So, I logged onto my VISA this morning to pay off the balance and noticed a suspicious charge for approximately $1,300 to a computer/IT company near the Toronto area yesterday. I definitely did not purchase any computer-relate ware, hard nor soft, in recent memory, so I called the company and they advised me to contact VISA. Could my card have been compromised? As I was waiting to talk to someone at VISA, I scrolled down and noticed another suspicious charge made on August 18th to some online gaming store. Someone had purchased about $1,400 of what I assumed to be Pokeman cards online. And that someone was NOT me. I finally got through to the VISA rep and they were very nice. They cancelled my card, said they’d be sending me a new one in the mail, and informed me the charges would be withdrawn pending a fraud investigation. If the merchants could prove I had made the purchase – which would be one neat trick – then the charges would apply. If not, then I wouldn’t have to worry about them.
Still, I am concerned. About the inconvenience. And the fact that someone stole my credit card information. But who? And how?
What’s interesting is that my old VISA card expired this month and I was mailed a new one end of July. And this new card had to be the one used to make the online Pokemon purchases since it was made the 18th and my cell phone company contacted me a few days earlier to inform me that my old credit was no longer in use. Which MEANS that whoever stole my credit card information had a very narrow window to do so. A little over two weeks.
I don’t know the exact date I started using the new card (which automatically invalidated the old one), but it was near the end of July. So, knowing this, I went through the itemized charges on my VISA.
There were some uber payments, but those go through my phone. There were some amazon payments but, again, that was my old card and I’m assuming purchases on a new merchant’s online platform would require the 3 digit code at the back of the card – which is not readily available. There were some substack charges but again, like the amazon payments, those are pre-existing subs from my old card. I made two purchases with the card August 11th, a restaurant and a chocolate chop, but those were taps and I never let the card out of my sight. Then, August 15th, the payment to my cellphone provider, processed after I updated my new credit card information to their website.
Hmmmm. Updated my new credit card information to their website. Could my cellphone provider’s website have been hacked?
Or did someone at the restaurant or chocolate shop – however unlikely – catch a glimpse of the 3 digit code at the back of my card?
What do you Sherlocks think?
In the meantime, I look at the bright side. The fact that my VISA has been deactivated clears any old subscriptions I may be unaware of or failed to cancel in the past.
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