Last week my bank called and informed me a .35 cent charge had been attempted in Brazil, South America.
The bank further informed me the charge had been declined, BUT, I had to cancel my card, have a new one issued, and then get busy on the monotonous task of re-configuring all of my auto-pay accounts.
Ebay, Paypal, Electric & Water, GunBroker, and a host of others. You always miss one or more accounts and then get a notification of a "decline". PIA!
They were testing the card number to see if it still worked. You'd have gotten hit with a big charge in a day or so if the bank hadn't caught it.
I've had my number stolen three or four times and it is a PIA setting everything back up on autopay. I autopay all the bills I can since I work off for weeks at a time, it just saves a lot of hassle. I also use my credit card for most everything instead of my debit card. The credit card gives you a lot more safety when it comes to fraudulent charges. As someone else pointed out, debit is basically a direct line to your bank account and once it's gone from the account you have to prove why it should be returned. With the credit card you dispute the charges and the card company goes after the merchant to prove why he should be paid. It's much safer from the consumer's point of view.
I didn't know about the skimmers in the credit card slot, thanks to who posted it.
