Pharmacycards.com scammed me for $139 and I don't know who they are!!! Internet

I have been the victim of several online scams and most recently I found a charge of $139 on my bank statement for a website called pharmacycards.com. I have some info that may give a little insight as to how some of these scams occur. Before I get into the pharmacycards.com situation, I will give a little background on another scam I became the victim of.

Last summer I had a problem where I was charged $249 for some random service. When this showed up on my credit card, I immediately contacted the company to find out why I had been charged for this. The gentleman I spoke with explained it as such: if you buy something online or through a tv infommerical, your banking or credit card info are stored in their system for future purchases (for speedier service, I suppose) . After a while, a marketing firm comes along and decides to purchase a group of individuals' information (payment info included) to target them for some new promotions or discount programs.

Let's say this marketing firm contacts you by phone and you decide not the answer the "out of area" call that comes up on your caller id. The person on the other line is required to keep contacting you until you decide to answer and speak with them. They will call sometimes 2 and 3 times a day for months. Each time they contact you they are required to log the call. For example, if they got the person to purchase the item, it may be marked with a 1, a hang up may be a 2, an uninterested person may be a 3, and a no response/answering machine could be a 4. If they mark your contact with a 1 instead of a 3, then the calling will stop, but the charge will show up on your banking statement or credit card statement. It would depend on what you used to purchase your original item maybe 6 years ago. Now, it could be an legitimate mistake in logging or you may have been rude to the rep calling you and he/she decides to get back at you by charging you for the service anyway claiming it was a accident. This guy was very honest and helpful, but I've got to tell you it just got under my skin to think that this could happen.

Recently, I found the charge for pharmacycards.com ($139) on my banking statement and I immediately went online to view the check image that had cleared through my account. I found that the address on the check was from where I lived 5 years ago and the check was completely out of sequence with my others!! Now, because of what happened last summer and what I found out then, when I saw the pharmacycards.com item, my temper just broke!!!

I contacted the number listed online, which of course is an outsourced customer service group. When I got a CS rep on the line, she was very rude to me and I bluntly asked her how they got my banking info and she could not tell me...just some marketing company according to her. She told me the same story about people buying online or through tv ads and their payment information getting stored and sold to marketing firms. I told her that I thought it was very unethical and asked her how she could work for an unethical company. She just got huffy with me and said that if I wanted my refund, I'd have to give her my new address so they could send it. I did give her the address, but went directly to my bank when I hung up the phone.

I explained the situation to someone at my bank and closed that account and opened a new one. The 15 days that I was supposed to wait to get my refund from them has expired, so I will be at my bank first thing Monday morning to have them to investigate this corrupt company. I am also going to report them to the Better Business Bureau.

I just wanted to send this to you to help others who have been duped by pharamacycards.com understand how this could have happened to them.

Thanks for reading

Heather
Durham,, North Carolina
U.S.A.