Eternal vigilance ...

[screamingflea]

... is the cost of an unmolested credit card.

All in all, I'm actually pleased with myself. My friends and family often slap their foreheads over my being so cheap/frugal and money-driven, but it's pulled my bacon out of the fryer. This morning I logged on to my checking statement to find two minor charges, about $20 each. It only took me a few minutes to contact both vendors to confirm that it was fraud, and then order a new card from the bank. Whoo!

Now if only I can find out who got my number ... it's probably some random stranger, but I'm always curious about this stuff.

[redfox]

Perhaps one of those illict card readers.

[sweetana3]

Wise, wise, wise. Also check every phone statement from land and cell phone companies. There is a major scam going on adding 3rd party charges (allowed by our wonderful Congress) to cell phone bills. Since they are smaller or irregular amounts, they are often overlooked.

[jennipurrr]

Oh who knows...they may have collected your number months ago. Its ridiculous when you really realize how unsafe our information is. I worked at a bank when they were going through the whole TJ Maxx credit card number debacle. Some kids had been able to hack into TJ Maxx's company wide credit card servers sitting outside in the parking lot of a local store! There was an episode of American Greed about it, very interesting to see the whole story and the sex/drugs/rocknroll downfall of the hackers.

I use my cc online all time time...and you know what, when the number got stolen it was from a clerk at a Holiday Inn in person. They went on a spending spree, $800 at Victoria's Secret! I guess they had a good time with the SO that night, heh.

But good for you for checking! I wonder how many people don't even notice? I have my accounts set up in mint.com so if anything funny shows up on cards I don't use it will let me know.