Scores of consumers may have been affected by a large international credit card scam that garnered over $10 million for the thieves, according to CBS. Over a million card holders were hit by charges of $10 or less imposed by fake companies.

The ruse may have been going on for four years, according to the Federal Trade Commision, which broke up the ring. The phony corporations were set up in the United States, but the criminals used money mules to move the money overseas to Central Asia and Eastern European bank accounts, according to BankInfoSecurity.com.

The fraud.ulent companies used monikers that resembled real industries and opened more than 100 merchant accounts with organizations that process consumer information. They may have even run credit checks on the consumers to make sure the credit cards were legitimate.

This is the latest case in an unsettling series of credit card scams and incidents of identity theft. According to Javelin Research and Strategy, in 2008, the total number of such cases in the U.S. reached 9 million. Some of the thieves likely stole information from online shoppers who failed to protect their sensitive data via a secure payment service.