I do not know if this is still used anywhere, but in the past there were places, e.g. hotels or car rental services, where the validity of a credit card was tested by a $1.00 transaction, before booking a room or renting a car.
In North America they typically charge a much bigger deposit for these with a hold unit after everything clears. This makes sense; it's more important that you have the credit than just a functioning CC, but doesn't really help with fraud.
