Last winter while in Jamaica for more than 5 months a $25.xx charge was made to The Gap somewhere in the US, I saw the charge when it was 'pending'. I hadn't ordered anything online in a long time and not a Gap customer, hadn't been to that state. My bank said it looked like the transaction was in kind of a held status by the merchant, as if on the merchant's software had already detected as a questionable transaction.

In Flip's situation, it could be someone has hacked into the company's merchant account (and maybe bank account). And possibly just a coincidence that the merchant was Jamaican, as the lift could have happened anywhere along your trip or even before you left home.

Thiefing people find ways around the systems. Last year we tried to sell something on Craigslist. I knew right off the interested party was going to be a scam. The strangest thing was they used the Fedex Account of a large local manufacturer in our state to send a poorly-rendered fake check from a different company. I called that manufacturer who groaned and said yes they knew this was going on and they hadn't been able to figure out how to get to the bottom of it. Local police were NOT interested in investigating. I have a relative in the FBI and they said the amount was too small (and it was more than $4,000).

Thanks for the tip on the RFID-blocking credit card SLEEVES. I knew about the wallets but don't want anything bulky. Those sleeves look perfect, plus they have passport-size sleeves too. THANK YOU!

Also interesting about the tip to poke a hole in the card, but I think unless you are breaking a line of circuitry (if you only punch through the plastic), it won't interrupt the coding.