Shopping at the grocery store this morning, my Aerogold Visa was declined. I got home where I had a message waiting from CIBC asking that I call and quote a reference number. The CSR, an extremely rude individual, told me that a hold had been placed on my card pending the results of a random confirmation of my credit details. I pay my bills in full every month, so I'm not sure what the issue was. So I played along, giving him my previous address. Then he wanted eight digits from a MasterCard I hold with a different bank. I refused to give him this information and asked to speak with a supervisor. He stated I could not speak with a supervisor and put my on hold for at least 10 minutes. I then had to confirm pre-authorized payees, and some previous transactions, as well as my Aeroplan number. He then claimed someone tried to make a purchase at Wal-Mart of over $600 two days back and stated he would have to cancel my card and send me a replacement with a new number which I would have to give to my pre-authorized payees. He stated the $600 charge was declined, which surprised me because I had about $18,000 in available credit on that account.

The fact that this $600 fraudulent transaction was discovered only as the result of a "random" check was quite surprising. I would have thought that if they had declined a $600 charge due to suspected fraud that that would have been the reason for their call. I call shenanigans.

Has anyone else got one of these "random checks" months after getting a new credit card?