I have a Chase Ink credit card that I used for many transactions in 2023. About six months later, I stopped using it and switched to another card. To keep it secure, I locked it and stored it in a safe at my apartment.
Currently, I’m traveling abroad and don’t have the card with me—it’s still stored in the locked safe. A couple of days ago, I got an email from Chase with this message:
A transaction on your locked credit card was declined.
Someone tried to use your locked card.
Amount: $1931.70
Merchant: HERTZ RENTAL SYSTEMS
Date: Nov 17, 2024
After this, I went online and locked all my other credit and debit cards that I won’t be using for a while.
Does anyone know how my card information could have been accessed? This is especially confusing since the card hasn’t been used for nearly a year, and the timing is odd—it happened right after I traveled internationally.
The card was likely compromised earlier and the information sold on a list somewhere (like the dark web). It’s also possible someone used a number generator to guess valid card numbers. Either way, the steps you need to take are the same, so it’s not worth overthinking how it happened.
When you say the card is locked, do you mean frozen? Either way, you should dispute the transaction and report the card as compromised to get a new one issued.
Baylor said:
When you say the card is locked, do you mean frozen? Either way, you should dispute the transaction and report the card as compromised to get a new one issued.
Chase has a lock option that prevents transactions from going through. I had it enabled, which seems to work the same as freezing the card.