Just takes $2

A couple years ago I configured my credit card company to text me whenever any charge is posted to my account. It’s a great way to keep a close eye on what is going on. Prior to doing this I would rely on going line by line on my monthly credit card statement which was not only pain in the ass but also inefficient. If something malicious happened I might not discover it until weeks later allowing more damage to be done if your card is compromised.

So today I see a $2 charge hit my card listing some individual that I don’t know. My antenna immediately poked up and I jumped on my Chase account to see what was up. The $2 charge did not show up there however I know that often a criminal will try a small charge, hoping it won’t get noticed to check if they were able to get it approved. I called Chase.

They asked me if I made the charge. They show it for being for “computer services”. I told them I did not. They said the reason I did not see the charge in my online activity was there was some issue with the account that charged me, a further indicator of it being potentially malicious. So it seemed clear that at least some of my credit card information had been compromised and in that situation they kill the card and issue a new one.

It’s been a very long time since I had a card compromised. I am usually very cautious with how I use it. I was frustrated that evidently somewhere there was a crack in the door that was used to get my information. The biggest frustration is having to now go into dozens of locations where I use my credit card to pay for things regularly and update all of them. I have almost a week of dead time until I get the new card so anything that tries to charge to the old card will be flat out denied. I have other cards I can use if necessary. It’s just annoying that I get to deal with this all over a $2 line item.