They're After Hillary
I went to lunch, spent an hour reading the NYT per usual, and paid with my handy dandy credit card. Got into the car, picked up some material for a meeting, and went to the car wash for gas and suds. When I went to pay, my credit card (the same one I had just used for lunch 15 minutes earlier) was refused…three times.
I called the 800 number on the back of the card and, as soon as I had entered the last four digits of my account number, was asked by the computer to verify about three or four transactions. It goes by quickly and I wondered about one of them. So, when asked to verify the transactions or to talk to someone, I opted to talk to someone. The computer then asked me to help verify I am who I am by typing in some information on my telephone keypad, which I did. I was then connected to a very nice customer service person.
Now, here is the odd part: in order to complete verification on whether I was who I said I was, she said the computer would be generating some multiple choice questions for me to answer based on publicly-available data. Hmmm. That gives one pause about their database including all sorts of stuff not directly related to having a credit card with them. The first question was: Do you or have you ever owned one of the following automobiles? I was given a choice of three plus “none of the above.” Two of the cars I have never owned. The one that I chose was a car I owned a very long time ago. Then I was asked another question which I also answered correctly. So, my credit card company knows what cars I have owned. Hmmm.
Then we got down to brass tacks to find out why a security hold had been put on my account. Seems they had sent out a new credit card with a new expiration date and that a charge had come in (that they approved) with the old expiration date. The computer then shut down my account for “security reasons.”
The charge? $50 to the campaign to reelect Hillary Clinton. Hmmm.
I called the 800 number on the back of the card and, as soon as I had entered the last four digits of my account number, was asked by the computer to verify about three or four transactions. It goes by quickly and I wondered about one of them. So, when asked to verify the transactions or to talk to someone, I opted to talk to someone. The computer then asked me to help verify I am who I am by typing in some information on my telephone keypad, which I did. I was then connected to a very nice customer service person.
Now, here is the odd part: in order to complete verification on whether I was who I said I was, she said the computer would be generating some multiple choice questions for me to answer based on publicly-available data. Hmmm. That gives one pause about their database including all sorts of stuff not directly related to having a credit card with them. The first question was: Do you or have you ever owned one of the following automobiles? I was given a choice of three plus “none of the above.” Two of the cars I have never owned. The one that I chose was a car I owned a very long time ago. Then I was asked another question which I also answered correctly. So, my credit card company knows what cars I have owned. Hmmm.
Then we got down to brass tacks to find out why a security hold had been put on my account. Seems they had sent out a new credit card with a new expiration date and that a charge had come in (that they approved) with the old expiration date. The computer then shut down my account for “security reasons.”
The charge? $50 to the campaign to reelect Hillary Clinton. Hmmm.
posted by Bud Hirsch at 3:34 PM
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