ADAPTIVE MARKETING Shopping Essentials Plus Unauthorized use of my credit card Omaha, Nebraska *EDitor's Suggestions on how to get your money back into your bank account that someone wrongfully takes it from you!

We first approached out bank (Citi) about the errant charges, but as previously mentioned by other contributors, the call center agent (in Bangalore) was useless except for providing us with a series of seemingly cryptic numbers associated with the transaction. One of the numbers appeared to be an 888 phone number, so while we were on the call with Citi we dialed it on another phone and put them on speaker.

Just to be clear - your call will always be answered by an automated voice answering system (called an IVR), that prompts you to select from a series of options. This is very commonplace with "big business" because it is there to help ensure that whomever you eventually talk with will have a clue about what you want to discuss.

In our experience, and it may differ for others, when we select the option regarding purchasing something (i.e. you spoof them by indicating that you want to give them your money) we will invariably get a human on the line. In this particular case it worked as expected, and someone answered right away.

The inside sales rep who got on the phone with us had a flowery voice, acting as though she was over-joyed to talk with us about how she could help make our lives easier by achieving discounts of between 20% and 60% with upwards of 600 vendors. My immediate response was calm, cool yet deadly serious when I said, "I'd like to know if you're the right person to speak with regarding these fraudulent charges on my credit card, before I pass along the information to our attorney".

Needless to say I was politely put on hold while being transferred to her supervisor. When the supervisor got on the line, I shushed whatever it was that he was trying to "share with me" by asking, and then insisting, on getting his full name and ID number. I took the time to write it down, and slowly repeated it back to him for emphasis, and in so doing gained control of our conversation. ** NOTE: This is a VERY important element when dealing with situations like this. YOU need to be the one driving !!

Funny how the "game" can be played against them, because I only needed to mention to my wife who was sitting beside me that "the attorney would need to add this name to the court records" and "this guy's information will be included in the complaint we're registering with the State's Attorney General" tomorrow. For effect she said, "Yes you're absolutely right, this guy (Mike) knows the whole scam" and then a few seconds later she said "Mr Ruskin answered my chat and told me to get the call center mailing address where Mike works. Can you ask Mike what his address is so we can forward him correspondence?" Of course Mike (the call center supervisor) could hear this (as designed). Parenthetically, our poor Citibank agent in Bangalore was probably in shock on her end as well.

And to throw a little fuel on the fire I then asked Mike "how did we get infected by your scam service?" I think at that point our position was fairly clear, and miraculously the conversation changed. He confirmed that VitaCost.com had automatically signed us up for the Savings Ace program in August when we had ordered some vitamins. He assured us that our account with him would be immediately closed and the charges from September and October on our credit card were going to be refunded. Of course I asked him "for the record" whether or not we should expect any further charges INCLUDING November, to which he confirmed that there would be no further charges whatsoever, etc etc etc. He actually apologized to the point where I almost started to feel sorry for the guy, until I remembered that it was he and his crew who had been trying to bilk my wife and I out of our money in the first place.

Bottom line here folks, at least from what we've experienced four times so far this year with situations like this, is that predatory practices are starting to become more "mainstream". Unfortunately most people still don't double-check their CC statements each month, so these seemingly minor amounts slip by until it's too late.

So to protect yourselves by ALWAYS checking the fine print on any on-line "offers" BEFORE you accept them because if something sounds like a really great deal (like the "claim your reward" discount coupon on future purchases) there will usually be a big hook lurking in the details somewhere that'll give them a "legal way" to start charging your CC without you being fully aware of it until after the money has already changed hands.

Hope this has been helpful! Be safe & be smart while shopping on-line, and enjoy your' holidays !!

Cheers,
AB