Monday, February 20, 2006

Lightening Struck Twice?

One always thinks of white collar crime affecting..."others." It has hit us recently. Not once but twice this month.

Just before going out of state we were notified that one of our credit cards had been "compromised" and would be closed. Not a problem. OK, it seemed like a problem at the moment but it's the "right thing." And we had other credit cards to take with us. That IS one reason one maintains more than one credit card after all.

One of those "spare credit cards" that went with us got used. Once. The first time in nearly two months. Tonight, about 48 hours later someone has tried to use that credit card to book an $850 vacation expense on our very infrequently used credit card. Fortunately we were notified immediately by the credit card company and when we called back to confirm that it was fraudulent use that credit card has been closed as well.

Credit card fraud is becoming much more common. We have not had any loss due to either of these incidents. I thanked one credit card company when our card was denied when we attempted to use it before arriving home from our trip. They saw a pattern that was concerning and blocked access to the card. When we called in and confirmed that we had the cards and had used them at the places where the charges showed up, they released the block on the card. They were (and are) looking out for us.

When shopping online we always use temporary account numbers supplied through the credit card company: a one time number that can not be "used" elsewhere. When using the card in person I keep the card upside down so unscrupulous individuals can't "memorize" the number of the face of the card. That will not protect us from "inside jobs," of course. Fortunately, for us, the credit card companies are very vigilant for fraud and have done an excellent job protecting us.

1 Comments:

At 1:40 AM, Blogger Cheryl said...

wow - that's scary that it happened twice!

 

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