I would report it to the police.
There maybe something going on on the side. Or just an employee that is taking advantage of the customers.

Umm..I guess if it's a legit business..then the massage in November should be fine.

no I would NOT. I WOULD inform the spa of the circumstances, ask for a return of the pre-paid amount, and if they do not give you your money back, I would DISPUTE the charge for cause.

This has happened to us a few times. We were told itâÂÂs most likely someone you have given your card number to on line and they were hacked. Your bank will reverse the charges and send you a new card. Our also sent a statement we signed stating we did not use the card for these charges and sent back.

Call and make a fraud report with your local police and file a fraud alert with the credit reporting companies. If you follow the instruction on the page I linked they will pass it along to the other reporting companies.

Sorry this happened to you itâÂÂs really a pain to change everything if you use your card to pay on line bills.

Here is a link that might be useful: Equifax Fraud Alert

And ask for a freeze on your credit report!

Here is a link that might be useful: Credit freeze

How do you know it wasn't from a charge you made three weeks ago? Or from the website (by an insider or by a cyber break-in) from which you bought something last month? Or that the attendant at the gas station didn't note your name and card number?

You don't. Get a new number, get the charges reversed and move on, this happens all the time. Some say a credit freeze is more trouble than it's worth, I've never bothered so I don't know.

There's no way to know where or when your card was
compromised. You've notified the credit card company and
gotten a new card. Enjoy your November massage.

I stand corrected...I read it wrong and thought you had never ever used this card before EXCEPT FOR THE SPA. I kinda think it WASN'T them now.

This has happened to me more than a few times. Mine was compromised by someone while I was on vacation in Virginia. They wouldn't approve a charge at Walmart when I got home so I called them. They asked me about 3 charges that they felt were 'suspicious' and I didn't recognize the stores cited. They canceled my card and I received my new card yesterday. It happens.

Thanks Lindakathy!

I kind of feel that way too.

I do have another card, with another company. So I am not out of a card.

I always pay my cards off, so the balances are never a problem.

Now, the charges on the card were not big, totaling just under 50 dollars, what alerted the card company was the charges in Pennsylvania and California.

All disputed charges are voided already. I will get a new card/number in a few days.

Thanks everyone for your opinion.

Moni

I wouldn't necessarily blame someone at the Spa. The bank made you "whole", you have a new card with different numbers. So you aren't missing any money. Just be careful in future. My daughter had her credit carded frauded about a year ago. Someone in Florida was using her number to buy gasoline in different cities. . She had never left New York and had the card in her purse the entire time. Once she reported it, the bank refunded all her money and got her a new card.

My husband had it happen and, among the charges was a local gas station, so he contacted the police who followed up very well and caught the culprit. I've had over 8 grand spent on mine and some of them were in Texas. It's very frustrating and the bank will work with you to resolve the issue.

Around here a lot of credit card fraud is done thru skimmers that criminals attach to gas pumps and ATMs.

There's also wireless identity theft where someone can get your card information just by being near you. There's really no way to 100% protect yourself (even cash-only has it's risks) so I would just take reasonable precautions and monitor your accounts. This happens all the time.

I pay a few dollars a month for a credit monitoring service that alerts me if anything new has been opened in my name or if I have balances on cards I never use.

Gas stations and ATMs - in our bank! have resulted in our cards being compromised (in Canada). So we have needed to get new credit and debit cards. We also had to sign affidavits swearing that the charges were not ours - it was obvious they weren't - particularly with the credit cards - but necessary.

t's easy to freeze your credit reports. We did it years ago. It takes two minutes to 'unfreeze' your information for review by a creditor. You can open it for a few hours or a day or longer.

After all, how often do you apply for credit? Why leave that information 'out there' to be misused? You could lose a whole lot more than a few items charged to your card. Everything a bank has to 'make good on' costs us all in the long run.

I had this happen, yet again, a couple of weeks ago. Someone trickily moved my cc numbers around and bought a Bevmo gift card, then used my regular number at several more stores. This time an officer contacted me as he was trying to bust these guys--I wasn't the first to have this particular scheme happen. And yes, I called the police department first to check on the officer.

Just read an article today about cash register identity thievery.

Keep your eyes peeled for this little device on the back of cash registers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cash register identity theft device

Has happened with our card a few times. The bank always takes care of it and issues a new card.

Has happened to me, too. One time I ordered something from a small store in another state. I have a feeling they were not sophisticated enough to protect their database of credit card numbers. It was shortly after that that I found that two laptop computers had been ordered using my card.

Another time my son found a $15,000 charge on his card. He just happened to check his account online. He called the credit card company but they said there was nothing they could do about the purchase, although he would not be responsible for the cost. The charge has been made to a large lighting company in another state. My son, out of the goodness of his heart, called the company and informed them of the scam. They were so grateful! The order was sitting n their loading dock waiting to be picked up and they were able to stop it from leaving the warehouse. They would have been stuck with the cost.

What a world we live in. I'd call the police and let them know about the spa, although, who knows, maybe there is some rotten apple at the credit card company.

"I'd call the police and let them know about the spa, although, "
No, no, no, no way. Let the police know what? That she
used her credit card there? Might as well alert the cops to
every transaction made with the card. You can't sully a
business' reputation with zero proof.

I'm not sure what a person could or should do when this happens.

Surely, the bank behind your CC can see where you used the card and where the thief used it, but do they ever pursue offenders? I'd bet they just write it off, just as a store writes off theft of items. (And we all pay more for everything to cover those losses.)

dedtired -- That situation with your son's CC would have been so perfect for finding, arresting and prosecuting the thief, using the shipping address on the package! Nothing was done?

No, nothing was done. Evidently the crooks have the shipment sent to a specific address and while it is en route, they order it shipped somewhere else. Still seems you could find them, but no effort was made at all. They didn;t even inform the company that was being ripped off!

I guess I worded my statement incorrectly. As I understand it, you have to make a criminal complaint in order for the "crook" to be caught. So, perhaps by informing the police about that there was a fraudulent charge on your card, they might be able to deduce that the crime was committed by the spa since that was the only time the card was used. Probably not worth your effort.

Here is a link that might be useful: reporting credit card fraud to police

There are professionals who steal numbers and make new cards. A few years back, someone went on a three day shopping spree in three states on the east coast and bought $1000+ of gas and groceries. They had a card and our cards were in our wallets.

Sometime in the last year, someone bought train tickets in Japan. That was caught immediately.