Well done American Express
I'm not sure how they do this, but I got a call on Friday from Amex asking if I'd purchased anything from QVC (a shopping channel on TV) or some mom+baby website. They said that the purchases seemed suspicious and they wanted to check.
I hadn't, and someone had got enough of my card details to start making purchases. It could have been anyone of course, another website or local store/restaurant. I'll probably never hear any more about it.
But I'm impressed that Amex picked it up so quickly. These purchases only happened that day and they caught them and stopped my card immediately. I've already got my new card in hand, delivered by UPS.
They weren't large purchases and I use my card regularly, so I'd love to know how they do it. Is QVC itself a red flag?
The last time something similar happened was 20+ years ago when I was getting on a survey vessel in Aberdeen harbour and someone stole my wallet from the cabin. I reported it and the police caught the guy as he was leaving the off-license after purchasing some booze with my card. I was impressed then too for being able to respond so quickly..