About a month ago, Alex noticed a bunch of unfamiliar charges showing up on his online Visa statement, and when he Googled the name of the business he discovered it was a place that specialized in selling calling cards that could be used by inmates in the United States. Needless to say, Alex had not actually been investing hundreds of dollars in order to chat more freely with his incarcerated friends, but rather these were fraudulent charges and indicated that his credit card number had been hijacked. He had to call the US and cancel the card and arrange for a new one to be sent to India--no small feat considering that Visa's system only allows mailing addresses about half as long as the typical Indian address (which always involves a nearby landmark, the name of the closest intersection, the nickname of the building, a description of the dog that hangs out on the front steps, and so on--anything but a street number, because those do not exist, seeing as they would actually be useful and efficient, and that shit don't fly in India).
Anyway, Alex had to live without a credit card until his new one showed up in the mail the other day (miraculously enough--the "address" was so condensed as to be nearly unintelligible).
Today I happened to be checking my online Visa statement and noticed...can you guess where this is going? A ton of fraudulent charges for calling card purchases from a couple of different companies. So then I also had to call and cancel my card and tell them which charges to dispute and so on. Luckily I am going home tomorrow, so I can just have them send the card to my house in San Francisco. Also, I have an Amex card I can use in the meantime if I need to. Still, it's a huge pain in the ass, and I'll have to make sure to change the number on any accounts where I have recurring automatic charges (which is a lot these days, because I live in India for chrissake and can't be sending a $14 check to PG&E every month, for example).
I have noticed that receipts here typically list credit card numbers in their entirety, which...hello? Who does that anymore?
This place makes me crazy.
