Woke up to an AMEX fraud alert today. I didn’t recognize the amount or location. By the time we finished working it out there were two more fraudulent charges. Total of about $479.
I still have my card, so they swiped my number somehow.
I’m flying out tomorrow shortly after noon, so AMEX is having a card made for me in Dallas that I can pick up before leaving. Otherwise they couldn’t guarantee delivery to my home before 7pm, and I was wondering how I’d pick up the rental car if they shipped it to my hotel.
They caught the charges after they were approved by the merchant network but before they went on my statement. Pretty cool.
I did eat at some locally-owned restaurants, but right now I’m wondering about my gas station stop. It was a WaWa, a big chain out east (nice stores, by the way), but I had to scan my card twice. I didn’t think much of it at the time; I recall thinking it timed out while asking me other stupid questions or while I was fiddling with the fuel cap. So I’m wondering if there might have been a fake number-stealing card swiper there that I used without noticing. (I’ve heard criminals will attach a fake swiper to steal numbers, but I assume they wouldn’t actually work the pump correctly. Then again, how many pump designs are there and how hard would it be to hack into a pump controller?)
I don’t have a good memory of it because it was raining, cold, I had to pee, and I was shorter on time for catching the plane than I had planned. But I thought the pump acknowledged the first swipe and then I got slowed down between stupid pump questions and the gas cap spun around and around for a while without coming off, then it needed my card again.
Now I’ve confused myself about timing, but I think the fraud charges all started on Tues 1/18, so assuming they started using the account quickly after they obtained the number the suspect-timing transactions would be the WaWa gas stop, the US Air bag fee, the Charlote Douglass airport Bagel place, the book store at the same airport and DFW airport parking.
The phone guy asked me twice about the USAir $25 charge which was my bag fee, so I wonder if they find something suspicious about that.
Later the same day…
4.5 hours after I was aware there was a problem I had my new AMEX in hand. Awesome. I had to drive to Dallas to their AMEX Travel storefront (I thought they sold off that division), but they had it ready for me. They were going to UPS it by 7pm the following day, but I’m flying out shortly after noon. They could have sent it to my hotel, but then I’d worry about picking up the rental car.
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