UOL * NETZERO Credit Card Ripoff CALIFORNIA Nationwide

I know, someone's gonna tell me I can't count. LOL!

Had the wrong glasses on. Sorry.

This is a common ploy of identity theives. The use the cc info to sign up for internet service, usually with a 30 free trial, and then they wait to see if the monthly service charge goes thru. This happened to me whith Juno.com, when somebody tried to hijack my visa back in 2005. Seems all anyone has to do is call these folks to set up the account - it didn't appear to me that at the time the didn't verify the identity or request the security code on the back of the card.

Having said that, here's what I suggest you do to protect yourself and get the money, IN THE FOLLOWING ORDER.

1. Call your cc company immediately to dispute the charge and to alert them to the identity theft.. Also tell your cc company that you're going to file a police report for identity theft. Your cc company may contact the 3 CRAs to place a temporary "fraud alert" on your creadit - I know VISA MBNA did it for me. They should also go over all your recent charges and pending charges to see if anything else has happened. They will also VOID your current credit card and send you a new one (new account number.) The VALID charges from the old card will be transfered to the new card at NO COST to you. When this happened to me, I had the new card by 10 AM the next morning (Fed Ex.)

1. File a police report for identity theft with your local PD and give them as much information as you can as to when the account with Net Zero was established and how. Give them any details you can, such as date/time you contacted Net Zero about it, when you noticed it, etc. Tell the police that you're going to put a "fraud alert" on your credit and you need a copy of the report as soon as they have it ready. If necessary, check back with your local PD to follow up and get a copy of their report. The fraud alert tells potential creditors that they are to contact you directly and verify your identity before establishing any new credit it your name.

2. Mail a copy of the PD report to each of the three CRAs and request a one year "fraud alert" on your credit. Also request a free credit report because you are the victim of identity theft. It doesn't matter if you have already used your "annual free credit" report. The FCRA mandates that consumers who provide a police report for identity theft can obtain 2 free credit reports, from each CRA, during the next 12 months. The copy of the PD report is REQUIRED to take advantage of these 2 free credit reports during the next 12 months.

3. File appropriate identity theft reports with the FTC, your State AG, FBI (their website) and the USPS.

4. Carefully review your credit reports for signs of additional identity theft attemps. It's only March and if you haven't used your annual free credit report, you should be able to obtain 3 free credit reports from each of the 3 CRAs during the next 12 months. That should give you ample warning is something pops up.

Good luck.

4. (optional) Call Net Zero back and inform them that you have requested a charge back from your cc company. Also suggest to them that they start verifying the identity of the card holder/card security code before establishing an account.