So, I try to rent movies with my debit card last night and it was declined. Embarrassing, and weird-- since I knew there was money in my account and my bank would cover it regardless.
I check with my bank online today and there's something else weird--a $30 charge I didn't recognize to a career search website I had never visited or heard of.
I call my bank and sure enough, someone had gotten a hold of my card number and there were several attempted charges; tried to run a debit of $795 and my bank's watchdog service caught it. When they couldn't reach me by phone, they froze my card.
I'm lucky though--lucky they only succeeded in debiting $30; lucky my bank was on the ball; and very lucky I didn't discover this on Saturday night with a full cart of Easter groceries!
I don't know how my card number slipped into the wrong hands, but I do use it a lot. I talked to the bank person and she said there's nothing much you could do exept try to be careful about it. Merchants are not supposed to put any but the last 4 digits on receipts anymore, but some still do; more than likely someone working for a retailer, either RL or online, just copied the number down.
