Just got a call from Amazon saying that someone tried to use my credit card info to charge $400 on someone else's account.

Called up amex and they said there was a security thing on my account because of all the attempts to charge my card.

It's an amex card i haven't even used in probably a year. I'm thinking the database on some merchant was accessed as I'm very careful with my info. Plus I still have the card in my hand.

ID theft is everywhere. Do you think they have your other personal information? Hopefully it is just a case for a credit card.

they definitely have my address and cc number from what the amazon guy was saying.

i don't think they got anything else as i haven't gotten any other calls. (at least not yet)
This was basically my "internet" card for a few years, so i guess I'm not that surprised.

I should probably pull a credit report just in case.

Another reason I should start consolidating the number of credit cards. Several weeks ago, I closed out a Macys card, Banana Republic store card, a Gap store card and a GM MC. Amazingly, my store cards weren't used and the last transaction was dated back in early 2001. I figured I had no purpose to keep it open and was quite surprised it was still OPEN.

cron, it's a good idea to check your credit report to see if you have any cards that were recently opened and if there's currently any unused cards, to just consolidate it with other cards or to just close it out. I have to start doing so myself.

edit: And I forgot to mention: back in December 2007, I received a call from Staples that asked if I authorized 5 orders of inks being shipped to some state I wasn't aware of. Somehow, someone got hold of my AMEX Gold card, which I rarely use and usually use when making Staples orders only and tried placing orders and having it shipped to another address other then mine. Staples managed to cancel 4 of the 5 orders and 1 order managed to slip through. I immediately called AMEX to dispute the charge and also to close the card. When I checked my statement online, I also noticed a few others charges from Aeropostale and Yahoo Mail!, which I never authorized as well. All these charges were disputed and AMEX credited my account. It's scary when situations like this happen.

Hmmm...i notice that my available balance dropped by $1500.
I wish amex showed pending charges.

I agree ebytes. I'm sure i'll take a short term score hit, but it's easier to keep track of everything with fewer cards and accounts open. Plus, i'll be making sure to keep the oldest accounts open.

Yeah, it definitely makes me nervous. Especially the possibility of identity theft. That would be a real mess. We'll see what happens. Amex has cancelled the card and will be delivering a new one in two days.

My understanding is that if one calls one of the credit bureau and do a fraud report, it will be shared with the other two. Be concern anytime someone, e.g. restuarant, need to go elsewhere with your CC and run the transaction. Before Visa and Mastercard, the department stores were quick to close down an account for non-usage, like a year.

I think there are some insiders at AMEX who sell information. The only card (knock on wood) that was ever used without my permission was an AMEX where literally the FIRST transaction on it was fraudulent (it sat on my desk for the first month I had it, during which someone used it to sign up for AOL)

Wow, scary.

This seems to have dropped back a little to $750 or so. So far no charges have posted.
Looks like Amex must have caught this early.

Amex delivered my new card today, so that's all taken care of.

still pretty much the same.

I pulled a credit report to double check. Everything looked perfect.

I'm pretty sure this is some online merchant that got compromised. They either don't know or haven't notified their customers.

I guess it's a small possibility that it could be an amex insider. can't rule it out. It is interesting that they happen to charge it on a relatively inactive card.

that is the reason I always use a virtual account number when purchasing things online. The number can only be used a single time and you can even have a transaction limit assigned to it so that no one can charge more than this maximum amount. virtual account numbers are available for VISA and MC credit cards from citibank through their online card services.

I thought this was a great idea until I needed to get a refund and the company could not put the charge back on my virtual account number. Not sure if I just had a bad merchant (Tiger Direct ) or if refunding VCC's are not so easy for the merchant.

I made the mistake one of doing an Office Depot store pickup purchase with a virtual CC. When they asked to see the CC at the time I picked up the item, they had a hard time understanding why I couldn't produce it and almost wouldn't let me pick it up.

I've used virtual cc's for some merchants, but it's not convenient enough. I still order enough online that it would annoy me having to login to a credit card website. Plus i get in the habit of memorizing my credit card information of the common card i use.
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Looks like nothing happened with this. My available credit went back up to normal. No charges ended up posting.

And i already checked my credit report.

Looks like amex caught this really early.