Frickin' Fraud

This afternoon, Michael logged onto our bank account website. He didn't do it for any particular reason; just a routine check of things. Next thing I know, he's standing beside me asking for clarification on a $9 charge that was appearing on the account.

I went to the computer to check it out, but I did not recognize the charge, or the name of the merchant it was from. After combing our memories for a minute or two, Michael plugged the name into Google, and it came up as some obscure charity in Southern California.

RED FLAG.

I've read numerous times about how, when your credit card number is stolen, the criminal will charge a small amount (between $1 and $10) to your card to "test" it--and often times, they make a donation to a charity in order to do so. How nice of them, right? After they are successful in putting a small charge on the card, they then hit you with the "real" fraud, and charge whatever the heck they want to your card. In other words, the mystery charity transaction is a sign of bad things to come.

After checking and double checking to make sure it could not possibly be a transaction we were forgetting about, I immediately called our bank. They were able to tell me that 1) the transaction was made using my card number (as opposed to Michael's), and 2) the charge had been made today. That right there confirmed that something was not right, as I knew for a fact I had not made any $9 charges today. She asked if I would like to cancel the card, and I said yes.

The card number is void, so we don't have to worry about any further fraudulent charges. Now we just have to wait for the $9 charity charge to officially post to the account, and then I'll have to call to dispute it. It's next to impossible to track down who used my card number, so this bastard will likely never be caught.

All in all, we're feeling really lucky that Michael happened to go on the account and spot it right away. In terms of fraud, this is pretty much the best case scenario. However, it's still a pain in the butt.

Worst of all, I am feeling slightly uneasy about everything. I have been watching my other accounts to make sure nothing suspicious happens on any of those. I have been trying to figure out who could have gotten a hold of my card number and used it in this way, but it's just impossible to know. I have suspicions, but they're recent (within the last week)--and for all I know, someone could've copied my card number down weeks or months ago.

I guess I should feel grateful that I've been using credit cards for 10 years and this is the first time anything like this has happened to me, since apparently it's really common. But MAN would I love to know who did this...