Credit card number stolen! How do I protect others?
General Malaise, that’s interesting with the random numbers. Goes along with what hungrysquirrels says too. Sugarfish, the thief did not order from the same company I did – they’re not getting a chargeback from me. The thief bought some coffee and a clock or something, and paid UPS a few bucks too. If the company I ordered from is ultimately responsible for the theft, they’re not going to know about it unless someone tells them – or they happen to discover it themselves. Terranova, that’s a good point for everyone. It was early in the morning, the CC rep had a strong accent, and it was such a weird situation overall that I asked them to verify my card number – which they did. They didn’t ask me for any personal information other than to verify my mailing address for the fraud paperwork.
Similar thing happened to me a couple of months ago. Bank of America security rep told me that it was probably just a random number that worked (sadly, a random number that you already owned). They’ve apparently been getting hit with this a lot more lately. Also, I’m not an expert, but I don’t think #3 is likely, because I’m pretty sure your card number is sent encrypted, so even if you can sniff the packets, there’s no way to see what it is. I could be wrong on that, though.
