"...it can happen to you..."

If you're familiar with that great song "Young  At Heart" you'll probably recognize why I'm using this title.
"Fairy tales can come true; it can happen to you
If you're young at heart...."

Yeah, well so can your worst nightmares.

It all started about a month ago when we got a large package in the mail.  I was expecting two small packages but nothing as large as this one. The name and address was correct on the package, so it hadn't been delivered by mistake to the wrong party.  So I opened it.

Inside was a coffee brewer, a carafe, and three or four samples of various exotic types of coffees, plus a note welcoming me to a program that would send three or four samples of other coffees every two to three months.  Also a bill for about $28.00.

I called the company, told them I hadn't ordered any of that and even stated,  rather testily, that we don't even drink coffee.  They were very nice about it, told me I could keep everything and they would remove my name and account from their records and refund all charges.

I called our Visa people and alerted them to what happened.

A few days later we got another package, two rather fancy looking curling irons.  I called that company and they said to return the merchandise and they would credit my account.  I asked them to also remove my name from their list of customers.

Soon after that, our Visa card company called us and asked about some rather unusual charges to our account.  Unfortunately, they called early in the morning (okay, so it was 9:30 a.m.) and I was only half awake, without my hearing aids in.  They began asking about purchases of some strange sounding things, to all of which I said "No, no, no, no."  They asked me if my wife and I had our cards in our possession; we did.  They asked me if I could remember the latest thing I had charged, and I told them.  We use our credit card so rarely that I had no problem recalling what I had last purchased with it.

The Visa people then said they would close our account, that we should destroy the cards and they would issue us new ones.  They also said that when we received our next statement we should circle all charges we had not made and return the statement to them.

The two small packages I was expecting arrived shortly after that but no more strange ones. Our new Visa cards arrived and with them a form to fill out if we got any unauthorized charges on our next billing.  We  got the cards activated and vowed not to EVER buy anything on any credit card again.

Peace reigned supreme in our humble condo, until today.

Today we got our latest statement.  It ran to three pages.  It included one legitimate charge of $36 to a company I had done business with and ...are you ready for this?....24 other charges, for a total of over $900.
Twenty two of those were to APL*ITUNES.  Somebody out there must have a lot of music downloaded.

I called Visa again, confirmed with them what I should do and am preparing the paper work to send in.
It is my understanding, based on what they told me over the phone, that we would not be held accountable for any unauthorized purchases.  Let's hope I heard them correctly.

Now, here's what I'd really like to know:

Can any of you faithful followers or you occasional readers explain to me how this sort of thing can happen?
Is my name, address and Visa card number that easy to steal off the internet?  Does the leak come from legitimate purchases I have made via internet, as few as they are?  But what really puzzles me is why anyone wanting to make illegal use of this informtion would be stupid enough to send not ONE but TWO packages to me.

And another thing: credit card fraud has been found at service stations pumps in our immediate area. Guesss who is going to cancel his Chevron card and forego free car washes from now on.

The Year of the Tiger is getting off to a great start.

"A plague o' both your houses..."

Stay tuned.
PS: If you're wondering what became of the coffee maker and those packages of exotic flavors, consult with our first born in the wilderness.