Several small fraudulent cc charges

[splitwdw]

Never had this happen before, had 3 charges on my AMEX card all under $2 for company's that I've never used. Uber was one of the charges. I check my credit cards every week because you can only set alerts for as low as $10 on this cc. The charges happened a couple of days ago so I'm surprised there weren't larger charges in the days that followed. What's the point of numerous small charges?
I was surprised that I could get this resolved (and fast) using the "chat" feature on their web site.

 

[Ready]

I had the same problem. Someone is testing your card to see if it's valid with small purchases before using it to run some much larger purchases. You need to cancel the card and get it replaced.

 

[Rianne]

We also had that happen, several times. Years ago, a couple of small charges then "bam" international plane tickets for two. CC companies are onto this scheme, but contact them quickly.You are not responsible for those charges. We've had to cancel three credit cards. That's why I prefer CC to debit cards.

 

[Choices]

Your cc company should have explained that this is a test by fraudsters in preparation for a really big charge. Cancel the card and ask for replacement.

 

[JoeWras]

Wow, sounds clever that they are under the notification limit. You really need to call AMEX immediately.

My cards allow notifications for any amount > than $0.01, and I use it.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Yep, they're doing some test runs on your credit card using smaller amounts. The fraudsters probably got your card number and information months ago and wait till Christmas time to use it, figuring their fake transactions will get lost among all the other purchases made during the holidays.

 

[Chuckanut]

I had the same problem. Someone is testing your card to see if it's valid with small purchases before using it to run some much larger purchases. You need to cancel the card and get it replaced.

+1

If you fail the test, the big charges won't be far behind.

Or, sometimes they will put a small recurring charge on the card month after month after month after month....... It is paid to a fake business the crooks own. 10,000 people paying $4 a month to a fake business is not a bad income.

 

[MRG]

I had the same problem. Someone is testing your card to see if it's valid with small purchases before using it to run some much larger purchases. You need to cancel the card and get it replaced.

+1

Last time that happened the CC fraud department noticed me, cancelled my card a sent out a new one.

 

[gauss]

Open a ticket with the "disputes" department for this "billing error".

In all likelihood, they will close and reissue new cards as part of their response (as well as credit your account back).

-gauss

 

[splitwdw]

I had the same problem. Someone is testing your card to see if it's valid with small purchases before using it to run some much larger purchases. You need to cancel the card and get it replaced.

Was surprised that larger charges hadn't hit my account because it happened several days before I found it.

Your cc company should have explained that this is a test by fraudsters in preparation for a really big charge. Cancel the card and ask for replacement.

I used the chat feature and they and I didn't "chat" much just the basics. I went from chatting with a customer service rep, then to a supervisor who moved the "chat" to the Fraud Dept. In just a couple of sentences, my new card is being sent out.

Wow, sounds clever that they are under the notification limit. You really need to call AMEX immediately.

My cards allow notifications for any amount > than $0.01, and I use it.

My other cards allow for an alert text to be sent for any purchase.

Yep, they're doing some test runs on your credit card using smaller amounts. The fraudsters probably got your card number and information months ago and wait till Christmas time to use it, figuring their fake transactions will get lost among all the other purchases made during the holidays.

I use this card mainly for my recurring gym charge. Rarely use it for purchases, so wondering how they got it. You are right that it could have happened months ago and just using now for the busy season.

+1

If you fail the test, the big charges won't be far behind.

Or, sometimes they will put a small recurring charge on the card month after month after month after month....... It is paid to a fake front business they crooks own. 10,000 people paying $4 a month to a fake business is not a bad income.

Never heard about the recurring charge. Thanks for posting this, I'll pass it to my friends.

Open a ticket with the "disputes" department for this "billing error".

In all likelihood, they will close and reissue new cards as part of their response (as well as credit your account back).

-gauss

You are right, I'm getting a new card. I still can't get over the fact that I could do it using the "chat" feature. Love that you don't have to hang on the phone punching numbers and being transferred.

Thanks for all the ideas and replies.

 

[Octogirl]

One of my CC (my primary VISA) emails me for ANY transaction where card is not present. AMEX has called me when an unusual charge (Gaming) appeared. I set my limits tight bec. I would rather read and delete than be surprised.

 

[splitwdw]

Octogirl, To me the 3 small charges (below $2) all on the same day should have been an alert to AMEX. I have my alerts set to AMEX bottom limit which is $10 unfortunately this didn't set off any alerts. I'm just glad that I caught it. I think it was someone on this forum, ERD50 or Audrey maybe, that had said you should check your credit cards once a week. So I made it part of my weekly routine.
I had a pending Amazon charge along with the 3 fraud charges and AMEX said the Amazon charge would go through. I also told them that there would be another charge coming through from Amazon and AMEX said that wouldn't be a problem either. Got a text about a half hour ago from Amazon "payment declined". So glad I have more than one card registered with Amazon so it was easy to switch. Now I have to go back and "chat" with AMEX again because the Amazon charge is still showing pending. Don't want to pay Amazon twice with two different cards. Isn't holiday shopping fun!!

 

[JoeWras]

Why did this happen? Who knows. There are so many leaky databases out there. Don't blame yourself.

I've been hit 3 times. 2 of the three were caught by the fraud department. The last one was weird. A $20-odd charge to a parking lot near an airport. I saw it on my next bill, about 25 days later. Really surprised I wasn't hit harder.


