Did you happen to stop at the gas station that same day? What does “that very transaction caused a fraud alert” mean? It’s not unusual for multiple transactions to be marked as fraud, even legitimate ones, when a credit card is stolen.

No, literally didn't use that card anywhere else. Without doubt I can attribute the fraud activity to the LittleSnitch purchase attempt. It was the second I clicked "pay" for LittleSnitch I got an automated fraud warning from my bank - which was odd because I really did make that purchase. As a result I approved it.. and yet that is what then allowed folks to create a fake physical copy of my card somehow for in-store purchases - and there were at the opposite end of the country. Not likely someone would have been even able to fly it drove from my physical location to where these purchases were made.

Nothing against LittleSnitch - I used it after all. But this was my experience buying it, especially as a poor recent college graduate at the time.