The authorized user card only was only used 2 times in 6 weeks between May and June. One on May 17, and the other on June 17. The compromising happened on June 26. The pattern is very similar to the last incident we had on a Chase card - a brand new card used only once online to pay AT&T and the 2nd time in a restaurant. 8 days after using it in the restaurant the fraudulent charge occurred. On that one I caught it myself as I was looking at Chase Online and noticed there was a reduction of available balance. Called Chase immediately - the card was used in California at Point of Sale transaction.

Both breaches happened 8 to 10 days AFTER the cards were out of sight at making payments, with falsified cards used in far away places. The magnetic strip info was stolen by some handheld devices and then phony cards are made using stolen info.

The reason why it does not look like being compromised at the processing system is, the breach is being done with Physical Card - i.e. the magnetic strip is coned and used to reproduce a phony card for transactions made at Point of Sale. Other types of breaches generally involved ordering merchandises online.

Oh both incidents also share one common theme - the fraudulent charges are of smallish amount on each charge - unlike those breaches from compromising database (the case of TJ Maxx for example), that involved fraudulent charges over thousands $ a pop.