Fraudsters Use Tiny Credit Card Charges, Hoping You'll Miss Them
Fri Feb 15, 2008 3:54AM EST
See Comments (91)
Recently we received a call from one of our credit card companies, informing us of possible fraudulent activity. Turns out that was exactly the case, only there was a twist: Most of the charges were for less than $20.
It's part of a new trend in credit card fraud: The charges are kept very small, mainly in the hopes that you simply won't notice them among larger charges on your credit card statement. This way, the fraudulent charger can keep billing you every month, as long as it goes unnoticed.
CA (formerly Computer Associates) notes that micro-fraud is a growing problem, as people have gotten more and more lax about checking their statements. I know mine sprawls into two pages every month, and it can be tiresome to hunt down phony charges on every statement. But you gotta do it, now more than ever.
What should you do if you find a phony micro-charge ($9.87 is, for some reason, a common figure) on your bill? CA offers the following advice (which I'm enhancing with my own tips, too):
- Cancel your credit card and initiate a chargeback - You can do these together when you report the fraudulent charge. Your credit card company will automatically issue you a new one, and you can usually report fraud over the phone with no paperwork.
- File a complaint with the FBI - This is not really appopriate if your card has been stolen and used by an individual; the FBI won't likely investigate such a small scale crime, but it will look into a company that's billing you illegally for its own profit. Report their name, phone number, charge amount, and any other information at the IC3.
- Check your old statements - You may have been being charged for months without knowing it.
- Scan your computer for viruses and spyware - Here's how.
- Do NOT call and ask for a refund - Sure, they'll give you a refund... but this will also keep the authorities at bay and let the operation keep running against thousands of other people. Report them to Johnny Law!
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Comments on Fraudsters Use Tiny Credit Card Charges, Hoping You'll Miss Them
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27 Posted by oreo69@pacbell.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:46PM EDT Report Abuse
I had a $14.95 charge on mt Att. phone bill last Mo. Clambing to be my internet service. I call the 800 # on the bill to find out who they were, & was advised that I had singed up per a phone call to my home #. I advised the lady that neither ny wife or myself talk to those type of calls & that my # was on the no call list. She said that the Co. would remove the charge & adv. the ATT of a refund on my account. I also called Att to let them know of the problem. Att said they would also dispute the charges & look for the credit.. Other than that my wife uses one credit card from 1 Co. and I use 1 from another. She knows what she spends & where. I can trace all of mine. Easer to see or find any odd charges. Good luck..
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28 Posted by morris1959@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:26PM EDT Report Abuse
just be responcible and watch your back. My Daddy told me that if you watch the pennies, the dollars take care of themselves!
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29 Posted by ledrapinteriors@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:48PM EDT Report Abuse
it is unbelievable to me that peolple are NOT reconciling their credit card statements when they come in. it is essential for any budget planning to know where every dollar goes. a dollar we spend one place is a dollar we CANNOT spend somewhere else. we seem to forget that when we use credit cards, we ARE still spending a finite amount of $$. we recently went through Dave Ramsey's financial university and agree with all that he says. we as nation have our wants and needs all mixed up. we want what we want when we want it and spend millions avery year on interest to obtain it. let's get things straight folks!! and shut these "mini-frauders " down.
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30 Posted by ic4rest@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:22PM EDT Report Abuse
This is exactly what happened to me. The charges were $1 to $2 and occurred couple of times on two monthly statements. I reported it to the credit card company immediately and they indicated the charges were using local addresses near to me. The credit card company immediately gave me a new credit card account number. After my old account was closed there were additional attempts to charge against it that had been denied according the my credit card company.
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31 Posted by jmyers75@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:37PM EDT Report Abuse
I bought three large appliances from Best Buy and got their credit card so I could pay it off over a period of time to avoid the interest. The first bill I got, I divided into 6 and paid that amount, not looking at the bill at all just figuring I'd pay the total off in 6 months. The second bill had a finance charge on it so I double-checked the bill as well as the first one. I found two $11 charges for payment protection. I have been purchasing items for over 50 years and have never, ever signed up for payment protection. Don't need it, don't want it. I called and went round and round with them for SIX MONTHS trying to get these charges removed. While they were NOT doing as I asked, they were also adding more finance charges for not paying the fraudulent charges. I have finally gotten this taken care of, but I want others to know to look out for this type of harrassment.
