In 2008, my 86-year-old mother had her MasterCard compromised to the tune of $43,000. She had a "premier" MasterCard with a credit limit of $40,000 that had the benefit of "special" monitoring.
It's bizarre that she would be given that credit limit. My mother did not use her credit card very much -- $500 maybe in three months, and she paid off the balance.
Once, she used the card to charge $45 for groceries and it was rejected. She thought they were kidding her. She went directly to the bank and they pulled up her account and found all of this activity, over 15 pages worth.
She lived in New York and the charges were from Nevada. The bank never called her or tried to contact her to check to see about the activity on the card.
You can imagine how upset my mother was; she thought she was responsible for this bill. When I talked with the bank manager -- who was supposed to monitor these "premier" accounts -- he just said it slipped through. I told him I thought it was an inside job.
-- S.R.