There’s nothing like a little minor heart failure to jump start your day. On Friday morning I woke up and began my usual routine of fumbling around in the kitchen to make a cup of coffee.

After pouring myself a cup of java I sat down at the computer to check my email. I have no new emails, but three junk emails. Since I know sometimes important emails go into the junk folder I check there as well. To my surprise I have received an email from Northwest Airlines. Now, I know you are going to tell me I should have just deleted the email, but something told me I should open it. So I did.

That’s when my “surprise” started to turn into a panic attack.

The email said that my flight with Northwest Airlines had been confirmed, and my VISA had been charged for $955.86.

Um pardon me? WTF? (Actually I said that last part in its entirety plus a few more explicit words.)

The email also contained an attachment which was apparently my e-ticket. OK now I am really suspicious. I contemplate replying to the email and then realize if it’s a scam of some sort then I won’t actually be talking to anyone at Northwest Airlines. So I go to the companies website and go through the painstaking steps of filling out one of those annoying online forms. My comments go something like this:

“I did NOT book a flight on Northwest Airlines... If someone has attempted to create an account using both my email address and possibly my credit card information I would request that you CANCEL the ticket and refund my VISA immediately.”

That email sent I then get to work on phoning VISA. I mean $955.86 is a lot of money, I’m not waiting around for my next statement to find out whether my VISA has actually been charged this amount. So after pressing 1, then 8, then 5, then 1, then 1, then 5 again I am finally connected with a customer representative.

After answering a few skill testing questions (VISA likes to keep you on your toes. They once asked me for the name of the street that ran parallel to mine) the representative is able to help me.

I tell her my problem to which she promptly replies that she now has to get VISA security involved. She then tells me the email I got was not from the airline company. In fact, she had received the very same email that morning. She then asked if I had opened the attachment because it contained a virus. Thankfully I had not done that. After all that was said and done and I was reassured that my VISA had not been charged $955.86 I was asked to forward the email I had received to VISA security.

After doing that I decide to check my email again to see if Northwest Airlines has sent me a reply. They have. The response to my query assures me that my VISA has not been charged , I do not have tickets booked, and that Northwest Airlines is being misrepresented by the person(s) sending out the emails.

While that’s not good news for Northwest Airlines I at least feel better knowing my VISA hasn’t been misused.