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32 Posted by blueeyed.baby@att.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:09PM EDT Report Abuse
I was checking my visa statement on line this morning and saw a charge of $19.95 that i did not know of it was UMG Buyersedge...they said i signed up for this i did not. So i got a confirm # and they are taking it off my account but now I will have to seek new Visa cards. Be alert out there. E. Moore
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33 Posted by stefaniel.1125 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:40PM EDT Report Abuse
Don't just check your credit cards, also check your debit cards. My daughter had her identity stolen that way. Watch for out of state charges on your statements.
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34 Posted by bshipley@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:14PM EDT Report Abuse
After seeing your article for "Tiny Credit Card Charges", I decided to look at my credit card bill online. Wouldn't you know that I had a charge for $9.80 from a company listed as lps 866-500-6113 Ca. I decided to Google this instead of calling the number. Some people had started a blog about this phone number saying that their cards were charged for the same amounts and that the number was an answering machine telling them to call back later. I immediately called my credit card company and they are cancelling my card, refunding me and sending me a new number. Thank you!!!!!
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35 Posted by stevansf@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:42PM EDT Report Abuse
I recently noticed a strange charge of $11.89 from WEBPERFECTEMPLATES.COM on my Chase Visa Card. I called the company, which according to the area code is based in Southern California, but always got a pre- recorded message saying that they were "helping other customers". I also e-mailed them and they finally did reply. Hello Steve, I represent Web Perfect Designs, LLC.We got an email from you reporting a charge on your credit card. Thank you for reporting about this situation promptly. First I guess I should explain everything to you.Our company produces webdesign and templates - primary web pageswith no content. Your card was charged for the price of a templatebought on our website. I have a very important question for you:Are you sure that nobody but you has access to your credit cardinformation(name and number)? You see that if your card was chargedand you didn't know about that somebody does have your cardinformation and can use it. Please check it. We have already removed the charge you reported. The refund will bestated in the account within three or four business days. Nevertheless I strongly recommend you to call your bank and ask themto issue another card for you. Because if your card was once chargedwithout your notification there's no guarantee of that the personhaving access to the CC information wouldn't use it again.It is also possible that some banking error occured and your cardwas charged by mistake but still please call them and talk it over. Sincerely,Support Team. No message is selected Click any message to view it in the reading pane. Attachments, pictures, and links from unknown senders are blocked to help protect your privacy and safety. They did reverse the charge (as did Chase) but I decided to cancel the card anyway. Their website looks bogus with links that don't lead anywhere. Caveat Emptor.
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36 Posted by vonneyc@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:38PM EDT Report Abuse
One major credit card is all you really need to conduct your financial business. This is one sure way of simplifying your life.
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37 Posted by wlmlaws@sbcglobal.net on Sat Feb 16, 2008 2:46PM EST Report Abuse
If you were a Sunrocket customer and moved to another phone provider after they went bankrupt, Beware. The company that took over there operations, Teleblends, may still be charging you monly fees. The charges are in the $15.00 range. Look at your credit cards to see if you have charges from Teleblends and you do not use them as a VOIP provider.
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38 Posted by misswooding@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:22PM EDT Report Abuse
i had the exact thing happen to me last week. it was a charge of 19.95 from a living lean health store in vegas and i've never been to vegas. so i called my bank and disputed the claim and i was refunded. when i told my husband he didn't really believe that someone would fraud for only 20 bucks.
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39 Posted by burty@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:15PM EDT Report Abuse
I just found out that earthlink has been charging me 9.99 a month for about 8 months and then all of a sudden it was 19.95. I tried to get credit back and they said I had to take it up with my credit card company.
