Forums, chat room and blogs are recently overflowing with complaints from credit card users from across America. Those customers who are complaining are talking about a mysterious $0.25 cent charge on their credit card statements.
These 25 cents have been charged by Adele Services, Melville, N.Y. A simple search on internet reveals that there is no such company in Melville. even more surprising is that no business by this name was ever registered in state of New York.
People are presenting many theories for explanation of such absurd charges. One is, that it is quite possible that some one got his hands on a large database of credit card numbers and customer information. they are trying to verify the credit card authenticity before ringing up bigger charges on these cards.
Second one is more like a movie story. It suggests that computer systems at clearing banks have been infected with some Trojan horse code and It is ripping 25 cents from each of the billion credit card account. and the money is being transferred to some unknown swiss account via thousands of automated bank transactions.
The second theory, how absurd it may be, seems to be very popular among consumer protection groups and people at large. .
The Better Business Bureau in Louisville reports that,
at least so far, those who have been hit with the small charge have yet to get slammed with a bigger charge. The bureau speculates that the number of possible victims could be in the millions.
The number of people affected by this is not clear as there has been no official explanation about this by VISA or MasterCard. Neither did any bank issued any statement or warning to its customers. Still it is estimated by consumer groups that this is most likely a result of data theft or someone using a computer to ring these charges.
ConsumerWorld.org, said
“It’s easier to steal $1 from a million people than $1 million from one person,” Most people are likely to overlook or ignore the small charge. “Isn’t that the perfect scam, when the victim doesn’t even know something has been taken?”
Please take a detailed look at your recent credit card statements, and if you find any such charge, don’t let it go. call up your bank and dispute it. Filing a dispute with your credit card company and lodging a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov) and the Internet Crime Complaint Center (www.ic3.gov) is very important. Internet crime complaint center is run by the FBI, the National White Collar Crime Center, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance.
Federal law enforcement officials tend to react swiftly when the complaints exceed a certain volume. so check your statements and ask your friends , family and co-workers to check their. It is very important. Be Safe and have a nice day.
The authorities better look into this and come up with a good explanation
Amy, the authorities better look into this or what? Just admit that if no one investigates the earth will keep spinning, companies will still look for ways to nickel and dime you for their own profit and that your outrage is pretty meaningless in the big scheme of things.
Good day.
New York’s top notch attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, will certainly take a look at this problem.
But, as you say, it is something that most will consider petty, an insignificant expense easy to ignore.
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Dear Matt,
Indeed it is something that most will consider petty and insignificant. Its an expense, easy to ignore.
This is the reason why it is very dangerous. some one could be checking out the credit card balances before going all out on a spending spree!
What will happen if one fine monday people found 1000 of dollars drawn out of ATM’s using these card data???
I had my card hacked a while back and there were a few charges that were all between $0.37 and $1.21. It’s very easy for someone to miss these charges, or in all actuality, not even care if they don’t continue to show up. Unfortunately, a lot of people think that the time it takes to clear up these petty charges isn’t worth their time.
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