Saturday, April 18, 2026

Yikes!

On Thursday I got a text from the company that issued the charge card I use the most. It asked me if I had made a recent purchase at a restaurant I haven't eaten at in months. Instead of replying to that text, I went to the company's website and found out that there were actually six purchases I hadn't made. One of the charges was in my area, and the others scattered around the country. My account had been hacked.

Stockvault

I couldn't click the button to say I didn't recognize the transactions fast enough. The company let me know they were cancelling the old card immediately and would send me a new one. They assured me I wouldn't be responsible for any of the unauthorized charges.

I spent the rest of the afternoon remembering all the companies that had the card on file for automatic purchases and giving them the new card number.

I will be so glad when the promised nondescript envelope with my new card shows up the middle of next week, but until then I've had to cobble a plan together. So far I've accidentally used my bank debit card  once (fortunately, the account had enough money in it to cover the transaction), and the other times I've pulled out a secondary card.

Five years ago today: Go Away!

31 comments:

  1. I had that happen once a few years ago. The only place I had used the card was at a liquor store next door. They must have had a skimmer machine on the box to swipe your card.

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    1. Interesting how you could pinpoint the issue. I have no idea where mine happened.

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  2. Looks like you got things fixed....I do check my credit card statements.. but we use our PayPal balance for a lot of "charges". One has to be vigilant for this kind of things plus scams .

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    1. We check our bank and charge card statements monthly, and I quickly funnel any PayPal money into the bank.

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  3. It is such a nuisance when your account is hacked. The new card/s never seem to arrive quickly enough. Thank goodness you found out, though.

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    1. Thank goodness I had an alternate payment means, but since Tony's card wasn't cancelled I have had to rely on him to pay more than normal :-)

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  4. Oh I hate that to happen. It feels intrusive. My credit card company quit doing the possible fraud alerts. I'm happy you got the alert and took care of it.

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    1. If you can believe it, this is the first time I've had an issue.

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  5. I wasn't hacked -- but imagine my surprise when I called to inquire where my new card was (expires this month) and they told me it was send mid-February. Long story short, they had to declare it "lost" and issue me a new card/new number. I'm in the process right now of notifying everyone where my old card's attached. Pain!

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  6. Yikes is right. Glad its been taken care of even though it can be a chore to update all those automatic payments. It was about 5/6 years ago we had a call from our bank saying someone attempted to charge a high end hotel room in Hong Kong. It was several hundreds of dollars. Very thankful that was caught because that was on our debit card.

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    1. I used to use my debit card way more than I do now, after learning that they had less protection against fraud.

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  7. Yikes indeed! Bless your heart! Thank goodness you went to the website! These scammers are very annoying and have hurt many people.

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  8. Our credit union has had batches of numbers hacked at one time. Twice now I have received a phone call telling me of this but I don't answer the phone call, instead going to the credit union's site and, using the fraud number listed, calling them.

    Sure enough, in both cases their phone call to me was legitimate, but in both cases they said it was better that I was double checking and calling them. The card was cancelled each time with a new one mailed out. So, now my credit union online page shows all of the accounts, with the closed ones having zero balances.

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  9. Fortunately,
    this has happened in the past and I hope it doesn't happen again!!

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  10. Just the worst! Glad you got it sorted quickly though.

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    1. I am thankful that things went as easy as they did.

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  11. We've all been here too. So frustrating!

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    1. Would you believe this is the first time my card has been hacked? I guess I'm part of the club now.

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  12. That's the worst.. glad you and the company caught it.

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    1. I was impressed at how proactive the company was.

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  13. 'Yikes' is right! There is nothing quite like that sinking feeling of seeing a list of charges you didn't make. You were so smart to go directly to the website instead of replying to the text—those phishing scams are getting clever. The worst part is definitely that long afternoon of updating every single automatic payment; it’s a chore nobody needs! Hopefully, that nondescript envelope arrives early so you can get back to your regular routine.

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    1. I was proud that in my freaked out state I remembered to not click on a random text.

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  14. That must have been really unsettling at first, but you handled it in exactly the right way 👍💳

    It’s actually smart that you didn’t rely on the text and instead went straight to the official website to verify everything. That kind of quick, careful thinking likely helped you catch the full extent of the fraud much faster.

    It’s worrying how sophisticated these scams and card breaches have become, especially when transactions can appear in different places like that. But you stayed calm, checked the facts, and took control of the situation—that’s exactly what matters most in moments like this.

    Hopefully your card provider resolves everything quickly and you don’t have to deal with any further hassle 🤞

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  15. Good for you! This is so scary. We've already had to replace one card already. My son had us get a virtual card for online purchases.

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