This post was originally published in French only. We translated it in 2026 so the archive reads the same in both languages. Read the original →
On a day like any other, while I was making supper, I got a call from VISA Desjardins. There had apparently been a change of address on my account which, according to their fraud detection system, didn't look legitimate. I confirmed that this address change was indeed not legitimate. The person also asked me whether I could see any illegitimate transactions on my account. I saw a transaction made the day before at an obscure merchant in the United States, a phone call anonymizer.
As a result, my credit card was deactivated on the spot and a new card will be sent to me. The fraudulent transaction was cancelled and I should go through my credit account to see whether there are any other fraudulent transactions. On top of that, the person told me I had to contact the credit agencies to have a fraud alert added. That will tell every lender who pulls my credit report to carefully verify that the request is legitimate (which has the advantage of shifting the burden of verification onto the lender, adding to the trust consumers can have in the system). I already had credit monitoring active, which is a modern must-have to guard against fraud.
As a security measure, I called VISA Desjardins to make sure the call I had received was legitimate. They confirmed that the information I had been given was correct. The agent even took the opportunity to raise the protection level on my account. However, I couldn't find out where the fraud came from. Because of that, I have no way of applying corrective measures only at the one place where the problem occurred.
The aftermath is that I have a cleanup to do and that all future credit-related requests will be more complicated. It raises the bar for fraud, but adds a lot of friction to activities that used to be "easy". Plus, as an extra precaution and since I don't know where the fraud came from, I'm going to move up my password rotation across all sites and reinstall all my computers.
This incident really annoyed me, but it's a reminder that nobody is safe. Few people limit their online activities or pay only in cash (the late Dominic paid only in cash, for fear that thugs hiding in their basement would break the transaction's encryption). The benefits of convenience generally outweigh the negative consequences.
Hats off to VISA Desjardins' fraud detection system and to how efficiently it was handled to limit any possible damage. Besides staying vigilant, it's essential that financial systems be able to intercept every fraud attempt before any damage is done.