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04 May 10 - 02:52 PM (#2899974) Subject: BS: Better than the Nigerians (?) From: JohnInKansas The Red Tape Chronicles (usually a trustable source) reports: NOTORIOUS CREDIT CARD TACTIC BANNED Posted: Tuesday, May 4 2010 at 06:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan Shopping online became a little safer this weekend when Visa banned a long-standing practice that Sen. Jay Rockefeller had blasted as "deceptive," saying it triggered $1.4 billion in unauthorized charges on 30 million Americans' credit card bills. The tale provides a good reminder of the importance of scouring your credit card bills every month. Millions of consumers ended up paying monthly charges for useless travel clubs and similar services after shopping at popular Web sites like 1-800-Flowers.com, Buy.com, Classmates.com and around 450 other sites, staffers for Rockefeller, D-W. Va., concluded in a report issued last year. Consumers who shopped at the sites were enticed to click on an advertisement that offered free shipping or a discount. In many cases, merely clicking on the link to find more information led to enrollment in a monthly service – even though there was not so much as a sign-up page or a place to enter a credit card number. Many consumers were surprised to find that their credit card numbers had been furnished to the third-party site without their permission -- a tactic called "data pass." [end quote] At the link, a "sample" clickie is shown that says "Your purchase is complete. Click here to claim up to $10 back on this purchase." If you clicked (in the real world) you were automatically enrolled in a "plan" using the same credit card number used for the original purchase without additional indication that you had "subscribed" to another "purchase", without being asked to re-enter a credit card number or otherwise authorize anything, and without any option to cancel the "enrollment." Note that while Visa has issued a new "policy" to prohibit use of this method by sellers accepting their card, other credit cards are free to continue to permit it. Vague mumblings by a couple of other Cards are reported; and it's uncertain whether Visa really can effectively prevent it's use by all seller sites. A link to a PDF Senate report on the investigation of the scam is included in the article. The Senate report is 35 pages, but the link apparently is to a copy on the Red Tape Chronicles web site and did not respond to a "save" using either the button in the PDF or the browser button. You can print it, however (so I just printed-to-pdf the get it where I can read it all more conveniently). Legislation to legally ban this "method" has been proposed and should (IMO) be passed; but of course that's still only a faint possibility. John |
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04 May 10 - 08:11 PM (#2900194) Subject: RE: BS: Better than the Nigerians (?) From: Donuel Thanks for this post! Maybe it will be an ammendment with the bankster bill. |
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04 May 10 - 11:24 PM (#2900279) Subject: RE: BS: Better than the Nigerians (?) - Visa etc. From: JohnInKansas I probably should have thought of a better title, since the thoughtful people have apparently stopped reading Nigerian Scam posts. John |
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04 May 10 - 11:27 PM (#2900280) Subject: RE: BS: Better than the Nigerians (?) From: Ebbie Ask katlaughing for instance, to change the title,John. I agree that this title lacks clarity. |
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05 May 10 - 12:05 AM (#2900299) Subject: RE: BS: Better than the Nigerians (?) From: LadyJean I was not aware of this slimey scheme. Thank you for telling me. I'd suggest renaming this thread Slimey Scheme. |
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05 May 10 - 01:40 AM (#2900326) Subject: RE: BS: Better than the Nigerians (?) From: Gurney Time-Life and Readers Digest will irritate with something similar. If you buy from them with a credit card, they will keep sending you CDs or books that they 'think you will like,' and charging them to your account, entirely without order. It also takes time to stop them, because they claim forward operations, and expense to send their unwanted goods back. Nothing wrong with the goods, but I didn't want them. Never let them get your credit card #! They have difficulty taking NO for an answer, I had to get quite abusive. They still spam me, sometimes. |
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05 May 10 - 02:27 AM (#2900344) Subject: RE: BS: Better than the Nigerians (?) From: mousethief I thought this thread was going to be about long-distance runners. Or is that Kenyans? |
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05 May 10 - 03:12 AM (#2900363) Subject: RE: BS: Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned From: Joe Offer John, how about Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned. I was about to link it with the Nigerian Scam threads, but it doesn't fit with that. If you come up with a title you'd like more, lemme know. -Joe- |
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05 May 10 - 04:11 AM (#2900386) Subject: RE: BS: Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned From: JohnInKansas Good choice, Joe. Thanks. John |
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05 May 10 - 04:41 AM (#2900394) Subject: RE: BS: Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned From: Bonnie Shaljean Yes, good choice of title. Because of its clarity and importance to everyone, I looked into this thread, and appreciate its message, whereas I tend to skip over anything relating to general spam-scams. (Can't remember how many times I've now won the lottery, been given cash from Micro$oft even though I use a Mac, inherited fortunes, been offered fabulous sums for my teaching skills, etc etc etc...) |
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05 May 10 - 06:04 AM (#2900431) Subject: RE: BS: Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned From: romanyman a lot of so called book clubs here in the uk do the same thing, there are probably more scams than credit cards, as they say, buyer beware |
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05 May 10 - 09:09 AM (#2900516) Subject: RE: BS: Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned From: Jim Dixon It was absolutely a good idea to change the title of this thread. A good rule is to ask yourself: If this were a newspaper article, what would the headline be? |
