Not going to lie guys, this one is a doozie. Apparently, there were these scammers that were charging small one time transactions to people’s accounts. This is where it gets good. The charges were routed through “dummy” corporations here in the US to banks in Asia and Europe. The FTC just recently got a federal court to halted the online scam, which (you guessed it) used identity theft to place more than $10 million in bogus charges on consumers’ credit and debit cards.
The alleged scammers were using fake company names similar to real names and information taken from identity theft victims in the United States. They opened over 100 “merchant” accounts with companies who process charges to consumers’ credit and debit card accounts. The FTC believes these defendants actually ran credit checks on their prospective victims prior to scamming; to be sure they were creditworthy.
The majority of consumers didn’t notice the charges on their bills or didn’t seek reimbursement because of the size of the amounts, which ranged from 20 cents to $10. People that called the phone numbers appearing on their statements found them disconnected or heard recorded messages instructing them to leave a message, but no calls were returned.
Check you statements every month. If you or your wife can’t identify the charge, CALL THE BANK OR CREDIT CARD COMPANY! Stay on top of your credit too.
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