A reader writes in that he noticed an unusual charge for $8.95 on his bank card recently. He looked up the number connected to the charge—866-305-8808—at the website 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 this Red Tape Chronicles post about how to protect your private data bits from retailers who don't know any better: by the terms o