We've had several cards that have been 'hacked'. Dh had it happen again two weeks. We think that one may have been scanned when he was at lunch paying for a meal at a restaurant. The lady on the other end's advice was to pay cash for lunch. Dh pays with a card so he doesn't have to pay cash. She said there are organized rings who do this.

Use PayPal as a buffer between you and Amazon. But it probably was not Amazon unless they were hacked big time. There are lots of other weak links.

And it could have been a random hit on your number. We had a TV purchase for over a thousand dollars made to an online store in a foreign country to my husband's American express card. His card is only used for business expenses and has not been used at all in several years. So when I got the bill it was a shock. First of all that it was not red flagged and blocked immediately and how did it happen. The people at American express would not automatically remove the charge. I said how could we get a TV in a foreign country? This should have never gone through. After a few months of them trying to contact the store and get to the bottom of it. I mean they had to deliver it some where? Seems easy enough to find it. They removed it from the card. Said that our card was not hacked or compromised, it was just people who try random numbers till they get a hit on a good one. I was pretty upset with them and we have not used the card since then. They finally agreed that they should have flagged it immediately and contacted us.

We use Chase and Citbank. Although we still have AmEx because it used to be linked to Costco.

We have never had issues with Chase or Citibank when we have had illegal charges. The card was stopped, we got new ones the next day. We were not held accountable, no worries.

It is interesting when they flag unnecessary things. We always alert the card companies when we travel internationally. Yet we had an issue once where they blocked a transaction. They agreed it was their error and gave us 5,000 points for the inconvenience.

"Do you ever use that card for online purchases ( other than being on file at Amazon) ? The number may have been taken right off your machine by a virus or malware."

What you're suggesting is very, very, very unlikely.

ravencajun, I'm surprised to hear of your having such a bad experience with American Express. What a fail for a customer service episode. It's too bad you had to go through that but have to say I had a few of my own experiences in which they acted like I should be grateful to even have their card (it was a large corporate program, it wasn't like it was my choice). I chucked my own Amex card when I retired and my wife dropped hers in the Costco changeover. I can't say I miss them because we've had excellent service from Chase for the Visa card we concentrate our charges on.

The Adobe incident was a cyber-security breach and theft of data from a large system. It's what happened to Yahoo, Target, Home Depot and a massive number of universities, medical providers, etc. Mostly done by criminals and state-sponsored covert services of hostile nations. Not from a virus or malware on a personal computer as you cited.

Your second link is to a page from a company that sells security software.

Financial transactions and private information cross the internet in encrypted form using the https system. It's not absolutely airtight but it's not bad.

Back to what I said, having personal information compromised as you described, from an owned personal computer by a virus or malware is very, very, very unlikely. Prevention is simple - use a highly rated security program (only one is needed) and use common sense in internet use. Malwarebytes is a capable program to clean up problems but the use of a top-rated security program will insure that for most people, no clean up (nor Malwarebytes) is ever necessary.

Gosh, I've had my card hacked multiple times over the years and AmEx always caught it before I even got a bill. It happened when I paid for gas at a highway gas station, at Target, and at a parking lot. They called me immediately ("Did you just make a purchase this AM - Sun morning - in Indian Rupees?) I've never had to "prove" I didn't buy something and they've also supported me when I used the card AND PayPal and mdse wasn't delivered.

Card readers with a chip are a favorite way for hackers to get your card info. It has happened to millions of people over the years. But I have no intention of going "cash only" and never again order something online etc. AmEx has been very good for me.

There are two kinds of chip cards - chip and pin and chip and signature.

Chip and pin, like ATM cards here, require entering a PIN to authorize a charge. They are very safe, reduce fraudulent charges for in person use significantly, and are virtually un-counterfeit-able. They have been the standard for many years for credit cards issued almost everywhere in the world EXCEPT in the US. In Europe and Canada, when you are in a restaurant, for example, they bring a little machine to you. You insert the card and then need to enter your PIN, for the charge to go through.

The newly issued chip cards in the US are chip and signature. What's the difference between that and what we used to have? Not much. The old style mag strip cards were easily to counterfeit. The chip takes the place of the mag strip to identify you. They can't be counterfeited but they can still be stolen and misused. It disables the ability of the bad guys to make phony cards but otherwise, offers little boost in security over the mag strip only cards.

There is a small but growing number of US card issuers that offer chip and pin cards. I got one a few years ago after encountering situations abroad where my mag strip or even newer chip and signature cards couldn't be used.