American Express

I had the the scare of my life today when I came home from work. I checked my messages on the machine and there was one from the American Express Fraud Department. Oh no.

My wheels were a spinning for a few minutes. How do I know this is really American Express? They just left a number, it could be anyone asking me to call them.

But I did.

When I got to the person I was supposed to speak to the first thing he asked me was for my AE number. I told him I couldn't tell him, because I had no idea who I was talking to. He said he understood and then proceeded to ask me a few more questions...and I kept on telling him I could not provide any answers because I didn't know who he was. I just wanted to know what the problem was. He said my credit card had been comprimised and they needed to know if I was indeed the cardholder. I told them I couldn't tell them anything because I didn't know who was calling. I said I would call AE myself and check out any concerns. He was fine with that and told me to call the number on the back of my credit card and tell them I had got a call from the AE fraud department.

I did just that. And it turns out my card had been comprimised!!! I normally never use it. When I make my normal purchases I use my regular credit card, but if I shop online, or need to give a card number on the telephone for some reason or other I use the AE card. It's just a back up if something happens. And it did.

Someone was trying to buy stuff in the US from a place called Hytek Vendors or Highteck I don't know the spelling....with my card number for $500.00 but it was refused. I was told my card would be cancelled, and if anymore purchases that weren't my own on the next statement would be credited back to me.

I started to think about the last time I used the card. And it was about a month ago at work. My boss had left for holidays and I ordered 7 bottles of water for our water cooler. Later that day the guy phoned back and said that our credit card had expired and needed the new date of expiry. Well, boss man was gone on holidays, so I didn't want to bother him, and I gave them my AE number. I knew I would get reimbursed. Also I knew his card had expired and a new date would be needed so I wasn't really worried. So, somebody in that organization had to have stolen the number....bastards....because I never use that card.

So, it can happen to anyone..... Don't think I won't be phoning the water company on Monday!! And I can bet they will be deny it could ever happen. Well it did.

This is just the way I like to kick off a weekend...credit card fraud....

I hope yours was better....