The last day and a half has been weird, not sure what to make of it.
The wife and I have two credit cards that we use regularly, a United Airlines Chase and a Southwest Chase card. Signed up for them because of bonuses and they're the two airlines we use to travel, so airline miles.
anyhow, yesterday afternoon I get a fraud alert text and email on my phone, asking me to verify a purchase at a Speedway gas station on the United card. Weird, we sometimes get gas at speedway, so I asked my wife. and she hadn't been to Speedway all week. So I texted back that it wasn't my purchase.
A few minutes later I got a call from a Chase fraud specialist, our card had been used at hotel in Wisconsin for $400, Speedway twice, for $120 and there were three $1 charges through a Square card reader. None of that was us. Wife and I both had our cards in our possession. (they're the same # and card, except for the name on the front) The Speedway where the card was used is only 15 mins from our home, but we haven't been to that location in a very long time.
All this is weird and I can't make sense of how it got compromised. We used that card very infrequently because we have a ton of airlines miles saved up on it, so we've used the SW as the primary card for the past 6 months. In the last month there was only one in person swipe and that was at a doctor's office. There were some recurring charges from Spotify and charges from Amazon, other than that nothing. Which makes card skimming unlikely.
Anyhow, Chase was helpful, they said they'd reverse the charges, close the account and I should get new cards on Tuesday. I tried asking the fraud guy, how this could have happened, but it was clear that he was just some guy in India reading a script.
Fast forward to this morning. I logged into my online Chase account to see if the fraudulent charges had been reversed (they hadn't yet). Then I checked my Southwest Card, and motherfucker was I pissed when I saw a $1,100 charge to Cabela's and $150 charge to 1-800-flowers. Called the Chase # on my card, told them the story about my United card, and that both SW cards were in our possession. He said that the purchases were made online. Then the same deal, reverse charges, close account, send out new cards.
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Now I'm paranoid, trying to figure out how both of our cards were compromised within a 24hr period. The only thing that comes to mind is that we had a party at our house two weeks ago for my brother in law's 40th surprise party. There were a few people that were invited from his work that I had never met before. The party was in the basement, but people regularly went into the garage to smoke. To get to the garage you have to go through the laundry room, where my wife kept her wallet in her purse on a coat hook. It's possible that someone took her cards out and cloned them. I would hate to think someone would do that, but that's about the only thing I can think of.
The wife and I have two credit cards that we use regularly, a United Airlines Chase and a Southwest Chase card. Signed up for them because of bonuses and they're the two airlines we use to travel, so airline miles.
anyhow, yesterday afternoon I get a fraud alert text and email on my phone, asking me to verify a purchase at a Speedway gas station on the United card. Weird, we sometimes get gas at speedway, so I asked my wife. and she hadn't been to Speedway all week. So I texted back that it wasn't my purchase.
A few minutes later I got a call from a Chase fraud specialist, our card had been used at hotel in Wisconsin for $400, Speedway twice, for $120 and there were three $1 charges through a Square card reader. None of that was us. Wife and I both had our cards in our possession. (they're the same # and card, except for the name on the front) The Speedway where the card was used is only 15 mins from our home, but we haven't been to that location in a very long time.
All this is weird and I can't make sense of how it got compromised. We used that card very infrequently because we have a ton of airlines miles saved up on it, so we've used the SW as the primary card for the past 6 months. In the last month there was only one in person swipe and that was at a doctor's office. There were some recurring charges from Spotify and charges from Amazon, other than that nothing. Which makes card skimming unlikely.
Anyhow, Chase was helpful, they said they'd reverse the charges, close the account and I should get new cards on Tuesday. I tried asking the fraud guy, how this could have happened, but it was clear that he was just some guy in India reading a script.
Fast forward to this morning. I logged into my online Chase account to see if the fraudulent charges had been reversed (they hadn't yet). Then I checked my Southwest Card, and motherfucker was I pissed when I saw a $1,100 charge to Cabela's and $150 charge to 1-800-flowers. Called the Chase # on my card, told them the story about my United card, and that both SW cards were in our possession. He said that the purchases were made online. Then the same deal, reverse charges, close account, send out new cards.
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Now I'm paranoid, trying to figure out how both of our cards were compromised within a 24hr period. The only thing that comes to mind is that we had a party at our house two weeks ago for my brother in law's 40th surprise party. There were a few people that were invited from his work that I had never met before. The party was in the basement, but people regularly went into the garage to smoke. To get to the garage you have to go through the laundry room, where my wife kept her wallet in her purse on a coat hook. It's possible that someone took her cards out and cloned them. I would hate to think someone would do that, but that's about the only thing I can think of.