Sunday, June 27, 2010

Credit Card Compromised

It is quite ironic that after a long absence from updating The New Blogged Word, the topic today falls immediately on the heels of an identity theft topic.

No, at least at this point, it does not look as if our identity has been stolen, but we did have our credit card number compromised. We have our cards, but when checking our balance through the automated phone system today, we found over $17,000 in charges!

A quick call to our credit card provider began the process of clearing things up. Flights, travel services in Istanbul and England, utilities, and dozens of other random charges.  The charges had been taking place for days and continuing today - during our call - when the agent deactivated our account.  New cards, with new numbers are on the way.

This caused me to look for some resources on Amazon, just in case I needed to dig deeper. Much to my chagrin, I found an enormous collection, at the time of this writing, 849 results, related to Identity Theft Resources!

Whether you buy a book from Amazon, or subscribe to an identity theft prevention service, be very careful about your credit card use. Something as innocent has handing it to a waiter, who takes it out of sight to process, may be just what you don't need!

Dave