Credit Card Scam- What to look for on your statement

Man, scammers have all kinds of tricks up their sleeves. So here’s the latest thing to watch out for because it just happened to my mom this week!

Like myself, she is super diligent about looking over every statement that arrives each month. This time, it really paid off!

She opened up her credit card statement and noticed a small $3.00 charge from a “vendor” that she didn’t recognize. It’s $3.00. Not going to make or break your monthly budget, but it just seemed odd.

So Mom called the credit card company and said, “I know this seems silly but there is a charge for $3.00 on my statement and I was just wondering if you could see on your end where that was made because I don’t recognize the vendor name of the purchase.”

After a little digging, it turns out the vendor was a car wash in New York. The problem is:
1. My parents live in Ohio and haven’t traveled to New York in who knows how long.
2. I don’t know where you buy a car wash for $3.00 these days. Do you?

The credit card agent asked if maybe her or my Dad stopped off to even buy a roadside beverage out of a machine at this particular car wash. Could it be something that could have slipped their minds?

Again, they were not in New York at all to make any purchase in that particular billing cycle. Car wash, beverage, anything…

Now the red flags were on high alert. The credit card agent said this could very well be a phishing charge. What happens is the scammer will make small “fake” purchases to see if the charge goes through. If it does and it’s not immediately disputed, the next time is when they go in for the kill and you’ll likely see a mystery charge in the hundreds or thousands of dollars on your card.

So what can you do?

Check your statements. Don’t just blindly assume you made the charges on your bill, even if they’re small. Give each month’s statement a quick once over and if something seems odd (especially a small insignificant charge), give your credit card company a call. Use the secure number that you know is theirs on the back of the card and just make sure that charge was one you indeed made.

A quick phone call could save a lot more hassle down the line.

Sad that we all have to be on guard at all times but unfortunately you have to stay aware of everything. Hope that helps!

Want to tell Laura about a scam that you’ve recently seen? Email anytime: Laura.McKenna@civicmedia.us
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