Off Topic: Watch your Bank Statements!

rambos_ride

This is way off topic - but many of us do online purchasing from others on the forum and other businesses and thought a couple of things about my experiences this morning might help others confronted if in a similar situation....

The Story

I couldn't sleep and logged in to my online bank account and noted a Pending $14.95 Charge from some outfit called 24Protect Plus.

When I reviewd my statements for the last couple of months I noted these charges has started since I did an INTELIUS People search trying to find an old friend to inform him of close friends death.

Long story short - I agreed to pay the Intellius 49.95 search fee - but never agreed to "automagic" enrollment to their credit "protection" services :mad:

Needless to say I was PO'd and immediatley called my bank - hey it's 3AM in the morning I don't care someone should be working - and got into their "new" automated phone system that doesn't allow for any selection to talk to a human being...after getting stuck for the 3rd time in some looping phone-sub-menu I angrily started banging random numbers on the phone and magically a human being came online to help me reverse the pending charge.

I then called 24Protect Plus - same garbage with their "automated phone system that connects to no one" - so I thought if it worked once...and started banging random numbers on the phone pad for a couple of seconds and - VOILA - a person came online and helped me reverse and cancel future charges (I'll keep my eye out for this!) and then tried to sell me more services, at which point I l laughed outloud and hung up!

The sad thing is if you google,yahoo or whatever your search is..."24Protect Plus" you will see thousands of hits of similar phantom charges appearing magically on people CC's

What a scam - charge 1 million people 14.95, sit on it collecting interest until someone notices, or even better yet, keep collecting the cash and interest for doing nothing - free cash!:mad:

The Lesson(s) Learned

Sorry for the long winded - off topic post, but I feel myself to be pretty internet "savvy" and this is a good example to keep an eye on your financials yourself and do it often!

(ALSO, learning how to get past any automated phone menu is a plus I wanted to share with you all!)

hudsontech

I do very, very limited on-line banking - and with a credit card. One of the greatest things since sliced bread is that my credit card company has on-line services. So, for a week or so, or longer if I think of it, I can check my credit card account daily to check for unauthorized charges. Without on-line access it would be the end of the month and more difficult to get charges taken off.

So far, fingers crossed and knock on my wooden head, I havn't had any problems.



Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

Unknown

thats a good heads up Dan...thank you