Written authorizations mattered.

The distinction between an authorized cardholder’s spending and fraudulent transactions would have to be investigated.

Then I examined my own email.

Messages from the bank had been automatically filed under a folder called Household, a rule I had approved during a busy quarter.

The alerts were there.

I’d simply stopped opening them.

A notification from April mentioned a change in supplementary-card privileges.

Another referred to failed transactions on a primary card.