A couple of years ago there was a criminal ring based out of Los Angeles that put relatively small charges on credit cards of over 2 million consumers account. They stole hundreds of millions of dollars by the time they were caught. They got away with it for so long because they placed small charges under $10.00 per card each month. They did this month after month and very few people ever noticed the charges because they were so small.

Apparently another group of criminals has taken this idea and ran with it. Some credit card customers are now reporting that they are receiving mystery charges for $0.25 from a company called “Adele Services” based out of Melville, N.Y. A Boston Globe reported looked into the company and determined that there was no business with that name registered in the state of New York.

No one is really sure what these $0.25 charges are coming from. The prevailing theory is that criminals are using these small charges to determine if a credit card is active, so that later they can hit these credit cards for larger charges later. In the world of stolen credit cards, credit cards confirmed to be active sell for much more money than those that aren’t known to be working.

When these types of scams take place, typically only 7% of customers actually notice that the illegitimate charge took place. Many of us pay lip-services to the idea of keeping our checkbook balanced and keeping a close eye on our statements, but apparently none of us actually do it.

We need to keep a better eye on our statements and notice these things. It’s not because you might have lost $0.25 if an illegitimate charge was posted on your account, but rather that a criminal has enough of your personal information to successfully charge your credit card. If you find one of these bogus charges, call up your credit card company immediately, have the number cancelled and have them issue you a new card.