This morning when I was about to go to work at around 7 a.m., I saw there were 2 SMS sent by 66628 to my phone. The messages looked something like the following:

RM0.00 MBB:TQ for using your Maybankard ending 2561 for USD23.70 AT KARMALOOP INC\\;30/10/13;00:35. For enq call num at back of your card

RM0.00 MBB:TQ for using your Maybankard ending 2561 for GBP220.00 AT SIZE? INTERNET\\;30/10/13;00:36. For enq call num at back of your card

At first, I thought that was due to mistakes. But after checking my credit cards, I’ve actually got an American Express card ending with exactly with 2561! I just became a victim of credit card fraud.

Quickly, I called the Maybank customer service at 1300886688 as indicated in the message. A kind Malay lady answered the phone and I told her about the 2 suspicious transactions that happened while I was sleeping. She asked some verification questions (like my IC number, Maybank accounts that I have, …) and the credit card account number. She cancelled the card right away.

According to her, I will get a replacement card within 3 to 7 days at a branch that I chose. I will need to call in again to reactivate the card.

She told me that she had reported the 2 transactions as frauds and if my next monthly statement still shows the 2 transactions, I will need to go to M2U to fill in and submit a form for an investigation which will take about 45 days before I can get my money back.

The whole conversation took less than 10 minutes. After that, I went to office as usual, feeling distracted.

Retrospective

I start to own my current credit cards (Maybankard 2 Amex and Visa Gold) since last year (20 October 2012 or 1 year and 10 days to be exact). I rarely use them, only about once per month and mostly during weekends (for the cash rebates) for online payments, food, groceries, KTV, …

Thinking about the security of the credit card, American Express is very vulnerable for the following 2 reasons:

• the security code and the account number are on the same side of the card! This makes it easy for someone to get a copy of all the important information from the card.
• no TAC (transaction authorization code) is required when purchasing online.

But luckily, there is the SMS notification for the online transactions, else it will be too late once discovering the fraud.