Instant Checkmate Instant Checkmate Experience La Quinta California

I clicked on the Instant Checkmate Yahoo advertisement that offered free search information on people.  So the first point is that the service is not free.

After reviewing their website, I clicked out, seeing that the process was set up to provide nothing but a means to take your money - it was not free.

A window came up offering the previous $15.99 service - now a $1 trial for five days.

I decided, okay, I'll try it for a day.  They wanted a credit card to do the $1 and we all know what happens when you give your credit card number.  It takes an act of Congress to get them to stop charging you, if you can ever get in contact with the right person to get the cancellation to take place.

Fortunately, Bank of America has a credit card service called Shop Safe that let's you create temporary credit cards for an exact limited amount.  You set the amount and it's good for 60 days.  So I did a Shop Safe temp card for $5.00.

And wouldn't you know it.  As soon as I signed up for the $1 and asked to see the report that took 10 minutes to be created, they wanted another $1.99 to download it using the excuse that it was a PDF charge.  Okay, another $1.99 to see how much of a scam this was going to be.

So now, my one time fee of $1.99 was made.  I instantly received a notice from BofA that the charge came thorugh.

Now - that was completed, but after 20 minutes, still no download, no PDF, but a window did keep coming up asking me if I wanted the upgraded report for only $19.99.  So finally I clicked yes.  The wheel started to turn, five minutes, ten minutes, 20 minutes.  Nothing ever happened, except that BofA advised me that a charge of $19.99 came through but was not honored because it exceeded the limit on the temp card.

I decided to do a search of ripoffs and scams on Instant Checkmate and came across the Rip-Off report.  I read through many of the complaints - especially interested in how cancellations were handled by the company.  The rip-off reports by other people said that it was difficult to initiate cancellation and they never answered their phones.

So I went to the website, logged in and looked up the phone number to their customer service.  I immediately called and within 30 seconds, a man named Veda came on the line.  I told him I wanted to do a cancellation and he immediately took care of it.  I expect and believe that the account is now eliminated, but we will see in the next few days if they try to charge me again for the $19.99 upgraded report.

Throughout the entire process, I did not receive any reports and nothing was downloaded, including the pdf that they charged me to receive.