These days, with everything becoming increasingly paperless and automatic, chances are many more everyday transactions are falling through the cracks.
In fact, some businesses are keen to sign you up for automatic payments so you won’t scrutinize your bill each month.
After all, if you actually have to peruse your bill, there are decent odds you’ll find something not quite right, even if trivial.
And trivial is exactly what a new scam highlighted by the Better Business Bureau is all about.
[What to Do If You Lose Your Credit Card]
Do You See a Charge on Your Credit Card Statement for $9.84?
The latest credit card scam isn’t about using your stolen credit card at Walmart or at some gas station in a different state.
Instead, it’s about charging seemingly negligible amounts to your card in the hopes you won’t notice or care.
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) sent out a notice late last week warning of the new scam, calling on consumers to look out for strange charges from companies they don’t recognize.
Apparently the most common amount was “$9.84,” which I suppose is small enough to fly under the radar, but still large enough to net the offenders some serious cash if volume is strong enough.
Listed alongside the $9.84 charge are obscure sounding business names, such as EETsac.com, which sounds a bit rude if you say it out loud.
I visited the site and it’s just a bogus website with bogus text talking about customer service and how customers are so important to them. But there’s no discernible business information or obvious service offered.
There is an 855 area code phone number, which happens to be a non-geographical toll-free number. The domain name was created on January 15th, 2013 and last updated in December, per the publicly available WHOIS information. But it was registered privately. So again, very few clues to work with.
Anyway, if you find any weird charges, especially a $9.84 charge, the BBB recommends contacting your credit card issuer to report the charge(s) and request a new card.
They believe victims have had their credit card information compromised, and the potential for more bogus charges is high.
So that’s that. Go look at ALL your credit card statements. Heck, even if you weren’t a victim of this scam, you might find something else unusual or inaccurate.
It’s good practice to look at your credit card statements often to ensure there isn’t any suspicious or erroneous activity. Mistakes are a lot more common than you may think.
Read more: Living Without a Credit Card? Bad Idea: Here’s Why
(photo: Franco Folini)