Well, I just experienced credit card fraud… again.
Why I’m usually not worried about credit card fraud
I feel like a lot of people are paranoid when it comes to credit card fraud fraud, and I’m not sure I totally understand that. In the event that your card is compromised and you report it, you’re typically not on the hook for any of the charges.
So while I won’t go so far as to wear a shirt with my credit card number printed on it, I generally lose zero sleep over worrying about my information being compromised.
I feel like we hear about a major data breach at a major travel brand just about weekly lately, and on top of that, I have a lot of credit cards.
Every time I go to a restaurant a stranger takes my credit card and could easily steal my info if they wanted to, so I think it’s somewhat irrational to be overly concerned about sharing those details online, etc.
I deal with credit card fraud occasionally
Having said the above, credit card fraud is most definitely a real thing. In June 2015 I experienced credit card fraud, and again in June 2017. Back in the day I feel like most credit card fraud happened in one of two ways:
- When you actually physically don’t have your card, either because it’s lost or stolen, and someone starts spending on it
- Someone has your card details and then makes online purchases since they know the info
However, both of my credit card fraud incidents in the past four years were actually for in-store purchases where I still had my physical card, so obviously fake cards were made with my information.
My latest credit card fraud incident
This morning I woke up to a secure message from Chase regarding my Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card. Usually when you get these types of messages regarding fraud they’re asking you to verify a purchase, but in this case they were asking me to verify that I called from a certain phone number:
**PLEASE VERIFY THE CALL BELOW, RECEIVED FROM AN UNKNOWN PHONE NUMBER.**
DATETIME ESTCALL FROM PHONE NUMBER
12/03/2018 3:39 PM XXX-XXX-9251
Very interesting. I didn’t recognize the last four digits, so then I looked at my statement, and noticed the following charges:
- A $345.88 purchase from a Hampton Inn & Suites in Clermont, Florida
- A $3,631.49 purchase from a Lowe’s in Brandon, Florida
Neither of those purchases were from me (though Brandon is awfully close to where I grew up), so I phoned up Chase.
The lady I spoke with confirmed that they sometimes send out fraud alerts regarding people calling from different numbers than what’s on file. These people usually try to get through the automated prompts to see how much credit is available, etc., and don’t actually want to talk to a human.
She also confirmed that these purchases were made in-store, so it seems that a copy was once again made of my card.
They’ll be getting me a new card tomorrow, though go figure the Sapphire Reserve is one of my primary cards, and I have that card saved to a lot of my profiles, so I’ll need to update that.
Bottom line
Credit card fraud happens, especially if you’re like me and have around two dozen cards. It’s not anything to be overly concerned about, or rather there’s really no way to prevent it altogether.
Every time I deal with it, though, I feel like I learn something new. This was my first time where a fraud alert seemed to happen because of someone calling Chase from a suspicious phone number, and go figure there were fraudulent charges to go along with that.
Has anyone else received a fraud alert regarding a phone number from which you contacted your card issuer?
Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.