Still, there is a charming beauty to it all, especially when a kind soul volunteers to drive me to work. The long way, past landscapes that are an impressionist's image of winter.
In my office, I have some more meetings, student meetings, and then a half hour of peace before my long class of the late afternoon.
I notice the phone is blinking. Funny, no one calls me here. They know better. They email.
A voice telling me I should call my credit card company. What now? I love my credit card company (it's there for me when I need to go places) and it loves me (it charges interest when I go places). I call.
We're just checking a purchase.
Oh that. I travel, I spend money in strange places, what can I say.
Did you make a purchase two hours ago in Laon, France? In an electronics store?
Did I? No, wait, in France, two hours ago? Electronics? No!
Our records indicate that someone swiped your card there.
I have my card here. In Madison.
Is there another?
There is no other.
Hmmm.
I love my credit card company for not believing that I would buy $1500 in electronics in Laon, France. Thank you, credit card company.
But who?
And how?
It is a tough world that we inhabit.
Okay, I'll bite. Who, and how? And what? And what did the nice credit card company do about it?
ReplyDeletegeorge h: The who is a mystery. The how -- I can only guess that some place did not encrypt the data I submitted in giving over my card for a legitimate purchase. I take it that it is possible to recreate the data and create a new card. It is remarkable that the credit card company called me, given that I do travel to France frequently enough. The moral to anyone: DO inform your credit company if you are going to use the card outside your home base. They knew I should have returned home by now. So they called. And I owe nothing. But I do need a new number. A pain, but at least I am at home and not spending. Except to get my hair done.
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