For the second time in my life, a credit card number of mine was stolen, and someone tried to make purchases with it.
The first time my credit card number was stolen, I could feasibly trace it back to a Vegas trip where the card machines “were down” at the car rental place, and someone took a carbon copy of my card number, and coincidentally, a spending spree occurred. Although the fraud was discovered when the motherfucker tried to buy a Piss3 off of GameStop’s website, they still managed to get about $150 worth of hearing aid supplies. Hearing aid supplies. Of all the things someone would want with a stolen credit card number, they go and buy some hearing aid supplies. Still can’t figure that one out.
But anyway, the number that was recently hijacked, I have no idea to how it happened. I’m generally paranoid about my credit card activity, to the point where I won’t do any sort of shopping while connected to unfamiliar networks. Off the top of my head, I suspect when I used my credit card in a Mexican ATM, because clearly everything international is shady as fuck, or back in September when my card was never returned to me at the Pub during Dragon*Con, and I was without my card for about four days. Either way, an attempt was made to use my credit card number, and here’s where I’m quite befuddled.
The perp was trying to buy a single book; granted it was a book that cost $279.30, but they were buying a book. A construction book of some sort, or some kind of manual, but it was some kind of publication. By the grace of whatever deity sounds the most clever, the publication company themselves called me up, to confirm that I had made such a purchase. When I confusingly said no, they calmly alerted me to the fact that my credit card number was likely compromised.
Firstly, I have to say how thankful I am to this company for actually having the internal keen eyes to notice the drastic difference between the shipping and billing addresses, and putting forth the effort into tracking me down in the first place. That kind of customer care and concern has me in a great deal of admiration for this company.
But a book? About construction or electrical wiring or something? Thieves have some really strange motives, but then again, this could be like some Islamic plot to learn about construction or something, and then they work for Bane, and they make buildings that are made from a concrete and gunpowder concoction, but I highly doubt that. At least the guy trying to buy the Piss3 was going for the stars, not buy a fucking educational book.
Regardless, if attempting to steal my money and making me upset, they succeeded. Naturally, I had to shitcan the credit card, but that act alone is a very big nuisance. I had that card number memorized, and used that to my advantage when doing shit like shopping online. And I don’t know how many things I have associated to that card, but no matter, it’s going to be a pain in the ass of acclimating to a new credit card when so much was tied up to the current one.
So fuck you, card thief. I hope you are apprehended one day, not by cops, but by like some vigilantes. They won’t just arrest you, they’ll likely beat the ever-living shit out of you before turning you in. I hope that happens, and then you have to walk with a limp for the rest of your lives, and your children get terminal illnesses.
