Back on December 3rd 2008, in a post entitled: Major Credit Card Hack Starting?, I provided information on Adele Services and phantom "small amount" (21-29 cents) charges that began appearing on credit card statements. (see below)
Dec 3, 2008 ... A company called Adele Services, based in Melville, N.Y., has been charging cards small amounts — 21 to 29 cents. Such charges are usually ...
pindebit.blogspot.com/2008/12/major-credit-card-hack-starting.html |
Last night PC World provided more information on Adele Services. It seems they stole about $10 million over four years. With the advent of card readers on vending machines, it's easy to lose track of small transaction purchases. Thats why, according to the article below, out of 1.35 million credit cards tapped into, only a little over 70,000 even noticed.
Robert McMillan –
Sun Jun 27, 8:30 pm ET The scam, which had been run for about four years, according to the
FTC, provides a case lesson in how many of the online services used to lubricate business in the 21st century can equally
be misused for fraud."It was a very patient scam," said Steve Wernikoff, a staff attorney with the FTC who is prosecuting the case. "The people who are behind this are very meticulous."
According to the FTC, the fraudsters charged 1.35 million credit cards a total of $9.5 million, but only 78,724 of these fake charges were ever noticed. Typically they floated just one charge per card number, billing on behalf of made-up business names such as Adele Services or Bartelca LLC.
