Unknown Amazon Prime Charge

Last month I noticed an $8.11 charge for Amazon Prime on my business debit card. I don't even have this card linked to my Amazon account. Sometimes the bank doesn't get the name of the vendor correct, but I decided to ask Amazon if they knew anything about the charge. I used a form on their website to ask my question, which was a mistake. Since the credit card wasn't linked to my account, they couldn't see the fraudulent charge, and everything looked as it should. Another month went by, and the $8.11 charge showed up again. This time I requested a call back from Amazon to discuss the charge.

The customer support person was pleasant and seemed experienced with this type of problem. They had me add the debit card to my account so that they could view the Amazon transactions against it. Sure enough, they spotted the two $8.11 charges right away. Amazon informed me that someone else had the card linked to their account and was using it to pay for their monthly Amazon Prime subscription. I said that I thought Amazon Prime costs more than that per month. They told me that the user had a discount subscription. The only discount that I know of is a student discount. Students get six months free. After that, they need to pay the student rate of $7.49 per month. $7.49 + Tax = $8.11.

So, the freeloader was a student (or someone posing as a student to get the discount). Amazon claimed privacy rules wouldn't allow them to give me any information about the thief. It's good that Amazon protects the identity of customers and I'm sure the thieves know that. Amazon said they would refund both charges and suggested that I get a new debit card. I called the bank and did that the next day. This is the second time that my business debit card has been compromised. Last time there was also a small charge that appeared, but it wasn't from Amazon. The bank doesn't let you create a transaction alert smaller than ten dollars, so you can't see these small charges unless you log into your account. I only use the card for business related online transactions. I suspect one of the places where I used the card has a data leak.