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You see a small charge on your credit card you don’t recognize.

What do you do?

Small charges you don’t recognize can be a sign of a bigger problem. The New York Times takes a look at a lawsuit filed in March by the Federal Trade Commission, which claims that during the past four years, scammers raked in more than $10 million by putting small bogus charges – ranging from twenty cents to $9 – on consumers’ credit and debit cards. And in a scheme that apparently has dragged out for more than a year, scammers have made fake $1 purchases on iTunes customers' accounts, only to follow up with increasingly larger ones, sometimes totaling hundreds of dollars.

An unknown charge could mean your account was compromised. Or it could just be that you don’t recognize the name of the company billing you for a purchase you made. After all, merchants have a limited number of characters with which to describe their products and services on statements, and those descriptions can be cryptic.

So what should you do when you find an odd charge on your credit or debit card statement? Here’s how I would handle it:

1.    Call the merchant to find out whether the charge is for an item you actually purchased. If the phone call doesn’t clear it up,

2.    Call your credit card company and file a dispute.

3.    If you believe your card number has been compromised – especially in the case of a debit card – cancel the card and ask for a replacement with a new number.

Remember, under the federal Fair Credit Billing Act, the most you can be held liable for is $50 in unauthorized purchases, and that's only if the card was physically presented in the transaction. Most card companies won't even hold you responsible for that if you notified them of the fraud promptly.

However, you have to read your statements to identify fraudulent charges – especially the small ones that are easy to overlook.

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