By Kurt Knutsson, CyberGuy Report, Fox News | A $4 charge is easy to ignore. It might appear as a parking fee, a small purchase or a vague merchant name that doesn’t raise any red flags. Consumer protection groups and law enforcement say scammers are counting on that.
Recent warnings describe a pattern sometimes called “ghost tapping,” where small, unfamiliar charges show up on contactless payment cards without a clear point of purchase. The amounts are easy to miss, but they can signal unauthorized access to your payment method rather than a simple billing error.
Better Business Bureau (BBB) warnings use the term “ghost tapping” to describe these incidents in consumer alerts. In simple terms, it means a payment can be triggered without you actively making a purchase.
One reported method involves compromised payment terminals that quietly process low-value contactless charges. Another involves unauthorized NFC readers operating at close range, sometimes in crowded places. In these cases, a card or mobile wallet can be charged within inches.
Because these transactions run through standard contactless payment networks, they appear as normal card-present purchases. There is usually no clear sign on your statement that anything was wrong.
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Read more about how this scam happens and how easily you might fall for it:
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/markets/currencies/articles/why-4-charge-statement-could-184613260.html
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