I've had this happen to me, in one sense or another, twice. Once I got a call from my cc company asking had I bought about $5000 worth of telephone cards in Berlin a few days ago? Well, I'd been in Berlin, but I definitely hadn't bought phone cards! If they wanted, I could send them my cell phone charges to show I'd been using my usual cell phone nr., but they didn't need any further proof than my say-so. They sent me a form to fill out and, as long as I was willing to witness in court should they catch the thief, they were willing to credit my account back. Whew! I'm pretty sure the thief was somebody at the swanky restaurant where the whole research team had lunch one day. It's the only place I used the card but for the hotel where I regularly stayed for meetings in Berlin. My guess is that the restaurant found and fired the thief and settled out-of-court with the company just to keep the problem out of the news.

Second time it was my US publisher (only one book, so they're also my only publisher ). They'd had a break-in and one computer that was stolen had all their authors' names and tax and account info on it. So far I haven't noticed any unauthorized movement on my account. Nor have I noticed anybody using my social security number to open up charge cards etc. It'd be hard to do since I have no US credit rating. The publisher signed us all up for one year of free credit tracking, but of course you never know when an ID thief will decide to start using the info. The credit tracking co. sent us all a FAQ sheet about what they advise you to do if that happens, and boy did it look like a major hassle!

I think that hassle is just as major be it a cc or a dc that gets hacked. The banks where I have visa cards all carry insurance and guarantee reimbursement on the same basis as my cc company, so I just try to live my life with normal caution and hope for the best. Now I'll hope the best for all you other ID-theft victims as well!