What a pain to have to deal with. If people would just use their energy doing something useful instead of scamming others the world would be a better place. Hope you get it straightened out without too much stress.

Happened to my mother a couple of weeks ago. It's sad you have to watch out for these things. Mom caught it on her bill.

Same thing happened to my husband.....American Express contacted us wanting to know if he authorized a $15.50. Nope. They immediately cancelled his card and he had a new one in two days.

AmEx has started a fraud investigation.

Sorry to hear, it's an annoying (and recurring) problem most face. Our VISA issuer has done involuntary number changes on me a few times in recent years because of having had prior purchases from businesses whose data records were compromised (Target was one example).

We have one main card that I use for most things and for the dozen or so companies set up for autopay. When I want to charge something for a company I think may be less secure than the others, I use a different card that's not used for any autopays. When the isolation fails me, I've gotten pretty good at changing autopay records, I can do a dozen in just a little more than an hour.

Ouch! Glad he had some cash on him.

We've had it happen three times now. The latest was the week of Christmas. I think they charged $2 at an exterminator and then needed to shop at Nordstroms in Atlanta. We got our new cards in two days also.

Someone tried to charge on my Edward Jones Master Card and they immediately closed the account after notifying me. Grateful!

There's no need to feel grateful about an account/number change because of unauthorized activity because individual cardholders aren't liable for fraudulent charges that are reported timely. I forget the exact requirement for "timely" but I think it's within a month or two after the statement with a bad charge is sent.

It's the issuer's problem. There's no risk or exposure for you or me.

About 5 years ago, while on a trip to Europe, my wife had her wallet "lifted" out of her purse. She knows better than to keep credit cards there when abroad but she forgot to move them. We had 3 weeks left in our trip, we were going to be moving around, and I couldn't be without a useable credit card. I decided to postpone reporting the theft until we got back home so that I could continue to use our card (we only had one at the time). As it turned out, there had been over $5,000 of fraudulent charges. It cost me nothing.

Maybe I should say APPRECIATE, for the attention given, eh?

If you appreciate it, then that's how you should feel.

To me, it's annoying ESPECIALLY because the banks tend to use duplicitous language in such cases by suggesting the action was taken to protect the customer.

I'm just happy there was no problem and my credit card company saw to it and took care of it. Enough said.

It's not uncommon. Last time for us, we got a call from the card issuer that someone was using our card in Russia! We were on vacation, but not in Russia. They cancelled the card, and fortunately we had a backup card with us.

A few years back, my boss took a business trip out east and used his corporate issued card. After he got back, he discovered that someone had purchased a $17,000 used car with his card. (Because he was a manger, his card had a higher limit than most of the other workers.) A few phone calls by our corporate sleuths corrected the charges and set in motion a search for the culprits. It was suspected that it was someone behind the counter of the hotel where he stayed. We never heard what happened after that. The credit card company was hot to find this one.

This event did cause our company to tighten their procedures, and my boss got nervous about his personal cards.

For the very example you've given, jemdandy, when my company introduced a corporate credit card program, we blocked ahead of time the vendor type codes for car and boat dealers, jewelry stores and many other types of businesses. We blocked vendor types that had nothing to do with the types of spending our employees would legitimately be doing.

I use a separate credit card for online purchases. On a number of occasions, I have gotten calls for verification that a purchase was legitimate. I am glad that they monitor the account. A few years ago (a couple of days before Christmas), they called to inquire about a purchase of airline tickets to China. I assured them that neither DH nor I had made the purchase. They issued a new card, and they now send me emails if there is a charge over $100. Last month, I got a call from PayPal to confirm a large purchase (my new computer). That was my first call from them.

It's happened to us several times now. From what I've read, people can use scanners and get your card numbers while you're standing pumping gas. I guess some people just don't want to work for a living. I'm not going to get all paranoid about it. I'm just glad my identity has never been stolen!

It's good that credit card companies have become so suspicious. My Visa was caught up in the Home Depot hacking a while back, and I reported it myself when I found a charge made at a McDonald's--in Canada. (I dislike McDonald's, and I haven't been to Canada since I was 3 years old.) The hackers had several charges on my card, all small, all for fast food and beer. :-)

My current Visa refused a charge this month when I tried to make a $700 purchase. I find that reassuring (and it was a quick fix).

