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I’ve been a credit card user for 17 years and never once have I been the victim of credit fraud. That just ended a few minutes ago. American Express called about three suspicious charges on my card:

• $29 to EasyDate, Ltd. (Don’t anyone tell Francisca.)
• $1 to Apple (This one is tough/sneaky. Anyone who buys from Small Dog Electronics, where my credit card data was stolen, almost certainly buys from Apple. I buy music and apps from Apple constantly, though I don’t remember buying anything for $1 in the past day or two.)
• $5 to the Society for the Arts (The generic name is kind of a giveaway and I’m usually a bit more generous with my donations.)

Ironically, a donation is what got me into this. Small Dog Electronics offered a matching donation to Doctors Without Borders right after the Haiti earthquake in mid-January. So, I donated through Small Dog via my AMEX. Then, I heard from Small Dog in late January that a database breach had compromised my credit card info. I’ve been watching my charges closely ever since, though apparently the good people at AMEX have been watching them even more closely.

So, my AMEX has been frozen and a new one is on its way. My thoughts:

• Damn, I have to memorize a new credit card number and security code now. I’m never good at that.
• Ugh, I have to change all my auto-billing with utilities and vendors.
• Shame on Small Dog for poor data security.
• Kudos to Small Dog for supporting Haiti relief and for reporting the data breach to me via both email and physical mail. They seem like a cool company with cool employees. I think they have handled the aftermath of the breach as well as they could.
• Kudos to AMEX’s fraud team. They found this stuff and called me within minutes of it happening. And, I’m not liable for the fraudulent charges.
• Evil thoughts for the fraudster. You’ve attacked a company and a person who were sending money to earthquake victims in Haiti. Do you also run over little old ladies with your car? Karma is a boomerang and you will get yours eventually.