Brozy’s latest post reminded me of our own recent experience with transaction verification. Several weeks ago, my credit card company called to ask us about a purchase that looked suspicious. They said it appeared to be a call made from an airplane that was charged to a company in Britain.

Well, I was pretty sure I hadn’t made any calls from British airplanes recently, and I didn’t recognize the name of the company or the amount of the charge, so we did what they recommended and closed the account for fear of identity theft.

And then I got home from work, checked my account online, and saw that it was really a call from an airport. I had indeed made a call from an airport (using my credit card because I had no change), though that was precisely one month before the charge finally appeared.

I had made the call just after Christmas, after we had flown home from Denver and were trying to figure out when the shuttle would come and take us back to the lot where our car was parked. I had placed the call, and it was ringing, and then Brinestone ran in to tell me that the shuttle had just pulled up, so I hung up. The total for that call: $7.38.

Moral of the story: never use your credit card to make a call from a pay phone. Ever.