Exodus 20:15

Got a phone call from my bank's credit card fraud department on Thursday evening. They wanted to verify some unusual activity on the Visa card that I almost never use except for internet purchases. Specifically, they wanted to know if on Tuesday and Wednesday, it was actually me who made $6300 in charges at six or seven different clothing stores in the Naples area. I informed them that not only could I not possibly fit that much clothing in my house, but I'm also just not that well-dressed that I would know what clothes to buy with $6300 if I had it. They were actually really good about the whole thing; they cancelled the card and they're not holding me liable for any of the charges.

They said someone must have managed to counterfeit the card, because the purchases showed up as swipe transactions (vice punching in the numbers). And I think I know who did it. Sunday night I took my parents and my cousin to the opera, and afterwards we went to a restaraunt nearby that had the worst service I've ever experienced in Napoli. When it was time to leave, I gave the waiter the above-mentioned credit card to pay (I certainly wasn't about to give him my debit card; good thing, too), and he took it inside. He came back out a couple minutes later and said, "sorry, we don't take Visa, only Diner's Club." We just wanted to get out of there at that point, so we all just sort of thought, "who the hell takes Diner's Club and not Visa?" and paid cash and left. Didn't occur to us to think, "why didn't he just tell us that when I gave him the card instead of taking it inside with him?" Given that's the only place in the Naples area I've used that card in at least a month (if ever), I'm sure he managed to make a copy of the magnetic strip when he took it inside and is now living the high life with a bunch of nice fur coats and Gucci loafers. Unfortunately I didn't find out about this until the night before a four-day weekend, so I have to wait until Tuesday to go talk to our security guys who liaison with the Italian law enforcement organizations and report it. And I'll be more than happy to ride down with the Caribinieri or the Guardia di Finanza or whomever and point out the guy. Or punch him in the face. Either way.