You know how your eagle-eyed credit-card company, in its quest to fight fraud, calls you if someone puts an unusually large or suspicious purchase on your card?
It’s a great service. Except when it isn’t.
My wife Liz tried to charge an inexpensive gaming-system upgrade to one of our credit cards recently and the MasterCard folks were on the phone within seconds, questioning this small purchase from a company with which Liz routinely does business.
She assured the caller that the charge was legit. End of story, right? Not quite. The caller then asked her about an earlier charge that MasterCard had not questioned at the time: Had Liz bought “dating and escort services” from a certain online outfit?
Quickly recovering from her shock, Liz said no. Not to be deterred, the caller asked Liz to check with me, to see if I had been tripping the light fantastic with assorted call girls.
For a fraction of a second I considered confessing my “sins,” just to see how Liz would react, but I decided to go with the truth instead. The only escort I need is someone who can point me to the Geritol aisle at the pharmacy.
All of which may make you wonder what it is, exactly, that trips the alarms over there at MasterCard’s not-so-secure security central. Use a stolen credit card number to charge dalliances with hookers? Okay, sure. But buy a low-priced add-on for The Sims3 and it's: "Houston, we have a problem."
Computer gaming is more suspicious than racking up sheet time with streetwalkers. Whodathunkit?
It’s a great service. Except when it isn’t.
My wife Liz tried to charge an inexpensive gaming-system upgrade to one of our credit cards recently and the MasterCard folks were on the phone within seconds, questioning this small purchase from a company with which Liz routinely does business.
She assured the caller that the charge was legit. End of story, right? Not quite. The caller then asked her about an earlier charge that MasterCard had not questioned at the time: Had Liz bought “dating and escort services” from a certain online outfit?
Quickly recovering from her shock, Liz said no. Not to be deterred, the caller asked Liz to check with me, to see if I had been tripping the light fantastic with assorted call girls.
For a fraction of a second I considered confessing my “sins,” just to see how Liz would react, but I decided to go with the truth instead. The only escort I need is someone who can point me to the Geritol aisle at the pharmacy.
All of which may make you wonder what it is, exactly, that trips the alarms over there at MasterCard’s not-so-secure security central. Use a stolen credit card number to charge dalliances with hookers? Okay, sure. But buy a low-priced add-on for The Sims3 and it's: "Houston, we have a problem."
Computer gaming is more suspicious than racking up sheet time with streetwalkers. Whodathunkit?
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