Fraudulent credit card charges; wheee!

This morning I got an email from one of my credit card issuers, telling me my online statement was ready for viewing. I haven’t used that card in months, so I immediately checked it out. There was a $9.55 charge from an “RSI Partners” that I absolutely didn’t recognize. I called the company and, while I was holding, did a Google search for the company name. Several websites came up on which people had posted that the same charge had been applied to their cards without their permission. I found postings as far back as September of 2005, so these sleazebags have been at it a while. It looks like others are running similar scams in which they charge a small amount of money to a large number of credit cards in the hopes that most people won’t notice. Sadly, I’m sure it’s a pretty successful trick.

It took longer on the phone than I expected—I’ve only ever had to deal with this sort of thing with American Express, and then it was handled immediately. With this card, I had to verify tons of information and the customer service representative, while polite, was very slow. The whole issue will be forwarded to the fraud department within the company and should be resolved within 10 days. I’m also getting a new credit card. While it will be taken care of, I find it a little scary because I’ve always been careful with my credit card information.

During my lunch break just now, I sent a complaint to the Maryland Attorney General’s office and the Maryland Better Business Bureau. Hopefully this bunch will be shut down soon, but I’m sure they’re only one of many…