I placed one ad that was supposedly FREE, and mysteriously overnight I have been charged $1 to my bank account. What gives, is this a sly sneaky way to scam money from any member who post's an ad for free?

I am sorry you are having issues with your finances, but I suspect you have identified RCUniverse as the cause incorrectly. Not only have we not charged you for the listing of this ad, you have not posted your credit/debit card to your RCU account. Your account is configured for payment via Paypal only.

You can verify this by going to the Accounting tab in the My Market area of the marketplace.