Mine was also stolen (that idiot processing company's security breach). I had to file a police report and bring a copy to the bank. They were very uncooperative about it, actually, considering that it was clearly not my fault (they also gave me endless shit about buyng things on the internet even though that particular card had never been used for that).

So: check to see if you have a file a police report, do so if you have to. They're not going to investigate, but it will give you the paperwork if your bank needs it.

Also, get a free copy of your credit report(s) and maybe put a fraud alert on them.

The charges aren't yours to file. If your credit card company doesn't make you pay for the fraudulent activity, then they have indemnified you, and the damages are done to them. It's their credit card number, their monetary damages, so the crime is actually against them.

I've had three numbers stolen - two in the last 7 months, and the first about 4 years ago. Each time, all I had to do was get the new card. Never had another problem. In the case of the second instance of theft, I know exactly who and how the number was obtained (and that was the second AMEX number I had snatched). It was plain old paper-trail. So, no preventative acts to be taken except never to use that merchant again, and to change the number. In the case of my business Mastercard, someone got it from a CC database. Again, no behavior change necessary on my part.

You might want to pull your credit reports from all three agencies (usually costs about $29.95 or so) now, and do it again in 90-120 days (typical billing, aging and reporting cycle). Anything new that shows up that you didn't expect or know about is prolly related to this instance (although that's rare).

I'm sorry you had this happen. When it's happened to me, I've been pissed mightily for a few days. But other than that, you can relax knowing that in most cases, individual cc numbers, expiration dates and cardholder names/addresses can be purchased for about a penny a piece on the 'Net if you know where to look. And not everyone requires a CVV2 number to process transactions.

Such an exciting tale of Nigerian malfeasance. I wonder what charges were rung up?

100 lb bag Purina Lion Chow
Fill up on Jeep
New Loincloth at Ralph Lauren's Jungle Shop
Ben & Jerry's banana walnut ice cream

Interesting, I had my card "ghosted" a couple of years ago. Lots of banks round here have swipe things on the doors that you can swipe your ATM card through to gain access to the lobby (prevents vandalism to the machines). Some crooks put a small recorder of some kind inside this and collected card details and copied them onto their cards.

As they were impersonating my identity to gain services, this was a crime against me (UK law, YMMV) and my bank wouldn't refund me the money until I'd got a crime reference number for the police. Getting this number was a lesson to me in why subsidiarism (as opposed to centralisation) is a bad thing: the number was swiped in Hertfordshire, but used in a train station in London. Neither Thames Valley, London Metropolitan or British Transport police were quite sure whose crime it was.

That's scary, and just *not* the way to start a day. My sympathies.

I've only had one fraudulent transaction, and it was from someone ordering Clinique products sent to a dorm here on campus. (Not a master criminal, the charges were IIRC under $50.) The card company discarded the charge, cancelled the account, and sent me a new card. I filed a police report, since the products were sent to a local address, but nothing legal ever happened, although the student did get a visit from the po-leece and a stern warning. I'm sure she was a local waitress who got it off a meal I charged, and I have a sneaking suspicion where she worked.

I hope that this is the end of it, although I do think the credit reports are a good idea.