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05 May 10 - 10:09 AM (#2900538) Subject: RE: BS: Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned From: McGrath of Harlow I can't see why it should be necessary to "ban" a practice that ought to be penalised already, as criminal conspiracy to defraud. |
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05 May 10 - 10:50 AM (#2900561) Subject: RE: BS: Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned From: Rapparee Why goodness gracious me, they ONLY have YOUR best interests at heart and they're trying to save you all the trouble of doing something you would OBVIOUSLY do anyway...pure altruism, that's what it is, just pure altruism. That fact they can make money wouldn't play into it at all now, would it? |
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05 May 10 - 11:57 AM (#2900615) Subject: RE: BS: Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned From: Wesley S I found out - the hard way - at Classmates.com that they had the right to automatically renew my membership every year and charge my credit card without my approval. It was buried in the fine print. I had only planned to be a member for one year due to a class reunion. But now I have another years membership at the cost of around 35.00 and there's nothing I can do since I "agreed" to it when I signed up. |
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05 May 10 - 12:27 PM (#2900642) Subject: RE: BS: Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned From: Greg F. I can't see why it should be necessary to "ban" a practice that ought to be penalised already... Get out the Ouija Board & check with Ron Reagan for an explanation- its all about "deregulation" and getting rid of "anti-business" statutes ... by the same friendly folks who brought you the world financial meltdown of recent memory. |
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05 May 10 - 01:08 PM (#2900665) Subject: RE: BS: Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned From: Uncle_DaveO Greg F. told us (Brought to you) "by the same friendly folks who brought you the world financial meltdown of recent memory." Actually, ". . .world financial meltdown of present experience." Dave Oesterreich |
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05 May 10 - 01:51 PM (#2900684) Subject: RE: BS: Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned From: Little Hawk I once received an expensive hardbound book (some kind of business directory or something) from some outfit that had the wonderful kindness to already bill it to my business and mail it to me without any prior authorization from me to do so. I had gotten a notice of a package in the mail, I went to pick it up, and there it was at the postal counter...with the bill already attached to the outside of the package. I remembered hearing about those people, they had phoned me awhile back, but I had never ordered their directory. In fact I'd told them that I didn't want it. I refused to take the package, instructed the postal clerk to write "return to sender" on it and return it, and I never heard from them again. As for those credit card tricks on those sites, they ought to be charged with fraud and fined severely. |
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05 May 10 - 02:30 PM (#2900707) Subject: RE: BS: Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned From: GUEST,PeterC Thank God for the UK Distance Selling Regulations. |
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05 May 10 - 03:59 PM (#2900775) Subject: RE: BS: Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned From: SINSULL The culprit here is not the credit card companies but the trusted sellers like 1-800-FLOWERS who participate and share their customers info without permission. Fandango also does it. SO boycott online purchases from any seller who participates and tell them you are. |
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05 May 10 - 04:05 PM (#2900782) Subject: RE: BS: Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned From: JohnInKansas US postal regulations are quite clear that you are NOT OBLIGATED to pay for or even to return "unordered merchandise." I've received lots fewer of them since that reg went into effect. If you didn't order it, it's yours, for free, and I've even stopped sending them a thank you. Including a fictitious "bill" has no effect (on me), although I might send the bill back with notation that the "merchandise" was not ordered, since my notice might be required if I need to contest a claim on a credit record. For an otherwise respectable source I might offer to return the item as soon as they sent me a "Return Merchandise Authorization" and a suitable shipping container with pre-paid postage. My experience has been that they almost never request the return. The problem with this scam is that they've found a way to charge your credit card before they inform you that they've "delivered" something, so you have the problem of getting the credit card charges removed. And it appears that in some cases you may not even be informed that you've "received" a "membership" unless you check your credit card statement. John |
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05 May 10 - 04:21 PM (#2900790) Subject: RE: BS: Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned From: SINSULL But they also have to pay a ChargeBack fe when you contact your card supplier to question the charge. They count on you not noticing the charge or not wanting to fight it. FIGHT! |
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05 May 10 - 06:50 PM (#2900901) Subject: RE: BS: Notorious Credit Card Tactic Banned From: Bonnie Shaljean > But now I have another years membership at the cost of around 35.00 and there's nothing I can do since I "agreed" to it when I signed up. Wesley, can't you instruct your credit card company not to pay this charge? Tell them you no longer want to belong to this outfit, that they allow you no means of cancelling your membership (is that legal?) and that you were misled by being given a false impression in the first place. Surely they won't pay something you've instructed them not to, especially as it's not even for concrete goods in your possession but only something abstract. The card company may have heard stories about this site already, from others who have been stiffed in the same way. Since when can a paid service not be cancelled? What, not ever?? Classmates'll cancel it soon enough if they get no payment. As Sins says, FIGHT! Complain. Air your grievances to your credit card company - I can't see them insisting on paying it and taking anybody else's word over yours. It's your card, and you are their customer, not Assmates. |