card company. Forty-five minutes later they'd reversed the charges from the account, cancelled the card, and said they would send me a new one with a new number. The representative asked me if the card had been out of my possession. It hadn't (other than nominal amounts of time when a waiter ran it at a restaurant), but I had shopped at Target during the period they said hackers were stealing information. I wonder if that's how my number got into the wrong hands?
Hubby Tony checked less than 24 hours later, and there were already credits on the online account statement. When I received the new card several days later there was written documentation from the fraud department that everything had been taken care of.
Thank goodness.
Five years ago today: Why Can't We All Just Get Along?
this is so scary...glad they took care of the fraud so easily. Sometimes you have to sign affidavits, etc.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that. Glad they took my word for it.
DeleteThat has happened to us a couple of times. It is so maddening and frustrating, especially if you have some recurring payments or annual dues that are charged to your card and you have to call each of them to update your account. I always say, if the bad guys only used their talents for good rather than to steal the world would be a better place!
ReplyDeleteI thought about the recurring payments issue. Fortunately we don't have any tied to this card. Or if we do and I've forgotten I'm sure I'll hear from the company :-)
DeleteThe Target breach was at the end of last year...just goes to show you how long that stuff can take. Glad you noticed the charges!
ReplyDeleteI had heard that sometimes they hold onto numbers for a long time, hoping people will forgot. I'm glad I noticed too!
DeleteGlad you were able to catch it. Also glad that it was charges to an account that you've regularly used so that the company would be willing to take off the incidental charges. The problem comes when the bad guys set up a whole bunch of NEW accounts with your info. Those are harder to shut down. I had that happen a couple of years ago. Now I have an agency that keeps a watch for things like that. I get a report every month telling me nothing odd has happened. Only once have they notified me, immediately, that someone had applied for a new credit card. We were able to get it taken care of immediately before charges could be made.
ReplyDeleteHow scary for you! We check our credit reports on a regular basis (and I'll be looking at them even closer now).
DeleteWow, surreal. It's odd how I think it won't happen to me, any one of us are vulnerable when we use our credit cards but thankfully your credit card company cleared up this for you. Glad to hear you have a new card!
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful weekend Kathy!
Yes, I always thought it wouldn't happen to me. Now I know better.
DeleteWhoa... scary! My husband uses our charge card for everything and I'm always worried that it'll get stolen. It's so easy for crooks these days. Thank you for the warning.
ReplyDeleteI use a (cash back) credit card whenever possible and always keep an eye on it when it's not in my wallet. My diligence obviously didn't help this time, though.
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