You used my credit card...for what?

                                                                     creditscore.net

So I have now entered the ranks of those with a stolen credit card number.

Today as I downloaded my quicken statements, I noticed a charge to the San Diego Tribune is excess of $120. Now I'm sure that the Tribune is a fine newspaper; but seeing as how I live in Mount Pleasant, I can't see any reason why I would have given them that sum of money.

I called my credit card company and they said that they would take the charge off. 


Simple enough. 


I also called the Tribune. They said that the charge was for an advertisement. Since I apparently paid for this ad, I asked if I could know what it said. I was told I wouldn't be able to do that until Monday.

But something still just wasn't right. In fact, this was just downright weird. 


I called back to my credit card company and asked if they could look into the matter further. The kind lady on the phone went through all my recent purchases. Everything was fine until I apparently bought another newspaper ad in Denver...

...and another one in New Jersey. And then another on in Baltimore. 


All told there were at least 7 charges on my credit card for advertisments spanning all over our great nation over the last two days.

So my card is canceled (a new one will be issued this week) and I am not liable for any of the charges. But my curiosity combined with a blinding rage about being so blatantly and oddly violated still remained.

"I just don't understand," I said to the the credit card security operator. "If you're going to steal my credit card, at least use it to buy something cool like a boat. Why advertisements?"

She admitted that this was one of the strangest cases that she had seen, but that this person probably did not know who I was. It was probably just some subhuman loser who sat in their basement punching in possible credit card numbers and mine was the lucky combo. 


Still though, this was too weird. I mean, what if this person did know me? Maybe they taking out advertisements all over the country saying "Nick Nafpliotis sucks and still wore 90's style tube socks until 2006." Who knows?

I will say that if you ever wish to do that, it's going to be quite an expensive endeavor. There were between $400-$500 of charges for these advertisements. I hope they catch this guy or gal who did this since it was caught so early. 


If they let me chose the punishment, I would make them sit in a room for one week and watch the movie Ultraviolet on a an endless loop. Cruel and unusal? Oh yes. 


But so is ruining my Saturday afternoon by doing some weird crap like this.