A reader named Megan noticed an unfamiliar charge for $9.87 from prophotosland.com on her WaMu credit card statement, so she began to investigate it. Not only had she never heard of it, but there was no website that domain, and a Google search turns up hit after hit of scam and fraud reports at various websites. It seems to be but one of numerous fronts charging fraudulent $9.87 fees to credit cards. Read Megan’s story below and be sure to check out this page for a list of other bogus companies to watch out for.

I just noticed a charge for $9.87 on my WAMU VISA card from someone called prophotosland.com. I had no idea who or what that was, so did a quick google search hoping to jog my memory. What I found was quite a few websites complaining about the same mystery $9.87 charge from the same company and talking about how they couldn’t manage to speak with any live person at said company.
 
So I skipped right to calling WAMU to report this fraudulent charge. The person I spoke to expressed no concern at my story and promised to send me a charge dispute form in the mail. I asked her if I should worry about the fact that this is clearly not an honest mistake and she said it was nothing to worry about unless they charge my account multiple times. I asked her what about the phenomenon of multiple people having the exact same fraudulent charge on their accounts and she said WAMU could do nothing about it.
 
I find it a bit ridiculous that I have to sit around waiting for her to put this form in the mail to me (as opposed to having something built into their website) and that I have to go to the trouble of “disputing” the charges from a documented fraudulent company. I don’t expect to have any problem with the dispute, but it’s still a bit irritating.
 
Anyway, you might want to warn your readers to look out for this $9.87 charge… it’s small enough that I imagine people who use their cards often won’t really notice the difference unless they’re paying attention.
 
Thanks!
Megan

If you’re a victim of this $9.87 scam, file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.
 
“The Face of Credit Card Fraud – And What You Can Do” [CA Security Advisor Research Blog]
www.ic3.gov FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center
(Photo: Getty)

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