AP9*VALUEMAX Unauthorized credit card charge Internet Internet

While going through my credit card statement, I noticed a charge for $249.95 from somebody named AP9*VALUEMAX. My wife and I didn't remember making this purchase, so we called the number listed in the statement.

We had to go through a phone menu, and since we didn't know what this the company was, ended up choosing the "enter your home phone number" option. Finally got to an operator who confirmed a lot of personal information with us, and finally said we had signed up for a subscription to www.dealpass.com. When we tried to tell her we never authorized this, she tried to sell us on the service - multiple times.

My wife was finally able to cut this lady off and said we wanted our money back. The operator said the money will be credited back to our card in two business days. I'm waiting to see if this is true. In the meantime, I intend to contact the bank to protest the charge, and I'm seriously considering killing the card off to prevent possible future charges. This kind of thing isn't supposed to be able to happen!

The lady on the phone mentioned that she had received other calls like ours, and that this is somehow linked to calling in on an infomercial, but neither myself or my wife remember doing anything like this. More likely, my wife was searching online for airline tickets recently and there are other fraud reports that indicate this may be the real starting point. We'll be following the advice on other reports from this site to begin the protest process.

Ryan
Albuquerque, New Mexico
U.S.A.