Unknown charge on your card statement? A 5-step scam check

You're scanning your card statement and there it is: a charge you don't recognize. Your first thought is "have I been hacked?" But most mystery charges are not scams. They're usually one of three things: a subscription you forgot about, a purchase a family member made on your card, or the name of a payment processor instead of the actual store. Before you freeze your card, spend a few minutes working through the steps below — most charges are identified in under 30 minutes.

Step 1 — Search the exact charge name

Type the exact text from your statement into a search box. Names like APPLE.COM/BILL, GOOGLE *, PADDLE.NET or FS* are almost always a processor or app store — not the real merchant. Using this site's charge lookup on the home page tells you in one step whether it's an app store, a Merchant of Record, or a specific service, so you know where to look next.

Step 2 — Open your bank/card app and read the full details

Your bank or card app almost always shows more than the statement: the exact date, the merchant category, and sometimes a cleaner merchant name or a reference/authorization number. If the same amount hits on the same day every month, that's a strong sign it's a recurring subscription rather than a one-off.

Step 3 — Check your (and your family's) subscriptions

The single most common culprit is a subscription you set up and forgot, or an app/game a family member bought on your card. Apple and Google accounts in particular can bill a child's purchase to the family organizer's card via Family Sharing.

• iPhone: Settings > your name > Subscriptions, and search reportaproblem.apple.com by amount (Apple charges explained)
• Android: play.google.com/store/account/subscriptions to see active subscriptions (Google Play charges)
• PayPal: Settings > Payments > Automatic payments to see recurring merchants (PayPal charges)
• If you share an account or use Family Sharing, check the other members' purchases too

Step 4 — If it's a Merchant of Record, find the real product

If the name is Paddle, FastSpring, or Lemon Squeezy, that company didn't make what you bought — it just handled billing on behalf of the real software maker. The fastest way to identify it is your receipt email, or the provider's buyer portal. We cover this in detail in PayPal, Paddle & FastSpring explained.

Step 5 — If it's still not yours, freeze and dispute

If you've done steps 1–4 and it genuinely isn't your charge, now treat it as possible fraud. The order matters: (1) freeze or lock the card in your bank app and request a replacement, (2) file a dispute / chargeback for the specific transaction, and (3) keep any evidence (emails, screenshots) in case the bank asks.

1. Lock or freeze the affected card in your bank/card app, then request a new card
2. File an 'unauthorized transaction' dispute for that specific charge and keep records
3. If a real merchant billed you by mistake, contact them first — a direct refund is usually faster than a dispute

This guide describes a general checking process and does not decide whether any specific charge is a scam or legitimate. Whether a charge is truly unauthorized — and whether you're reimbursed — depends on your card issuer's terms and their investigation.