Experian CIC TRIPLE ADVANTAGE freecreditreport.com un-authorized charge Internet

A few months ago I signed up to recieve my "FREE" credit report on freecreditreport.com. Today I look at my bank statement and notice a charge that says "CIC TRIPLE ADVANTAGE 877 4816825 CA". It was a charge I was not aware of, so I googled the bank charge, and came up with page, after page, after page of people claiming they had been scammed by this webiste, and were being charged without their knowledge.

I am a person who is VERY cautious both with my money, and using my credit card online. I was even somewhat unsure about entering my credit card information when prompted to do so, but the notice said that my card "would not be billed", and I didn't think a well-known, and reputable company like Experian would attempt to scam people out of their money.

After reading some of the complaints that came up in my google search, I noticed they've already been reported once for this, and apparently made some changes to the site. Now I don't know if this was before or after I signed up, but after revisiting the site, the ONLY place I see anything about a $12.95 charge is on the first page of the site written in light blue on a dark blue background. Makes it kinda hard to see, wouldn't you think. I don't recall if this was displayed when I signed up, but had I noticed/seen it, I most certainly would not have used their service.

Whether legit or not, this is still in all sense of the word a scam. It's an attempt to lure people to their site with the promise of a completely free, no hassle credit report, and then try to hide the fact that if you don't cancel within 30 days you will start to get billed monthly. I can only imagine the 1000's of dollars they recieved from people who were completely unaware that they were being charged.

Paul
Oak Creek, Wisconsin
U.S.A.