Credit Card Fraud

MasterCard called me this evening to alert me to some suspicious transactions on my CapitalOne card. The card has been locked in my gun safe since August, and certainly hasn’t been used to buy $300 in gasoline (in three separate <$100 transactions) at a single BP gas station in Largo, Florida.
After the first two transactions went through, the card was disabled and the fraud department was notified. The third transaction was declined.
Of course, I’m not liable for any of the charges, and they’re sending me a replacement card (which will also go into the safe — I got the card because they charged no foreign currency conversion fees for my Europe trip, and now I keep it around as a backup) and an affadavit I need to fill out to attest that I didn’t actually make those charges.
I have no idea where the fraudsters got the card information, but I figured I’d let folks know so they’d be a bit more careful.
This is yet another reason why I stick to using credit, rather than debit, cards. While debit cards also offer the same consumer protections, you have to argue with the bank to get your money back (and there’s a risk of bouncing checks and whatnot during that time). With credit cards, you argue whether or not you owe the bank money, and you don’t owe them anything while the investigation is ongoing. There’s no chance for checks to bounce, as it’s not linked to your checking account.