Great suggestions, folks. I will act on them accordingly. And great instruction and insight.
I had a thought that it might not be as odious as someone actually "hacking" my system...they might have just gotten ahold of the number from a previous purchase somewhere, and used it. In other words, simple direct bold theft, nothing as daring as hacking me.
I bought a coat once at Neiman Marcus and the sales clerk used my charge number to buy over 400.00 worth of stuff from Victorias Secret. I didn't even know until VS security sent me a post card telling me to call them something looked evil. Thats when I decided to set up seperate account.
I was working in a bank with a girl from the Phillipines. She sent $10.00 to a relative back home. The relative got the envelope the money was sent in, but no check. She assumed someone in the postal department back home had ripped it off.
Because all employee checking accounts were routed through the personnel department, anything unusual was flagged upstairs. One day, the personnel department got a letter from someone claiming to be this employee, requesting the liquidation of the checking account of this employee and the funds be sent to "her" somewhere in Asia. I think it was Hong Kong. the letter was signed with a pretty good imitation of my coworker's signature.