Oh dear, I’ve heard about this one………

…….. just never thought it would happen to me. 

So this afternoon I was getting some books caught up and went online to check an amount on my CIBC Visa.  The statement items weren’t making sense though.  There seemed to be a cluster of charges in Calgary and its been a while since we’ve been in Calgary.  At first I thought I must have the dates mixed up – sometimes those bank statements are most recent to most distant and sometimes they are chronological so I was trying to make that work against the last time we were in Alberta.  But we haven’t been in Alberta for a very long time and there were all these charges in and around Calgary.

Slowly it dawned on me that I have been a victim of some kind of fraud.  I immediately phoned Visa and to their credit they seemed to be set up to handle that type of call in a very expedient manner.  No waiting on hold, not too many stupid questions and a rapid assurance that the card has been cancelled.  Also, as I have long believed, this type of incident is in no way my problem.  The girl on the phone was anxious to reassure me that the charges would not be my responsibility.  I never even had to ask and several times she emphasized the fact that they would be taking care of any of the fraudulent charges.

As far as when it happened or how, I simply haven’t a clue.  I think it was about a year ago now or maybe a little less that they sent me a new card along with an explanation that my card number had been among a block of numbers that was “compromised” and therefore they were issuing all of us new cards.  Perhaps this incident is somehow related to that although that seems strange since it is my new number that has apparently been copied.  The girl on the phone told me that whoever is using it is presenting a card – they aren’t telephone or electronic transactions. 

Their little adventure came to a crashing halt this afternoon however.  I was logged onto my account when I found the charges and immediately phoned Visa.  I referred to the account several times during the call but by the time I got off the phone with Visa I had been inactive for long enough to be logged out.  When I tried to login again evidently they had already zapped my card because I was unable to get logged onto that account.  I hope that is all of my identity that was compromised.