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40 Posted by 888estrada888@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:42PM EDT Report Abuse
I always put the exact amount on gas stations, since I was getting bill by a phony gas company. This was many years ago, since then I will do gas up $35.00 or $35.20 just try to round them to nearest number that way is way easier to know is your transaction. If you are a gambler be careful with those casino websites, they got many different casino names, but many of them are scam and run by the same company like BetRoyal and Cirrus and many others are run by the same guys. You will never get your money back. They want your DL, CC# and personal info to give you a freebie and yes one of them took my money without my consent 2 times. Once $100, then $300.When I gat my statement I notice, I call them first. They told me it was a mistake a that will credit me back,next week,next week and the runaround never did. I had to go to my bank a file a fraud against them, that was the only way for them to give my money back. So be careful and always look at your statement. It just take 5 minutes.
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41 Posted by charlow31@swbell.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:22PM EDT Report Abuse
I found this scam while clearing out my brother's estate after he passed away. As near as I can tell he signed up for a discount website for normal purchasing website by United Marketing Group for $9.95. After a month they added another discount website for Travel at $14.95 then one for prescriptions at $14.95 and another at $19.95 then $19.95 then $19.95 then $9.95 then $14.99 then $14.99. Then all of a sudden it was a company called WLI at $10.00 and another at $10.00. At this time I took over and canceled them all. The thing is he was dying of cancer of the throat and could not travel and was on disability so all medicine was taken care of. the total was almost $300 a month. Watch the small stuff, it adds up.
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42 Posted by jfcorrigan@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:34PM EDT Report Abuse
Don't worry! Be Happy! As they used to say. DO NOT pay anybody, including credit cards, if you do not owe $$$. There is nothing they can do about it. NOTHING. Credit card firms are not your "friends." No matter what advertising nonsense you read. They are in it for the $$$. Banks & credit card firms are NOT your buddies! Deal with it. Pay what you owe. No more. Banks & credit card firms regularly employ "20" something boys to "harrass" people. Most of them still live with their mommies. My advice to to them: Grow up and get a real job! And, when you deal with others, use your real name, not some "nonsense" name you have invented.
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43 Posted by bigvinnierose@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:07PM EDT Report Abuse
About 6 months ago I was online and I got a e-mail stating my paypal account had been billed. By the time I contacted Paypal after being on hold for 19 minutes on the phone, they had charged 8 times totaling over $300.00. I watched the emails keep coming in while I was on hold. Paypal ask me "are you sure you did not let anyone use your card?" If coarse I did not. I was on bedrest because of high blood pressure and I was only days away from having my baby. I had not used my paypal account in 3 months. The only way they could have got it was hacking the paypal system(my thought). I don't fall for those fake e-mails. Well it took them a month to credit me back the money. I will NEVER USE PAYPAL AGAIN!
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44 Posted by hey3539@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:18PM EDT Report Abuse
We have had a problem with AT&T allowing third party billing on our phone bill. Some company called ILD for the second time is billing us for service that supposedly someone signed up for on our computer. My husband and myself have never signed up for anything, but our 12 year old granddaughter uses our computer and possibly clicked a pop up of some sort and then we are signed up. AT&T is now sending us a form to fill out so we won't be slammed anymore. This will supposedly stop the third party billing on our phone bill. Had no idea that third party billing was even allowed on our phone bill until recently. Hope this can help someone out there.
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45 Posted by dyann92064 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:50PM EDT Report Abuse
Very informative. I recently had charges on my AT&T phone bill two months in a row from an ILD billing service (Mybillingguys.com). AT&T refused to credit my account and would not allow me to have a third-party block on my telephone account. My telephone bill is not a credit card. I called Mybillingguys, and he said it would take two months for a credit to appear on my account. I'm still waiting. Refused to give me his street address, just a P.O. Box in Minnesota. These scam artists are making millions charging us $8-$9/mo. and the phone company said I have to go after them. What resources do I have to catch these guys? The information you provided gave me that resource. I tried calling the Public Utilities Company in California as referred by AT&T..no one would answer the phone.
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26 Posted by ann_h_snow@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:55PM EDT Report Abuse
This happened to me but it was on my telephone bill and apparently it was a monthly charge (14.95 I think) that was sent to the phone company as a bill and the phone company added it. I saw it immediately but it took 3 months to get the money returned and the "bill" off my phone bill. I notified ATT and sent info to my town selectwoman so that the town lawyers could look into it and save other people from this scam.