durf.org

A couple evenings ago I got a call from Citibank about my credit card. "Did you use your card today to buy $9,000 worth of gear from this American computer sales website?" Um, no.

Someone made a 2-cent charge and followed that up with two $4,500 purchases. The "tiny purchase to make sure the card is live" is a common practice among these criminals apparently, and that set off the alarm bells at the bank. They froze the card and got in touch with me.

We went through the list of purchases on the card for the last month or so. A few of them were mine (renewing my JAT membership, an amazon.co.jp book buy) but I had nothing to do with the thousands upon thousands of dollars, pounds, and euros spent in the UK, Germany, and America. That card gets around. I think the total hit about $15,000.

I'm not too worried about things. Citibank cancelled the card while on the phone with me. The card bill comes out of my bank account, but for the transactions that have already gone through, they're going to credit the account so I don't end up with my yen balance dropping down to zero. And my next card statement will include a dispute form for me to cancel anything else that slipped through.

Not sure where the number slipped out. Maybe in the UK? I only used the card three times there—at a restaurant in London, at Hertz, and at another restaurant in Edinburgh. Perhaps I'll blame the rental car agency. They tried to steal my suit, after all.