I’ll be the first to admit that I have a pretty nice collection of points and mileage-earning credit cards, so it’s no surprise that I religiously log on to check my statements to make sure that bills are paid on time and points have posted correctly.
Well, after working all day yesterday on location, with no chance to even connect to the internet (yes.. I even missed the whole AAdvantage miles/fuel surcharge fiasco), I was surprised to find out that I had somehow went “shopping” according to the information that posted in the “pending transactions” list on my Chase Sapphire Preferred account. I noticed two (hopefully they’re the only 2) transactions that I did not recognize – a $407.95 gift card purchase from Michaels and a $1.00 temporary authorization charge from SurfStitch, an Australian clothing company.
In somewhat of a disbelief, I had to really think to myself – did I buy gift cards and go shopping in my sleep? I then had to tell myself out loud that I am the least crafty person, so I’d be the last person on earth to buy a gift card for arts and crafts supplies. Plus, I won’t exactly have a hot Australian beach body in a few weeks with this growing baby bump. Of course that was a silly thought to think I had possibly made the purchases on my own, but it really did run through my brain before contacting Chase.
While I was on the phone with Chase, I had realized that my card was not in my wallet or my possession – still I wasn’t too alarmed because I have misplaced several credit cards in the past, later finding them in coat pockets, under my car seat, or in other random places around my house. Plus, since the Chase Sapphire Preferred is my “go-to” card, I have that number embedded in my brain so that I could make online purchases without even having the card in my hand.
The first thing I did was scan my statement to find out the last place I used the card at a physical location, which was a restaurant on August 8; that means between then and now, I could have lost the card, but that also could just mean that the card is not lost at all and is just hiding in my clutter somewhere. I mean, the card *is* nice and thick and shiny… it’s not a card you wouldn’t notice if it was lost for a long period of time… Anyway… getting off track here.
Chase informed me that both of these charges were made online, and what’s even more alarming, was that the billing address for both of the transactions matched mine. Now I further believe that the card itself was never lost, instead, the information was scraped somewhere online.
On a positive note, Chase was pretty awesome at handling this for me. They immediately closed and changed the account number and are sending me a replacement card. What’s annoying though is that since this is my primary credit card, I’ll have to update all of my auto-saved info/auto-pay accounts with the merchants I have attached to the card when I get my new account number.
I also laughed a bit when the agent told me to “destroy” my Chase Sapphire Preferred card if I found it. Hello, those things are virtually indestructible!
Here’s What Do You Do if This Happens to You:
- First off, you should be checking your statements as often as possible to help identify suspicious activity (I recommend checking daily if possible).
- If you do find a charge you do not recognize, contact your bank and let them know immediately. You will not be responsible for the charges once they are reported. Your account number will be changed immediately, and you will be sent a new replacement card.
- If possible, contact the merchants where the fraudulent charges were made, so they can stop the order from further processing and possibly provide you with valuable information such as the shipping address, method of delivery etc, to help you pinpoint the criminal.
- Check to see the nature of the purchases – was the card use in a physical store? If so, call the store to see if there is surveillance information or a description of the person who used it. If the transactions were made online, did the billing address match yours? If so, that’s an imperative clue suggesting that your secure information was most-likely hacked.
- Don’t always save your credit card information online – sure, it may be convenient to pay using one click or have auto-pay set up in advance, but really, how safe is your information? Improve your noggin by memorizing your credit card number, expiration date, and security code and enter it manually.
So… my question to you: has this ever happened to you or someone in your family in the past? If so, what kind of “shopping spree” did your criminal go on at your expense? How did you handle the situation? Would love to hear about your stories and experiences.
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P.S. – To the credit card thief in Dubuque, Iowa- I know where you live – luckily one of the merchants stopped your order from being shipped and gave me your shipping address and phone number. Good luck not getting your stuff, sucker :-P.
Yep this happened to my wife on her chase hyatt card. Ours was much more suspicious as I made sure to only use her credit card once for the bonus for first purchase. Since then, it never left the house.
She got an email stating that she got a statement. I was puzzled as we didn’t spend anything on it since that first transaction which we paid for the previous month. We saw some charges that we didn’t recognize and a few more for the following month. We called Chase and they took care of it.
Got a letter in the mail a few weeks ago stating that the charges were cleared.
Love your msg to the theif..
My brother’s credit card was stolen way back in 2007 and the thief used to it make $1000 worth of shopping on it.. unfortunately my brother noticed it after 3-4 days and by that time he was getting ready to leave for India.. It was an Indian CC and the buyer protection is not as strong as it is in US.. He ended up making a settlement with the CC in the end, after a prolonged argument spread over a few months..
I had been notified by a vendor that my Sapphire Preferred number may have been compromised and sure enough, a few weeks later I got a fraud alert from Chase. Seems my thief bought beer & pizza. The email happened to come in the middle of the night and I happened to have trouble sleeping that night so I saw it right away and was able to call Chase right then. The thieves didn’t spend too much but what an inconvenience. But kudos to Chase for catching it right away.
And as for destroying the card, you don’t have to! They send you a handy envelope with your new card and you mail back the old card.
Already happened twice.
One thief tried the low amount strategy ($15 in a random store) but I caught it and let Citi know online. Citi managed it amateur-hour style: blocked all my accounts, including online, but sent me instructions online so I had no clue what was happening; proceeded to re-issue the same card; I noticed and had them issue a new one, and they lost it. The charge in the end was cleared but it took me a full week.
In the other case, the thief went on a shopping spree ($400 in a Dollar General), AmEx called me in real time to verify if I was making the purchase and stopped the charges. I had a replacement card in 1 day.
