The fraud begins with either the theft of the physical card or the compromise of data associated with the account including the card account number or other information that would routinely and necessarily be available to a merchant during the legitimate transaction. The compromise can occur by many common routes and can usually be conducted without tipping off the card holder, the merchant or the issuer at least until the account is ultimately used for fraud. A compromised account can be hoarded by a thief for weeks or months before fraudulent use. Making it difficult to identify the source of the compromise.