Stolen Credit Card & A Good Samaritan

This is a true story about a stolen credit card and a good samaritan. My credit card was stolen. This was one of those situations where the info had been stolen but I still had my physical credit card, safely tucked away in my wallet.

The thing that makes this story so great is how the theft was discovered.

Many Indian people own hotels and motels across the United States. And many of them also operate and manage their own properties. And that’s how my stolen credit card was discovered. The man working registration at a hotel in Anaheim, California was Indian and when a non-Indian man presented a credit card with the name, “Samta Jain”, he knew something was wrong. He confiscated the card and contacted my credit card company, who then informed me. Up to that point I had no idea about the theft.

I was grateful that the good samaritan contacted the credit card company instead of only confiscating the card, otherwise the thief probably would have kept making more bogus charges to my card.

{How Did The Hotel Staff Member Know The Card Was Stolen,
Just From My Name?}

Indian last names bear information = region of India > religion > language. My maiden name “Jain” communicates:

Northern India
Jain religion
Hindi and/or Punjabi speaking

AND, any Indian person would know that “Samta” is a feminine name…and the thief was a man. So it was unlikely that the non-Indian, man, coincidentally had my name too.