Weeeeirrrrd--
I fell for it--somehow--?
Or... what happened?
Friday evening, I drove to Safeway gas to ensure a full tank for Saturday's long drive. Got some food and snacks. Went home, made sure that everything I'd need would be ready to go, and went to bed. [I might have spent some time online because that's what I do]
Saturday 5AM: Alarm went off
5:35-7:50 AM, drove a bit over 200 miles to agility event.
7:50-5:00 mostly sitting at the ringside table, timing or scribing or both. Did go online briefly to check messages and not much else.
6:00?-7:45 PM driving towards home. Stop at gas station quickmart to get a cold drink and quick snack..... Visa was declined after 2 tries. Worked fine last night!! Fortunately I had cash.
7 :50-8:00ish PM, back in my car, I discovered a text from my credit card company (for short: CCC) saying there's a probably fraudulent charge, please confirm or not. I didn't remember the charge but, you know, sometimes companies work under various aliases. So I called. And I'd never heard of the company AND it was charged earlier that day. Which def wouldn't have been me.
AND because fraud happened, they cancelled my card. :-( Feels a little frightening, not having a good way to pay anything if something else came up OH AND ALSO it would take 7-10 days for the new card?! Turns out they do have "expedited shipping", which they didn't offer until I moaned about needing it sooner than that. It should arrive Tues or Wed? Why don't they just expedite it automatically?
8:30ish PM: Home. Do some stuff, then to bed.
NOT A CLUE how someone got my card info. I don't recall doing business with any borderline businesses recently. THAT I RECALL, card has been out of me possession recently only long enough to hand to Taco Bell drive-up window.
YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT! (do I sound buzz-feed enough?)
Late this morning I finally checked my email [long backstory about wonky crappy online email system]. Several emails from my CCC from yesterday. A couple like:
Subject: Action required: Verify suspicious credit card activity
Content: "Verify suspicious credit card activity" and similar content plus info about the suspect charge.
Also another email from after our conversation notifying me that my card has been cancelled and a new one was being sent. And another indicating that my new card would end with [these 4 digits]. OK so far.
Also an email from *today*,
subject: Alert* Suspicious card activity
content: "Card Alert- Unusual Spending Activities Detected" and "You have a secure message from CCC Fraud Monitor Department" and blah blah let's review it and then we can unblock your card blah blah, with a handy button to click to review the message. I'm feeling mentally fried about all of this...
The email had some slight annoying formatting issues, but seriously my crappy online email system often does weird stuff to emails. I thought it was odd that they'd be sending me another alert today after we "resolved" yesterday's issue, but, [shrug] I already had I think 4 emails from them yesterday, so what's another? So I clicked the button. Logged in pretty much as usual
A new page came up asking for all my current card info and login again, which was interesting because they'd said that card was cancelled yesterday, but how else would I log in to see my existing card history, and so I filled it in even though the formatting was a little wonky, but each response started a spinner that would last about a minute. THEN it came up with "enter the card # for your new card ending in [those same 4 digits]".
I stared at it for a while, thinking, but I don't KNOW the new card # or expiration date or security code, and that is a really weird question to ask at this point. So I typed "help" into the space for the card number, and the spinner spun, and then instead of complaining, it asked for the new card's expiration date.
THEN AND ONLY THEN did I look at the URL of the page I was on, and bipped back to the email and looked at the From address, and realized... OH SHIT.
Started looking for info on the real CCC site on how to report fishing/fraud and that I might have messed up?
And the phone rang. It was the real CCC saying there's been something weird on your account today--from a windows machine. That would not be me, but it was trying to log in apparently as I was typing just a few minutes earlier. They went through some other transactions from the last 2 days and they were all valid ones. At some point she said, well, that site that you got the email from is known to so fishing, so, no harm done because they had caught it [somehow] and frozen my account so now here's your new username and temporary password.
So I logged in directly from the usual CCC site, NO wonky formatting anywhere, all the disclaimers and notices I'd expect, URL was perfect, I changed my password and everything is hunky dory.
And THEN she said, "in the future,when you get an email with--" And I interrupted to spew my self frustration, "I know I know I know! I lecture people about this all the time! I have written up my own commentary about suspect emails and sites and shared it and also shared similar info from many places for many people. I know!"
So fingers crossed that the new card, whenever it arrives, won't be compromised. But I'm concerned. Not just because I fell for a scam email and part of its website (what might I have given away that would help them?), but also: How did they get my card # anyway?. So many possibilities lately of leaks--
SO THEN [CHANGE OF SCENE] I called the ceiling lamp company from which I'd been trying to get the correct replacement fan-light cover (already received the wrong one) and they emailed a photo--which bounced!
Looked again at my crappy email system and it was 100% full. So I apologized and spent 20 minutes trying to decide which huge attachments and their emails didn't need to be there. Tried calling them back, and after all the recorded starting info, it disconnected just as a person was answering. Three times. 10 minutes after I started, a successful connection, a successful receipt of the photo showing the correct product, and THENOhhhhshiiit I don't have a way to pay for it. :-(
They were very understanding and I'll just call them back when the new card arrives.
Also, after Friday afternoon's nosework class I had decided to order more nosework scent articles. Hadn't done so yet, so then today I sat down to see what was available, which maybe I found some things BUT OH NO no way to pay for them.
THEN I will have to find all the places that have my credit card # for automatic payments and update those. I have a list somewhere, I think. I use my card via Paypal as much as possible, so it could be worse, but still what a $%^ &*()*&^ ^%.
Now I've spent an hour writing this up (including referring back to various records), and it's already nearly 3:00.
Don't let your guard down. :-(
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