Its probably something you agreed to when you made an online purchase and took advantage of a special offer. In the terms and conditions of the Special offer - you agreed to a trial membership program or something - even if you never read the terms and conditions - taking the offer was your approval to charge the same debit or credit card you used for the orginal purchase
This article explains it all
Visa Tackles Scam Practices
(Wednesday, April 28, 2010)
Visa, one of the world's largest credit card companies, is taking aim at "scam" marketing practices that were quietly used by some of the Internet's largest retailers in recent years.
Retailers will no longer be able to allow third parties to charge a customer's card without the card owner re-entering credit card information, Visa said Tuesday. This is Visa's response to one of the biggest scandals to rock online retailing in years.
Last year, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation launched an investigation after learning that thousands of consumers had complained about receiving mysterious credit card charges.
The committee concluded that millions of consumers were misled into signing up for so-called loyalty programs with the help of companies such as as Classmates.com, Continental Airlines, Priceline, Orbitz, Buy.com, and many others. Lawmakers said during hearings that these merchants had made an unholy but profitable alliance with one or more of three so-called post-transaction marketing firms: Webloyalty, Affinion, and Vertrue.
Under most of the agreements between the marketing firms and retailers, an advertising page is presented to shoppers while they complete a transaction at the retailer's online store. Many shoppers say they entered their e-mail address and pushed a large "Yes" button on the ad because it appeared to be a $10 cash-back offer or coupon. Many of those who complained say they thought they were being rewarded by the retailer for making a purchase.
Buried in the fine print are the full terms of the deal. Customers are notified that by providing their e-mail address they are joining a membership program and agreeing to pay one of the marketing firms a monthly fee, typically between $10 and $20. Many people said they didn't see this notice.
Visa's new requirement is designed to send a "clear signal to cardholders that a second purchase is being initiated and protects them from questionable marketing practices," the company said.
With the government leaning on them, many of the merchants involved have severed ties with the post-transaction marketers, which have also taken steps to alter their business practices. They haven't gone far enough, however, critics have said.
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.
You are wrong about this. The amounts are all random (mine was 9.91) and it says it is from an electronics company. I recently made a purchase through Toys R Us and now wonder if there is a connection. There was another attempt to purchase something from a company in Nebraska on the same day. Fortunately only one of them went through.
just got a charge from these people over the weekend and on my bank statement it said DIR SHIP ELECTRONICS.CO some random number and then a phone number. didnt want to call it becuase i know i didnt make a purchase through them and thought maybe if i call its a scam to get me with long distance charges, but i did report it to my bank and cancelled that card. but what i dont understand is how are they still doing this with all these people reporting fruad charges. dont you think they would have shut them down my now?? man id love to find this place and burn it to the ground...
Same thing happened to me - it started with two charges I didn't recognize, one from a Dr I'd never heard of and this one from Dir Ship Electronics. The Dr's office charge disappeared, but this one did not. I tried the phone # and was dumped to voice mail (want to bet I never hear from them?) I'm calling my bank back now to have the charge removed. I'm certainly going to ask them to pursue it as a fraudulant purchase. How can these guys get away with this? And how did they get my bank card #?
this showed up on a retired credit card and by the time they sent me an overdue letter the
interest on the 9 . 51 cent was astranomical
i am still fighting this and getting collection calls