First, check "Invernese Cobie" out at the McCaffee site. That name IS familiar, so somebody's computer may be sick. Mention this to Capital One as the LAST item if you hit bingo with the name. The fraud people are a little savvier about computers than customer service reps.

Call Capital One and explain verbally to the rep you talk to that:

1 -- You need the contact information for the merchant. Since this is on a statement, I think they can access it.

2 -- You yourself have never had a merchandise transaction with any South American business, and you are concerned that someone else has your credit card numbers.

MAYBE someone posted a wrong number from a paper slip, ask them to check that out. But since ther merchant is in South America, you are worried at this point about theft even though nothing else that is suspicious has been charged.

Be upfront that you are concerned because the merchant has not responded to them and the un-typicality of the matter that had been disputed is suspicious in itself.

One of the most common ways a thief can stel your card numbers and expiration dates is, you don't shred your card slips and they raid your dumpster.

Another careless inhabit some people have is failing to get the CARBON from cards that are run over by that little machine that doesn't run on electricity.

I have taken enough calls answering the phone for the fraud division of a major card provider to appreciate there is no end to ingenuity when it comes to credit card NUMBER theft where paper of any kind is involved.

Another way for your number to rack up mystery meat on your statement, of course, is for a hacker to invade an internet merchant you are doing business with. When that happened at Marilyn Miglin's website, she e-mailed everyone who had ever made an email purchase notice that their system had been hacked with the apparent intention of obtaining credit card information and asked us to contact the card providers, and offered a healthy discount on our next purchase.

Capital One immediately closed my account with NO forwarding of my regular charges (internet service, insurance, etc.) that were not already pending when I talked with my rep. I had to call them all when I got the new card number. Missed one, when their charge was sent back, THAT was embarrassing but we all got over that quickly.

It took a week, maybe two, to replace the old card.

Protect your good credit, they will be the first to agree to action. Don't demand another chargeback, but also talk to the fraud division yourself, and ask them to really closely eyeball your charge slips for the month the charge was first posted. Where there are numbers there are posting errors, the merchant may be ignoring communication because Invernese Cobie is his best customer for the past 3 decades.

(Now if I can only learn to live without cigarettes ... !)

lucy

*your online access to the closed account will be unavalable

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