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Now, imagine that your card information is stolen. This can be done in any number of ways: credit card skimmers attached to gas pumps, database breaches of vendors, and so on. The point is, the thief now has a credit card. What he doesn't have is any real information about that card. In fact, depending on how he got it, he doesn't even know if it still works. So, he has to try it out, and he has to act quickly once he knows it's valid. This is called a "testing charge." Thieves tend to do this in a few ways. If they have just the card information, they'll generally go online and, for example, buy an MP3 or two: something cheap and easy to download that tells them the card is valid. Or, if they have a cloned card -- or even your actual card -- they'll buy gas. Gas can be bought without interacting with a person or being caught using the card on video. Thieves tend to get away with this first purchase, as it’s not all that suspicious. What tends to set off red flags is what they do next. Credit card thieves tend not to use the cards for personal purchases: they tend to use them to get items that can easily be fenced. So, if, say, a thief goes to a gas station, and then goes straight to a hardware store and buys $2000 worth of power tools, that will immediately trigger a call to the cardholder. It's so quick, thieves are sometimes caught in the parking lot. Needless to say, these are only the (relatively) smart thieves. Overseas, some of the dumber ones shut down the cards they steal by making out-of-country purchases. If you make a purchase in America, and suddenly make another five minutes later in Uzbekistan, that will raise a few eyebrows. Even purchases made outside of the state in which you live can be monitored.