Police suspect that a card skimmer installed at a gas station in El Monte, CA is responsible for $10,000 in credit card fraud, says KNBC:

"It looks like the victims were gassing up here and using the outside pump terminals, and their credit card information was compromised," El Monte police Detective Brian Glick said.

Police don't believe it was an inside job but that the fraud artists picked the station in the 4300 block North Santa Anita Avenue because of its high customer volume.

Fraudulent withdrawals, ranging from $400 to $1,500 per customer, were made in Las Vegas, Palms Springs and New York, police said. Police didn't find the device, but think that 45 credit/debit accounts with transactions from the same gas station is, uh, a bit of a coincidence.

BusinessWeek says Amazon is buying a stake in "Bill Me Later" a firm that offers open lines of credit to customers so they can shop without using a credit card.

The deal should be final by the first quarter of 2008. Anyone used "Bill Me Later"?

Stores are violating their contract with the credit card companies if they set minimum or maximum charges, or force you to show ID in addition to your credit card (with the obvious exception being for age-limited purchases). Depending on your state and your card issuer, surcharges or "convenience fees" may be banned as well. The best way to straighten these guys out is to report them to the credit card company. Here's an interesting fact in You may be entitled to a cash prize if you had a Visa, MasterCard, or Diner's Club Cards during any time between February 1 1996 and November 8 2006. A successful class action lawsuit contended that credit card companies overcharged customers for foreign transactions and didn't disclose the fees well enough. You can apply for a straight $25 refund, 1% of estimated foreign transactions, or annual estimation refund of 1-3% of foreign transactions for which you have records . Claim your moneys by filling out forms that were mailed to you, going to ccfsettlement.com, or calling 1-800-945-9890. It is not is necessary to have actually conducted fore