[UPDATE] $1,900 Unauthorized Charge on Credit Card. Company refuses to reverse payment.

First of all, a big thanks to all who helped. Thanks to the tip of one particular Redditor, I was finally able to get a call back today from the credit card company.

With that in mind, let me state that I have and have always have excellent credit. I did a score lookup just a few minutes ago and I am in the 800+.

So in any event, I am afraid I do not have good news. In fact, I need your help more than ever.

Here's what I was able to learn.

The company that billed me $1,900 is a cryptocurrency exchange. That is, you can buy and sell bitcoins, ether, and others. In the past, I have used this credit card to buy cryptos because my main credit card (BMO) is blocked, aka won't be accepted to buy cryptos. However, I have NEVER used this particular, eastern european cryptoexchange. In fact, before, today, I had never heard of it.

With that in mind, it appears someone used my credit card to buy $1,900 in bitcoins, then immediately withdrew the bitcoins to his private wallet. Since I have bought bitcoins in the past, the credit card company assumed I was trying to pull a "fast one."

The supervisor also fax me the contestation file from the merchant, and the merchant has a copy of my driving license. This isn't particularly shocking because I have sent a copy of my driving license to dozens of crypto websites. You need to submit ID to buy bitcoins at most places. I've sent this exact copy of my driving license to at least 7-10 crypto websites, back when I was hugely into bitcoins.

I have no idea how this person was able to accept my driving license. I do know that I (stupidly) used my personal e-mail to send my driving license to some of those websites. And that it was my own (duh!) "sent" folder. And that, well, yeah, I reuse passwords. Won't lie there.

I also read what the merchant wrote and it might as well have been total nonsense. "Mr. XXX opened an account with us and promptly bought Y bitcoins. He then withdrew his bitcoins to his private wallet. We think this transaction is legitimate and" and there the merchant included a link to the blockchain, showing relevant bitcoins being sent to someone.

What I DO know is that I never used that website and never purchased those bitcoins, nor do I have them. I have talked to a colleague who specialize in that field and he told me my credit file is far more valuable, way WORTH more than $1,900. He told me to simply pay it, close my card and move on.

Suing is also unlikely because they are in another province. Even if you get nothing from this, understand that you are far less protected against unauthorized transactions than you might think.

So there I go, I ask your help again. It feels really wrong being cheated like that and I really, out of principle, do not want to repay this amount. It just doesn't feel right.

With that in mind, what are my other options and what can I do?