I had my card skimmed while on vacation earlier this year. The next week I was eating at a restaurant and got a call from an unknown 800 number that I didn't answer. My card was declined at the end of the meal. I called the number back and it was the issuing bank's fraud department saying my card was used suspiciously and they've cancelled it. Because I was still on vacation it was a big hassle involving finding a place to fax a typed, signed letter to get my new card sent to an address I'd actually be at.
> I was eating at a restaurant and got a call from an unknown 800 number that I didn't answer. [...] I called the number back and it was the issuing bank's fraud department saying my card was used suspiciously and they've cancelled it.
Once, I was also eating at a restaurant when I got a call from an unknown number. I answered, and they said it was the issuing bank's fraud department, saying my card had a couple of suspicious transactions...
But the call itself was the fraud. Luckly, I knew from the beginning that it was a fraud (the value of one of the "transactions" was high enough that I would have received a notification SMS), so I strung they along to waste their time, and stonewalled the moment they asked for personal information. And just to be sure, I went to a bank branch nearby (it was lunch time, and there are several bank branches within a few hundred meters) and they confirmed the "suspicious transactions" didn't exist at all.
I can give you two good reasons. One is to not reward the scammers by giving them free money. The second is that my wife and I have had to replace our credit card about six times in the past three years. Contacting all the places where we have autopayments set up gets to be annoying quickly.
I went to LA for a trip this summer and a charge of $99 from a gas station appeared on my card 2 weeks later. I got it reversed, but it is still a hassle to change the card number everywhere.
