Mediaop Mediaop.net Deceptive Advertisements, Deceptive Billing Internet

I was looking for an ebook of the college textbook "Economics Today". A google search brought me through a few pages which led me to this page.

Which, as you may note, includes the title of the book in the search bar. You are then told that in order to view it you have to register. FOR FREE. When you proceed to private your email address you are then told that you must provide a credit card for address verification only. Once you get beyond that page you are told that it isn't free, but that you can get a "free trial" for $1 and you are assured that you can cancel at any time. After proceeding with that free trial though it is revealed that the book doesn't exist on their servers. (I am not even sure that they have any real books). Then if you go to cancel it is revealed that in order to cancel you MUST pay an additional $1 fee.

Also, when I called my credit card company to attempt to block them from making future charges to my credit card, they said there were two $1 pending transactions - not one - even though I did not click submit on the cancel page. So they already charged me more than they should have. The credit card company explained that I can simply call back in 48 hours and if the second transaction posts I can dispute it. I won't dispute the first dollar because - as deceptive as they were - I did agree to pay it. But on principle alone the second dollar will not be paid and I will dispute as fraud any further transactions from this company. I contacted them to inform them of this situation and that I want to cancel WITHOUT paying the cancellation fee which I did not agree to.

Why this is a scam:

1.) They mine searches to make you think they can provide the book you are looking for even if they can't.
2.) They trick you into thinking it is a free service when it isn't.
3.) They then trick you into thinking that it's only $1 to try and that you can cancel at any time, but it costs an additional $1. There is no way to cancel that free trial without paying.

How this could be corrected:

1.) Make it clear up front that the title you are looking for is not provided by their service.
2.) Make it clear up front that this is a paid service - not a free service.
3.) Make it clear that there would be a cancellation charge up front or else just charge $2 instead of $1.