Online Suppliers Ripoff Scam fraudulent billing midleading sales practices Goleta California

I too feel prey to the fraudulent practices of Online Suppliers. After approving a charge of $1.95 for postage and handling of advertised "free" information on buying and selling on E-Bay I found that several "pop-up" bot messages written in such a way as to make it look like I was communicating with a "real" person. When the offer was made for a 49.95 "membership" I first typed in don't you dare charge my card with that amount as there is not enough money in there to cover it and then immediately closed out the window and the website. After two weeks with still no $1.95 taken from the account or getting any "information" in the mail I discovered that $49.95 had been charged to my account WITHOUT my permission. When I read on this site that I wasn't the only one taken in by this scam I immediately called Pay Pal to file a dispute on the charges and they gave me the 800 number they had received with the charge.

I called this number and got the usual run around....to wit, in the ad it says blah blah and we sent you e-mails saying you had 14 days to cancel blah, blah. I told her that (1) I never received the e-mails, (2) I never signed up for anything besides $1.95, and (3) I had every intention of going to the media with information about their business practices and (4) if they took one more penny from my account I would go after them for theft. I demanded that not only I be canceled from anything they had me enrolled in but I wanted the money back in my account post haste.

After a suitable few minutes on ignore, she comes back on and says as a "courtesy" they would cancel and reverse the charge on my debit card. I am waiting for the next two business days to pass and if it is not returned I will start again. I still fully intend to report this to every consumer advocate I can find at the major networks and anyone else who will listen to me.

It will do my heart good to try and bring down this company and its grossly unethical if not illegal practices.

Vicki
Fountain Valley, California
U.S.A.