This past weekend, my credit card was declined at various venues. It turns out, there was a fraudulent charge made on my card.
The problem with verifying fraudulent charges is that they make you do it over the phone. All online access to your account is locked. This can make it difficult to remember exactly which charge you made, especially if you’re the kind of person who forgets the various places you’ve been in the past few days. A lot of context is lost.
As I was on the phone, trying to remember exactly what I did, I remembered my foursquare account. Foursquare is a fun little location aware app I recently started really getting into. They make it a game to check-in online whenever you arrive at a new venue.
With the super secret check-in history page, I had in hand all the places I’ve been in the past few days, and could easily spot the fraudulent charges.
In essence, foursquare has now become my very accurate location memory. There are definitely fun social aspects about using the service, but what I find compelling is that diligent users of location aware services like foursquare will find lots of situations where location data is a logistical gold mine.
Now, if I only I can figure who’s been making those big online retail purchases.