12-01-2009, 10:42 PM
Last week I received my usual email from Amex that my statement was ready to be viewed online, so I did. I use this card just for my business expenses and there are usually maybe three or four transactions a month. Same this month, except one of the charges was from autotrader.com for $44. Well, no one in my family has bought, sold or looked at a car in the last couple of years, so I knew it wasn't mine.
To make a long story short (doubtful), I called Amex and explained. They're going to hunt it down and told me to just ignore it, as I'm not liable. They also suggested I could call autotrader.com and see what they say. I hung up and got busy with other things. Fast forward to today, when I decided I'd call autotrader. So I go back online to my Amex account to get the phone number off the statement and sumbitch, there was another hit under my "recent transactions"- two days after the first one, again from autotrader.com and again for $44. Back on the phone with Amex, and they'll void that one as well and follow up and cancel my card and send me a new one. Then a phone call to autotrader. The guy I spoke with was very apologetic and supportive and said they would credit the amount right away, then helped me try to work out how the number could have been compromised. He could only tell me that it was an online transaction. The person had my name and address and evidently the security number as well as the Amex card number.
This sucks because as I said I use this card fairly rarely and only for business expenses. If I buy anything online I'm very aware of using only secure sites. The only other thing I can think of is the one time a couple of months ago when I took somebody to lunch and I actually handed the card to the waiter in the restaurant. That's the only time I can remember it being out of my possession. I wonder if the waitperson worked a little funny stuff.
Anyway, end of rant. Just a reminder to keep a close watch on all your statements. I'm anal that way, which is the only reason I noticed it.
To make a long story short (doubtful), I called Amex and explained. They're going to hunt it down and told me to just ignore it, as I'm not liable. They also suggested I could call autotrader.com and see what they say. I hung up and got busy with other things. Fast forward to today, when I decided I'd call autotrader. So I go back online to my Amex account to get the phone number off the statement and sumbitch, there was another hit under my "recent transactions"- two days after the first one, again from autotrader.com and again for $44. Back on the phone with Amex, and they'll void that one as well and follow up and cancel my card and send me a new one. Then a phone call to autotrader. The guy I spoke with was very apologetic and supportive and said they would credit the amount right away, then helped me try to work out how the number could have been compromised. He could only tell me that it was an online transaction. The person had my name and address and evidently the security number as well as the Amex card number.
This sucks because as I said I use this card fairly rarely and only for business expenses. If I buy anything online I'm very aware of using only secure sites. The only other thing I can think of is the one time a couple of months ago when I took somebody to lunch and I actually handed the card to the waiter in the restaurant. That's the only time I can remember it being out of my possession. I wonder if the waitperson worked a little funny stuff.
Anyway, end of rant. Just a reminder to keep a close watch on all your statements. I'm anal that way, which is the only reason I noticed it.