Mystery 25-cent charges on credit cards

Published on January 28th, 2009

Have you seen a suspicious charge for 25 cents on your credit card recently? If so, you’re not alone.

Credit card customers around the country now are reporting a mystery charge for a quarter from an entity called Adele Services in Melville, N.Y. A Boston Globe reporter has determined there is no such business registered in the state.

No one quite knows what is behind these 25-cent charges. The most-likely theory is that these nominal amounts are being run to see if a credit card is active. If the charge goes through, the criminals know they can later hit those cards for larger charges.

You’ve have to go through your credit card statement line item by line item. You must dispute any unrecognized charges — even if it is for 25 cents! The issue is not the 25 cents; it’s that a criminal may have your credit card number.

Could even be a computer-generated card-number scheme. A million times 25-cents is enough money to buy a Congressman.

12 users responded in " Mystery 25-cent charges on credit cards "

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# 1 bobbo said, on January 28th, 2009 at 9:07 am

25cents is not worth the contest. Cancel the card and get a new one.

# 2 Ultraslug said, on January 28th, 2009 at 9:57 am

This has a faint aroma of hoax about it. First, credit card merchant fees would consume most, if not all, of this tiny amount. The transaction fee alone is in the 20-25 cent range, then there’s at least 2% on top of that. These fees can be somewhat lower if the merchant has a good history (i.e. few disputes) or if the card was swiped.

Second, the notion that it’s a probe doesn’t make sense if you know the process of charging a credit card. There are two parts: authorization, then settlement. The authorization step is all that’s needed to see if card is valid. If approved, this step does merely reduces the amount of available credit on the account. The settlement step is what actually transfers the funds. If the settlement never takes place (the authorization expires in 30 days, I believe), nothing will appear on the customer statement.

# 3 Paddy-O said, on January 28th, 2009 at 10:00 am

Crap! Umm, ignore those charges. At least until I can transfer the $ from the receiving account…

# 4 chuck said, on January 28th, 2009 at 12:41 pm

Everyone should cancel and replace their debit and credit cards at least once every 2 years. And change your PIN twice a year.

# 5 deowll said, on January 28th, 2009 at 12:45 pm

It might just be that somebody has found a way to steal a fortune without being bothered by the law or anybody else.

# 6 sargasso said, on January 28th, 2009 at 12:50 pm

Must be a class-action law firm wanting a big chunk of a credit card company, out there?

# 7 Micromike said, on January 28th, 2009 at 12:53 pm

This happened to my wife. A company charged $3.25 to her debit card and Wells Fargo immediately canceled the card and we had to ask to have another issued. As mentioned above, soon as the little charge gets paid they know they have a fish on the line so they set the hook and empty your account. Ours was an outfit Wells Fargo already had listed as an ID theft ring so I guess we got lucky.

# 8 Stephanie said, on January 28th, 2009 at 12:57 pm

Sounds like someone was watching Office Space! They went for a whole 25 cents though rather than a fraction of a penny!!!

# 9 BubbaRay said, on January 28th, 2009 at 8:08 pm

Could even be a computer-generated card-number scheme. A million times 25-cents is enough money to buy a Congressman.

Well, perhaps a 1st term junior Congressman who is not active on any committees.

# 10 amodedoma said, on January 28th, 2009 at 11:08 pm

Hey didn’t they do this in a superman movie? It’s not like it isn’t bad enough the interest and service charges, you got to watch em like a hawk or somebody’s gonna rip you off. How is this better than cash?

# 11 Marmot said, on January 29th, 2009 at 6:58 am

Ultraslug,

I doubt any of these fraudsters would attempt to authorize the cards directly — they would need a suitable merchant bank account to perform that authorization. I imagine that’s tough to set up anonymously.

If a card gets flagged as stolen, you can be sure the issuing bank will take a close look at that card’s recent activity (including authorizations). If hundreds of cards get stolen shortly after being authorized by you, the bank will catch on quickly.

# 12 Henrik said, on February 9th, 2009 at 3:14 pm

This has happened to me with a Swedish MasterCard. I’m leaning towards a random number generator, but I may have lost my number out there somewhere.

Mine was on the 4:th of february. Someone is slow to shut these clowns down. Or it’s a copy-cat. I’m going to find out if it’s the same Company.

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