An unfortunate side effect of fraud prevention I guess. Some financial institutions have lower thresholds for "unusual activity" then others.
... When I called to resolve the issue they said that "since I was not a woman" the transaction was flagged as suspicious. ...
Do we really want companies scrutinizing our lives this much? How can that not give anyone the creeps?
Don't really have a choice if you want to use a debit or credit card. The issuing financial institution will monitor all of your activity closely in a effort to reduce fraud.
Makes you wonder if one day you'll have to notify your CC company or bank any time you might be traveling anywhere outside your state. Heck they say they do it to reduce fraud, so it makes sense on their end as long as us customers will take it. When enough people talk with their wallet about all these rules and regs then they might change their practices.