I foolishly ignored the email notification for the charge because I thought it was for something else and got confused.

 

[audreyh1]

We get emails or texts for any no card present charges.

 

[splitwdw]

We get emails or texts for any no card present charges.

I just realized that I had not received a text for card not present. I checked my account and I have that checked off in my alerts so I don't know why I didn't receive a text.

 

[Donno]

I had this happen once. I noticed on my account that I had three very small charges to places I'd never heard of and then bang $250 here $500 there. I called the credit card company and told them what I had observed and asked if I needed to cancel the card and get a new one. They told me it had already been canceled.

That was a few years ago and now I use 2 party authentication (or 2nd party) which sends me a text message anytime my account is used on an unknown computer. Makes me feel better and is painless.

 

[Jerry1]

I just realized that I had not received a text for card not present. I checked my account and I have that checked off in my alerts so I don't know why I didn't receive a text.

I think they make a fake card or somehow get around that. I had a fraudulent charge in a city that I clearly wasn’t and it said the card was present.

 

[Bamaman]

We have a daughter that is somewhat "wayward" and has chosen not to live a traditional life. A number of times, she's got hold of my wife's credit card and/or ATM card numbers and made some unauthorized charges--mostly minor items.

But this past Summer, two months we received charges that were for penal system charges--putting money on inmates' accounts at our local jail for use in the commissary and their phone accounts. Needless to say we had them charged back and cancelled my wife's cards.

Today, two policemen knocked on our door looking for my daughter with a warrant for credit card fraud. I assume Wells Fargo got tired of her illegal activities and they took legal action. My wife and I refuse to bail her out, and she better learn to like the awful food in lockup. We're enablers no more.

 

[Ready]

We have a daughter that is somewhat "wayward" and has chosen not to live a traditional life. A number of times, she's got hold of my wife's credit card and/or ATM card numbers and made some unauthorized charges--mostly minor items.

But this past Summer, two months we received charges that were for penal system charges--putting money on inmates' accounts at our local jail for use in the commissary and their phone accounts. Needless to say we had them charged back and cancelled my wife's cards.

Today, two policemen knocked on our door looking for my daughter with a warrant for credit card fraud. I assume Wells Fargo got tired of her illegal activities and they took legal action. My wife and I refuse to bail her out, and she better learn to like the awful food in lockup. We're enablers no more.

Wow. Sorry to hear about that. I hope she gets herself together before things get worse.

 

[Alan]

In 2012 while traveling I noticed 3 charges under $10 from Amazon and after checking our Amazon account called the CC company to dispute them. They told me that since I had an Amazon account I needed to call them even though I could not see any charges. Once through to the Amazon fraud person they confirmed that a new account had been created with my card and I was asked if I knew anyone called “Jane”. I was told that it was fairly common for folks to give their CC details to friends and relatives to create accounts and charge to the card. I was shocked that Amazon allow this without even notifying the card holder that a new account had been created.

Amazon send me an email confirming what had happened which I passed onto my CC company as I canceled the card without paying those 3 charges.

 

[DEC-1982]

Never had this happen before, had 3 charges on my AMEX card all under $2 for company's that I've never used. Uber was one of the charges. I check my credit cards every week because you can only set alerts for as low as $10 on this cc. The charges happened a couple of days ago so I'm surprised there weren't larger charges in the days that followed. What's the point of numerous small charges?
I was surprised that I could get this resolved (and fast) using the "chat" feature on their web site.

I check my credit card every day. Anything unexplained, and I call the company immediately.

 

[Spock]

In 2012 while traveling I noticed 3 charges under $10 from Amazon and after checking our Amazon account called the CC company to dispute them. They told me that since I had an Amazon account I needed to call them even though I could not see any charges. Once through to the Amazon fraud person they confirmed that a new account had been created with my card and I was asked if I knew anyone called “Jane”. I was told that it was fairly common for folks to give their CC details to friends and relatives to create accounts and charge to the card. I was shocked that Amazon allow this without even notifying the card holder that a new account had been created.

Amazon send me an email confirming what had happened which I passed onto my CC company as I canceled the card without paying those 3 charges.

Amazon intentionally makes it difficult, but I've started the practice of deleting my CC out of Amazon after every purchase.
Dunno where in the maze of Amazon DB's crooks are getting the info, but it won't be from my current account record.

 

[Spock]

Another monitoring method is using tools like Mint to quick scan all CC's and banks new transactions daily.


I haven't played with things like Discover's lock/unlock the card between uses... dunno how real-time they are.

 

[JoeWras]

We got hit by I believe the Chipotle issue last year. Thieves put a virus in their card readers that sent info back to a server.

3 weeks after we used our card there, our card *was* presented, so it must have been cloned. It was presented to a kiosk kind of shop where high value fence-able items were bought. I suspect that kiosk did not have a chip reader. This was a chip card, but the chip doesn't matter if they still use the stripe.

Get this... The charge never made it through! We got an immediate call to say this happened and it was declined. The agent asked us if we were buying booze, cigarettes and gift cards down in the next state... Uh, no, not us! So kudos to the credit card company's algorithm on this one.

 

[MarieIG]

Glad you got this taken care of.

Several years ago I received a call from my CC at 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday. They caught two of those tiny charges which they flagged as fraudulent, confirmed with me, and overnighted me a new card.

On other occasions, a new vendor has put through a test charge which I called about, and they explained that this was most likely not a fraud and would disappear. This proved to be correct.