By now, you’ve learned to ignore unsolicited e-mail seemingly from PayPal, eBay or other financial site telling you your account needs to be updated. PLEASE tell me you ignore these phishing messages!

There’s something much more sinister to be wary of: My theory is a hacker got into a major credit card database and is charging small amounts to user cards under the guise that it’s a PayPal Skype charge.

I discovered this charge on my own credit card in early May. My credit-card company spotted it first and stopped all transactions. I canceled my card to be safe and didn’t think too much more about it.

Then last week, two of the official company credit cards, which are used by pretty much no one, had the same suspicious charges. Actually, six charges of $34.50 each. But on the same bill, there were six credits of $32.84. That’s a total discrepancy of $9.96. Not much to some, but if the perpetrator did this to, say, thousands and millions of people, this will add up nicely. The office manager didn’t even know what Skype was until I told her….

We’re apparently not the only ones affected. I spotted an eBay message board where people getting charges and charge backs from an account listed as “Skype/PayPal.” And most mentioned that they aren’t Skype or PayPal users. Some have never even heard of Skype or PayPal.

So, I did some sleuthing…

Companies whose computers have been hacked include T.J. Maxx/Marshall’s, DSW Shoe Warehouse and even the one hosting state legislators’ paycheck data. Perhaps the largest was back in June 2005. MasterCard said more than 40 million accounts had been breached.

Is the Skype/PayPal charges related? Possibly. I shop at all those stores and have a MasterCard. But I don’t ever remember getting notified about any breach, as a California law requires companies to do.

I spoke to reps from Skype and Paypal. Both said this is the first time they’ve heard about this. They’re still going to check their customer service and security teams to see if there’s been an uptick in calls.

Says Brianna Reynaud, with Skype, “Our customer support team has taken a look and it appears to be credit card fraud. We recommend you contact your credit card company directly and they should be able to help with fraud protection for unauthorized transactions.”

No kidding! So, please check your latest credit card statement or even recent statements. If you spot anything fishy, let me know so I’ll continue to be on the case.

Also, check out PayPal’s security page for tips on keeping your information private.

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