A gang of unknown thieves has stolen nearly $10 million in micro-charges made to more than a million credit and debit cards in an elaborate years-long scam, according to a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission in March.

Have any of these company names appeared on your bank card statement? The FTC says they were front companies used by scammers to make more than $10 million in charges to consumer credit and debit card accounts. (FTC v. API Trade, LLC)

The fraudulent charges went unnoticed by the majority of card owners because they were made in small amounts — ranging from 20 cents to $10 — that bypassed fraud detection algorithms, and because the scammers typically made only one fraudulent charge per card.

The sophisticated scam, which was first reported by IDG News Service, began in 2006 and was stifled only recently after the FTC succeeded to shut down merchant accounts the scammers were using and halt the activities of at least 14 money mules who were laundering illegal proceeds for the gang.

According to court documents filed (.pdf) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the scammers — identified only as “John Does” in the complaint — recruited money mules through a spam campaign that sought to hire a U.S.-based financial manager for an international financial services company.

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