It Was In the Cards

I’m happy to announce next week will mark my one-year anniversary with Transition Advisors.

It’s been a whirlwind 365 days that passed far more quickly than I’d like a year to go at my advanced age. I began this exciting phase of my life’s next chapter  coming aboard  just as tax season was rounding third base and then went full bore into the wildly busy conference and travel schedule as well as the frenetic exercises of scheduling buyer-seller meetings or consulting engagements.

And I’m hoping for an equally exciting 2013 and right out of the gate it certainly gives the impression that it will be on an equal, if not greater pace.

But I digress.

The reason I call attention to this career milestone is not to solicit congratulatory emails and well-wishes (although far be it from me to complain if I did) but rather to call attention to the dangers of overlooking routine procedure, especially when it comes to fraud or the potential thereof.

To wit: last week, I received an invoice from the corporate card division of American Express warning me that I was late paying the annual membership fee of $35. Since my current employer uses a different card vendor, I called up in hopes of ascertaining why my hard-earned credit report was about to take an unexpected hit.

Not to sound clichéd, it wasn’t the money, but the principle.

The company’s representative was pleasant and perhaps a bit over-solicitous (imagine my surprise when she told me she was located overseas) and explained that I was being invoiced because the card was still active.

Excuse me?

Yes she assured me, my previous employer had not canceled it. Needless to say I was a bit taken aback, particularly since the two items I was specifically – and legally - required to surrender during my exit interview were my Blackberry and my corporate credit card. In truth I wasn’t going to miss the Blackberry, it never worked well anyway – perhaps one of many reasons why its parent company RIM is in trouble.

But the credit card was another matter.

With her help we corrected the situation without too much fanfare, but I got to wondering.  Suppose someone had phished the numbers and embarked on a spending spree that would make the current occupant of the Oval Office blush? I’m guessing yours truly would have been on the phone just a tad longer.

But with credit card fraud estimated at over $3 billion annually and rising and almost daily reports of cyber-crimes on the rise, it’s a head-scratcher when routine details, like failing to cancel a former employee’s card after a year, fall through the cracks. Luckily I escaped uninjured. But from now on, I promise to remain alert and vigilant on matters such as these.

Now if I can just remember where I put my new company card. I know it’s here somewhere.