I use a chipped Visa buying a LOT of supplies to do whole house remodels. I stopped carrying my Discover card after it was hacked and reissued twice!...and it's non-chipped. Another reason not to carry it on my person. My Visa does need to be called when I make say a LARGE purchase. They put the purchase on hold until they speak with me. I usually call to say before hand I'll be making large purchases for the next 3 days...after that put a stop on my card. I was buying cabinets and found more items that I wanted, making a 2nd small purchase($16) within 20 minutes at the same store and they put a STOP on the card. I like that!

Well, luckily you came away with it almost 100% unscathed. A little over a year ago someone got a hold of my ATM number, reproduced a whole new card and with the help of a liquor store in Detroit, proceeded to wipe our our entire checking account 500.00 transactions at a time; one right after the other, boom boom boom. The bank didn't catch it until after both our checking account (including my husbands paycheck) and overdraft protection were gone. We were now also 275.00 in the red. Over all, several thousand dollars.

I discovered this on a Saturday morning when I typically do a routine check of our account and pay bills. I immediately called the bank and they said they had already put a stop it (a little late IMO) and that it could take a couple of weeks for them to investigate and for us to get our funds back.

Luckily the Credit Union intervened and was very supportive to us. They refunded the money pretty quick, provided a new ATM card and ensured us it would not affect our credit with them at all. Luckily too, the evidence of who did it was pretty obvious in the transaction and it would have been pretty easy to follow up on. My DH and I even took a drive to Detroit to see if the store where it happened was really a true store and it was.

However, when we filed the police report we were pretty disappointed when the officer said that nothing would probably even come of it. That often times the police and/or banks don't have the resources (or want to pay for the resources) to pursue cases like this. Even sadder the officer said it definitely appeared to be very organized, not just a one time thing, so lots more victims. No wonder credit card theft is so rampant; it's the perfect crime! It's relatively easy to do and even easier to get away with!

We have had our AE card number stolen twice so we pay cash for everything now. (They notified us right away. We were getting charges in Chicago and New York at same time.) We just have to go to the autoteller more often. It was quite an adjustment at first but I think we are spending less. You think twice before paying cash. It is so much easier to just swipe a card.

Lesson learned: Do not use debit cards for small purchases. A credit card problem is a lot easier to fix over a debit card problem, especially after your account is wiped out.

I'm another cash user. And when I use the credit card (purchases over $50 or so), I write it in the check book, so the bill isn't a surprise.

We've had the $1 charge before too. The CC company called us right away and sent a new card that we had in two days.

We had ours stolen in December. A couple low charges and then more than $2000 from various online vendors. Thankfully, the CC company covered all of it. Still very inconvenient, we have auto-pay for most bills and had to change the info for all of them.

I carry two CC's. I had to resort to the second when my first card was refused for $150 worth of groceries at Safeway the evening we arrived on Maui. (Should have notified the bank I'd be there, not in Illinois!)

The same card was refused last year (also on Maui, but we'd been here a while). I was using it at Lowes for some paint and trim -- not 'typical' purchases for me, and the bank told me that fraud is frequent at home improvement stores.

Eighteen years ago I helped DS buy an engagement ring. Got a 'ring' from the bank asking if I had actually spent $$$$ at a jeweler.

We charge *everything*. DH just bought six postcards; charged 'em. Sometimes I'm carrying the same twenties for months. (Like your Chap Stick trick, grainlady. Even the 'shape' is misleading.)

Yep, this practice is commonplace now. I had to ask and the bank reluctantly gave me an atm card that is NOT attached to a credit card.

Never use an ATM card as a credit card that is connected to your bank account. Good way for them to drain your account real quick. You would think the banks would be tired of making up for the money taken and do something about it. No wonder they have all these fees for every little thing now. Sadly, we live in a different world now.. So many with their hands stuck out for anything free.

I was always a cash only person unless making a major purchases or purchasing online. Never liked using checks for anything other than bill paying. Today I use CC cards for almost everything. I pay them off in full each month so no interest. All are registered online so I would get an alert if anything looked out of place. Just got one last week when I happened to use my card in 3 different cities in a short period of time.

I also have taken advantage of zero interest introductory promotions. For years the banks have held my money will little return to me. Now I use theirs without return to them. I get rewards and the security of fraud protection by law. Going away in a couple of weeks. Free room since I have enough points to pay for it. bought a new grill and patio things this year at Lowes using gift cards from Discover.

Have only had to get new card numbers twice. Target sent me a new one even though my card wasn't compromised. The new one has a chip. My Chase was compromised before I even used it so they alerted me and immediately replaced it. Very secure. I don't carry a debit card. Only have one for our joint account that DH uses as his personal account so I could withdraw funds if something happened to DH.