use Perl

My wife woke up this morning to a call from our MasterCard (Chase Bank - lovely people), calling to confirm recent activity. I thought that was odd, but I have made several large purchases recently - plane tickets to Boca, two Axims and a server from a local computer store.

Anyway, the item that stuck out to them was a $367 charge to "Home Shopping Network." Come to find out, HSN had called our bank to confirm the account, shipping to a Scott Stevens in Alabama (huh?). Needless to say, we are not Scott Stevens nor did we buy anything on HSN for Scott Stevens (much less buy anything on HSN, period ;)). So Chase is re-issuing account #'s and FedEx'ing us new cards tomorrow before we take off for YAPC.

Couple of things to take away from this:

• Do not use a check/debit card for online purchases. You do not want a hacked card to affect your checking account. It's also nice to use a regular credit card that is well-protected in terms of liability and fraud. I use that Chase card everywhere on the internet for online purchases - I wonder who got hacked recently [and didn't tell me].
• I wonder what algorithms Chase (or whomever) use for fraud detection? Not that they were used in this case, as HSN prompted the query, but thought-provoking, nonetheless.
• "Scott Stevens", whereever you are, I wouldn't be expecting a package from HSN anytime soon. Or rather, if you get a package, it's most likely an attempt to tie you physically to the virtual fraud. Perhaps I shouldn't be saying anything, but I highly doubt this blog is monitored.

Cheers,

Jason