I got an interesting message today on my cell phone from an unlisted number asking me to call back regarding some suspicious activity on my business Visa card. First thing I did was to search Google for info about the 800 number she had left and it turns out it is legit -- US Bank's fraud prevention line. With that knowledge, I called right away.
Seems that a couple of small Apple MobileMe charges were placed over the last couple of weeks, which, since we rent movies on iTunes every now and again I didn't really pay any attention to. But, as the specialist I spoke to mentioned, these charges were different than those that are through iTunes. They resembled charges for buying applications through an iPhone, which we don't have. Anyways, those two charges went through and added up to all of about $3 bucks. According to the specialist, the hackers might have been just cycling through all of the possible 16-digit numbers placing small charges and collecting the numbers they "hit" on. Then they followed up several weeks later to see if my card was still active - it was. Then yesterday, they tried to make a big purchase: a $1,200 order for online supplements that, thanks to Big 'US Bank' Brother, was denied and triggered the call from fraud prevention.
The specialist I spoke to was very helpful and professional. She walked me back through the recent charges and tried to identify good from bad. Ironically we'd had a couple of Internet orders recently through PayPal (an eBay auction and Field Notes from Coudal Partners), one for Pandora (we were over our free hours this month), and one getting our new camera from B&H... so even without the fraudulent charges our usage was out of the ordinary this month.
I am very pleased with the fraud prevention team! I feel pretty blessed that all we seem to have lost (as far as we could tell) was less than a 5-spot. Some paperwork and a new card is headed this way.
