I don’t think I mentioned this to anyone, but at the tail end of May, some asshole stole my Visa number (somehow) and used it to buy a pair of $300 montblanc sunglasses online. The weird thing is that this account is the one I rarely use to buy anything – I really only use it when my AmEx isn’t accepted somewhere. The $300 glasses stuck out like a sore thumb because all my other charges are from restaurants that don’t accept AmEx (like California Chicken Cafe). Earlier this week I received the response from the retailer (through a complaint I made with my bank who issued the card) containing the delivery information. The glasses were delivered to some guy named Jose Hernandez in Miami.

Just today I decided to check my account again after officially cancelling my card. Wouldn’t ya know it – I signed up for a pornography site on Monday! Or Guapo Olvera did anyway… That was nice of him to do it on my credit card, wasn’t it? This time I called the company that charged my card and they told me they would put the money back. It was only $41.95 this time, not $300 – but the concept is the same. My Visa number is floating out there right now on the open market.

My credit card is now cancelled and a new one will come “in a few days.” Another bad thing about this situation is that the bank policy is to put a credit on your account – not directly send you the money back (even though I also have a checking account with this bank). That means you have to pay your bill first – so you actually have to pay for the item you didn’t buy before you can be credited back. Imagine if this guy had bought a $8,000 tv… I would have had to come up with $8,000…and then just wait to spend it off – on a card I hardly ever use. Now, yes, the bank will let you jump through some hoops to request a check back for the credit – but the whole process is so costly for the victim it is no wonder this type of crime keeps going up. If I was rich I may have never even noticed a $300 charge on my account – nor would I want to spend the time calling the credit card company, faxing forms, mailing forms, etc. etc.

I joined Lifelock maybe a month ago and with membership comes a free annual credit report. Now, you don’t actually get the report – they submit a request and then the reporting agencies make you jump through several hoops to get a look at anything. The disturbing thing is that two of the three agencies now have my name down as “Andren” Long. I hope this Andren guy is having a better year than I am….