Shaken down by mobsters and hoodlums

My credit card has been stolen by hoodlums! Not a face-to-face mugging or anything like that, but some kind of internet fraudster somewhere has somehow made off with my credit card number and is using it to try to buy things!

Needless to say this has not made me happy. Alarm bells started to ring when I got a phone call from a company who wanted to check some details on a huge computer that I'd ordered. Er.. no? But they had my name. They obviously had my phone number, on account of the fact that they had phoned me. And they were able to tell me the number on my credit card. I was unimpressed with this situation - nice of the company to phone me, though, and tip me off to the shakedown what was occuring in dimly lit rooms half way across the world.

A call to my credit card company connected me with a nice lady in a call centre in India. I relayed my sorry tale to her, and while at first placated by her suggestion that I do nothing and just wait for my next statement to come in the post, a few minutes later I phoned back and was more forceful. That's not how it's going to go down, see? We're going to go through my statement on the phone, right, and any fraudy transactions is going to be nailed right away, see? I could tell they were impressed by the way they started reading out my recent spending. Sainsburys, £54.15.. yes.. Sky Television, £19.50.. yes.. Amazon.co.uk, £12.85.. yes.. Napster, £9.99.. yep.. Bent Warehouse, America, $2000.. ye.. what? No! That wasn't me! I was not there. And where spending on my credit card is concerned, nothing goes down unless I'm involved. I am quite strict on that.

My credit card company promise that they will track down the mobsters who are misusing my card, and put them out of commission for good, see? At least I think they said that, they might have been trying to sell me travellers cheques again. I will phone them back tomorrow.