This just happened to me about a week ago and it was also the Chase Hyatt card. The odd thing is that I had just gotten the new card with the chip in the mail just before this happened and had only used the new card once. The charge was caught immediately by Chase fraud and it was at a jewelry store in a different part of the country than where I live. Still trying to figure out how they got my number.
Wait. You’re expecting???!!
This has happened twice in the last 3 years, and both times, Chase has been great about it. I’d go nuts without online account access! I don’t think I would use CCs if it were the old days of waiting for a postal statement.
@Nic: Yup, Baby Points Traveler is making his grand debut Feb 14 – in the “heart” of interrupting my newly acquired UA 1K status :-P… jk, we are thrilled to be able to travel with the little guy when he comes :)
I feel your pain!!! This didn’t happen to me once, not twice but 3 times!!! I manage all my accounts with Quicken and I religiously download all activity everyday. That is a great way to keep track of everything in one place. My first time happened in Manila, Philippines. I was on a business trip and the only place that I did not use my Corporate Amex was at a Lacoste store in the top mall in the city where I bought a shirt for my personal use. I used my Citi AAdvantage Mastercard and next day when I downloaded my credit card activity on Quicken I saw that right after the purchased someone went shopping in Brazil. Funny thing is that I am Brazilian but have not lived there for more than 12 years. Coincidence? Don’t know. Citi was great and I had no issues. Second time I was with the same Citi card in Brazil on vacation and right after I used the card in a restaurant down there someone went on a fancy shopping spree in a mall in Michigan. That was almost $5K in purchases at Armani, Gucci, etc… Third time I was on a business trip in Brazil and my Chase card was used for shopping in Pennsylvania. Well, long story short I still don’t know the connection with Brazil since all three times the country was involved somehow.
This happens to me about once a year. Generally, it is online purchases – lots of expensive international airline tickets. One time, my husband’s card was even duplicated – it was in our possession but someone clearly had a physical card because it was being swiped at gast stations and grocery stores. Another time, my card was used at vendors I have accounts with – Amazon, Walmart, Overstock and others. I didn’t catch it but I started getting fraud alert emails and calls from the vendor asking me if I had changed my email address and why had I set up a new account – the merchants did not ship anything.
Since I usually check statements obsessively, with the one exception, I caught the issue before the credit card fraud department did. In all cases (BOA/Citi/AmEx/others), the credit card companies have taken care of it immediately and seamlessly – with the only hassle being having to change auto payments.
Most online credit card portals let you set up email alerts and text msg alerts for certain (large) purchases and purchases made online or by phone.
I found a charge recently on my Chase Priority Club card. I never use it so it was obvious to me when I opened up my chase account page and there was a balance for over $700.00 to Allstate Insurance. It is a really strange thing to pay for with a stolen credit card. I think maybe some numbers were reversed more likely. Chase was very good about handling the issue.
This just happened to me last month. I had physical possession of the card as well and I had only used it twice in person and twice online (Verizon and Charter auto bill pay. I called Chase and spoke to their fraud department. A few hours later I received a telephone call from a Detective in Orange County, CA on the auto theft task force. They caught a guy in a stolen car with a bogus credit card in my name (a poorly made credit card too per the detective). He called it in to Chase as well. He wanted to know if I wanted to prosecute. I said and emphatic “yes” and volunteered to fly out to Orange County, CA and have an excuse to do a mileage run. Unfortunately he said that I didn’t need to be there. It’s here in my blog: http://airlandandsea.wordpress.com/2013/07/26/credit-card-number-stolen/
Congratulations! I didn’t know you were expecting either!!! :)
As for the topic in question, I’ve only had my cards compromised twice. In both cases, they were Chase cards and one of them is …you guessed it! Chase Sapphire.
I am wary of Chase for that reason, and have alerts set up on my accounts…
Did i miss it in prior posts, or was this a great little “outing” that you’re expecting? Either way, giant congrats!
@Angelina — “If possible, contact the merchants where the fraudulent charges were made, so they can stop the order from further processing and possibly provide you with valuable information such as the shipping address, method of delivery etc, to help you pinpoint the criminal.
Check to see the nature of the purchases – was the card use in a physical store? If so, call the store to see if there is surveillance information or a description of the person who used it. If the transactions were made online, did the billing address match yours? If so, that’s an imperative clue suggesting that your secure information was most-likely hacked.”
Don’t waste your time, as this really isn’t your problem. The police are likely to do absolutely nothing, even if you catch the thief.
Greetings! I happened upon your blog by Google- what was I googling you ask? Surfstich charges on my credit card that I didn’t make. UGH Yes, seems as though I was a victim to this too on July 29.
I Googled that company and sent them an email asking them how this could’ve happened. I am sure I wont get a response. I have never had this problem before. I am thankful that my credit card company (I have it thru a local credit union) red flagged the activity!
I was just wondering if you found out how Surfstich got your card numbers? I have not lost my card and have hardly used it because I am trying to pay down the balance =) the bank lady did say sometimes these scammers just put in random numbers to see if theyre working numbers…nice huh?
Anyways, I just thought I would share with you my story. I will let you know if I hear back from this Australian company.
Blessings!
Tammy E
Congrats about the little one! Thanks for the reminder to be diligent about checking credit card statements. Another danger is having your identity (vs. just a single credit card) stolen, and to catch that you need also check your credit report regularly. If a thief opens up new credit in your name, checking your existing credit card statements is unlikely to reveal that.
This just happened to me last week, the first charge being for .89 from Surfstitch. Then it was used twice in Australia…..They not only used my Paypal card, but my bank card as well. I caught it right away but had to get the two large charges taken off.
Received a $1 charge from Surfstitch and then they tried it at a couple of online software stores. Chase was alerted when they didn’t have the right billing address and they called to double check. Still not sure where they got the number. It’s a business card I don’t use much.