Scary theft story

[Anonymous]

I just activated my Capital One card today. I come home about 8 hours later to find that the company found three fraudulent charges already on it.  Luckily it was for only about $20.  The person in the fraud department said that this is the way it works; the fraudster purchases a small amount first. Once that goes through, they go on a spending spree.  It is just odd that it happened that quickly after I activated the card. She did not find any issues with my other Capital One card.

[Nayola]

That's crazy that fraud occurred so soon!!

I had something similar happen to me.  I had a card in my file that I didn't use and had never activated.  When I moved, I wanted to make sure any mail would come to the correct address.  So I activated the card basically just to give the credit card company the current address.  I still didn't make any charges with the card.  Within a couple days, fraudulent charges were put on the card.  Someone charged a couple nights at a swanky hotel three hours away from where I live!!  I still to this day have no idea how anyone got the card's number. 

[RonM21]

Wow OP, that is definitely scary.  Nice that they caught it fairly quickly.  I have only had this happen once in the 5+ years that I've been dealing with CC's.  It happened a couple of years back on my Discover card.  There was a small purchase, then a larger purchase in the same day, and they sent me texts and called me about it that evening.  I was pleased with how they handled it.