Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

I was just about to join colleagues for lunch the other day when I received a text message from Bank of China that my credit card had been charged 4,500 yuan ($684). I thought about it but could not recall any such purchase.

The first thing I did was phone the bank. Customer service said they would immediately freeze my account and instructed me to go to a nearby ATM to try to withdraw money. Since the account was frozen, I wouldn't be able to withdraw, she said, but the ATM would print out a receipt as proof that the card was in my possession.

At my local Bank of China branch, the teller told me that I should file a police report. I called 110 and an officer arrived within five minutes. He told me that because it was considered an economic crime, I had to go down to the Economic Crime Investigation Team office. There I was instructed to prepare a photocopy of my credit card, my ID and printouts of text messages from the bank.

While I gave my statement I noticed that there were dozens of elderly people filing reports for investment frauds that they had been victims of. Now that our nation is basking in economic glory, it seems that everyone is a target of scammers and thieves. Xinhua News Agency reported that China saw an explosion of financial crimes in 2015, up 67 percent year-on-year. Credit card fraud is the financial crime of choice, as the Internet has made it increasingly difficult to investigate and secure convictions.

The Bank of China rep told me that the fraudulent transaction was with Eve Lom of London, a cosmetics brand. Because the transaction was made during lunchtime in China, which was about 4 am in the UK, it had to have been an online purchase, which meant that there was still time to cancel the order.

However, when I asked the bank agent to do so, they said that no cancellations can be made during an investigation. This seemed oddly ironic. At my persistent request I was transferred to the bank Transaction Investigation Department, but was also told that nothing could be done. I asked them to at least contact the merchant but the bank declined to do so. "The transaction is completed and unable to be canceled by us," the bank rep said to me. "But if your English is good you should go ahead and contact the merchant yourself."

Eve Lom's official website has a Contact Us page, but only allows users to submit an online form. Without listing any phone number on their site, I had to dig through numerous Baidu searches before finally finding one of their office phone numbers. I rang them at the start of their working hours and a representative confirmed that an online order for 480 pounds had been made using my credit card. She was helpful and agreed to cancel the order for me since it had not yet been processed. I should have also asked for the thief's mailing address.

I await to see when and how Bank of China will handle their so-called investigation. But questions remain:

1) Why my credit card info was so easily stolen? As a multi-currency card, I only use it as backup and have not made any purchases in several months. It is also a chip card, which is supposed to be the safest kind of card.

2) Who is financially responsible for a fraudulent purchase? Had I not personally contacted Eve Lom, Bank of China would have allowed the transaction go through while they "investigate." Bank of China does not make it clear if their customers are insured against fraud.

3) Why doesn't Bank of China have any clear procedures for cardholders to follow in the case of suspected fraud?

There's no saying who was truly at fault here. Maybe I left my card info entered on an online form, or maybe a dishonest merchant sold the data to thieves.

Sadly, Chinese banks still have a long way to go before they catch up with the customer protection policies and fraud alerts that Western banks have. But now that I know how easy it is for bad guys to obtain credit card information, I will be canceling my card rather than risk any future fraud.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Global Times.