Had an enjoyable birthday over the weekend.  Got some good gifts - new Carrie Fisher book, Tomb Raider: Underworld, MiB Blu-Ray, Sarah Silverman Program Season 1.  Got some bad gifts - several hundred dollars charged against my Visa debit card by someone who stole my card info.

What’s sort of sad is that the only thing that tipped off my bank is that a credit card company in Israel faxed my bank looking for authorization for a charge.  Whoever has my number tried to get a virtual Visa at WWWCard.  WWWCard thought it was fishy and sent the fax.  

With that, I sat down with a rep at the bank and went through my weekend transactions.  Two meals and groceries were valid, but multiple charges for $124, $170, $90, and $55.55 at Home Depot in Bend, OR were invalid.

The tip-off was instant - almost all the invalid charges had 0 cents.  Who buys anything anywhere and doesn’t have a few cents tacked on for tax or shipping or psychological pricing (9.99 isn’t 10)?

For now, we’ve nuked the initial $124 charge, had me sign the legal docs, and shredded my debit card.  I’ll see tomorrow whether or not all the other fraudulent charges go through.  If they do, I’ll have a whole lot more paperwork to fill.

That’s it for me, though.  No more using debit cards online.  This is the second time in a year that I’ve had to replace my debit card, and it’s a pain.

Interesting note: they used my cell phone number as part of the transaction and got it wrong by one digit.  I’m pretty sure that the only place I’ve ever used that number for orders has been Nashbar (at least, that’s what my e-mail history would suggest).  I have to wonder if they’ve been compromised.