CIC Credit Monitor Services - Transunion - True Credit.com Company Fraudulantly Charged $79.95 - Claims to be affiliated with Transunion Orange California

Here's what happened to me regarding this company. In June I filed for a credit report on the TrueCredit.com site. The site clearly states it is "Brought to you by Transunion". Mistakenly or rather misleadingly, I believed I was ordering directly from Transunion. Unlike most of the people here, I actually paid $34.95 for my three agency report and declined the monitoring service. I never went to a "free" report site. I thought I was at Transunion's site. I did receive a report via a link to my three agency online report which I could not print nor save to my computer due to the incredible horrendous layout. Everything shot all over the page and none of the columns were lined up.

On Novemeber 30th, five months later - my credit card was charged $79.95 and my statement read: CIC*CREDIT MONITOR 877-513-4175 CA. The Novemember 800 number and the company name is completely different from those listed in my June bank statement. As if they're two different companies.

I found the Ripoff site and out of instant fear of fraud I immediately called my bank and cancelled my credit card. I couldn't call the company direct as it was the weekend and they do not have weekend hours.

So Monday morning I called CIC to have them reverse the charge - they answered the phone with "May I have your SS#?" Uh, no! I told them there was no way I was giving them this info and so they refused to pull up my account. I spent a good 30+ minutes arguing with no resolution. I told them I was requesting a fraud inquiry and a "charge back" from my bank and filing a report with the California Attorney General.

I filed the report with the CA AG. Here is the website to do this. http://caag.state.ca.us/consumers/mailform.htm

Today, as luck would have it, I received an e-mailed Newsletter from "True Credit" (800) 493-2392 - I remember getting these in the past and deleting them thinking they were spam. But today discovered that this is the company that I had originally paid the $39.95. Upon going to their site, I saw the "Brought to you by Transunion" header. When I called the 800 number and asked if this WAS Transunion. I was told no. When I inquired about the "Transunion" header at the top of every page of their website, the only answer I received was a repeat of the statment "It says brought to you by Transunion". When I asked for Transunion's direct number I was given an 800 number and was told that this was to order the reports and they had no other number - as it was they were closed for the evening.

I've seen other posts here saying they believed the company to be affiliated with Experian. So far as I can tell, it looks like this *IS* the fraud. They are not affiliated with any of the Credit Agencies and tomorrow I plan to contact "Transunion" and see what they have to say.

What is so unusual is the differences in the professionalism of all of the websites. The "True Credit" site is beautiful, but all of the free credit sites look to be put up by different company's and some are far from professional looking or even trustworthy looking. Yet they are all the same company.

Eva Marie
Aldan, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.