While having dinner, I heard the sound of an incoming SMS call on my phone. I was curious and saw that it was a short message from Sumitomo Mitsui Card, confirming that I was the one who had used the card because of suspicious card use. Naturally, I replied "No," since I was at home and it was not my card. I was immediately informed that the card was invalid and a new card would be sent to me.
SMCC receives an e-mail each time a card is used, so we checked the e-mail and found that the card was used at a total of five restaurants in Tokyo and Yamanashi in a short period of time from 8:30 to 19:00. The amount spent at these restaurants ranged from 2,000 yen to 4,000 yen, including Gyoza no Osho, Gusto, and Coco Ichibanya.
When you see multiple people using the same store at the same time of day, it means that more than one person is using it.。
Credit cards are equipped with IC chips, so it could not be considered skimming.
Since I try to use my card at well-known stores as much as possible, no idea immediately came to mind.
Well, in the middle of July, I received an email from Sumitomo Mitsui Card for a 100 yen transaction and shortly after received an email canceling the transaction. I was curious and immediately checked the card company's website. In the Q&A section, it said that there was no need to worry about a small transaction such as 100 yen to check if the card could be used effectively. So I let it go, but I should have deactivated the card at that time.
Before such a suspicious usage notice, I remembered the first time I used the company (the company itself is a trustworthy company). I looked into it and found out that my personal information had been leaked in 2021 due to unauthorized access.
I don't know if my recent unauthorized use of my card was a leak of personal information from that company.
The unauthorized use of the card should be covered by insurance, so there is no real harm, but it is a bit inconvenient until the new card arrives, and it is only a hassle to go through the process of changing the card with the company that has a registered card that you use regularly.
Still, I wonder how the people who misused the cards obtained the information and how they forged the cards.
Come to think of it, I have heard of a cab in Tokyo selling counterfeit cards for 5,000 yen each.
It's a scary story when you think about it.
