I don't remember the exact details but there was a story making rounds about a company that sent out $25 average-looking invoices to large and very large companies, with each invoice saying "Invoice for nothing". Most companies didn't pay, and still these fellas made a LOT of money on those few that did. The best part was that the scheme was 100% legal.
Would anybody here take the time to dispute a $0.25 charge? I wouldn't...<p>This also reminds me of something that I have wanted from credit card companies for a very <i>very</i> long time...imagine if there was a protocol for the CC companies to accept a record of not only the amount, but also the transaction that you made? Basically the CC machine sends a copy of the receipt to the card processor...<p>Carrying around paper receipts in my wallet for doing expense reports is a massive pain in the ass.
It is sort of like spam and/or snail mail solicitations. It's so "inexpensive" for people (victims) to ignore that it becomes a simple exercise in basic profit equations for the sender.
More reasons why banks / credit cards should be issuing restricted-value, one-time-use card numbers for purchases. Or at least the <i>option</i> to do so. Easier to control and revoke, and easier to identify fraud like this (a number 4 years out of date? * flags go up <i></i> * ).
Before I clicked through I thought this article was about how banks charge a fee for every electronic debit card transaction that they process. Then I realized most banks in Canada charge $0.50 at a time.
Site is down, anyone have a copy? It seems to refer to this article, though:<p><a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9178560/FTC_says_scammers_stole_millions_using_virtual_companies?taxonomyId=17" rel="nofollow">http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9178560/FTC_says_scam...</a>
Capital One once put a hold on my CC for a $0.63 charge from Amazon (my S3) bill. I thought it was very strange especially since they never acted on my $0.19 changes for S3 the 6 six months prior.
Apparently Verizon Wireless does the same thing. I heard they charge randomly users (claiming that you click on the Internet icon and got connected) and this ends up being in the hundreds of millions of dollars. I have no evidence of this, but I tend to believe it.