[lurker]

From the Night Shift Pastor of the "Good Church of the Mildly Annoyed"

Beware, Scam and bogus credit card charges

I just noticed the other day a charge from a company called Rewards Reservations.

My account had been charged $9. I traced and found that on their website, a membership was in place in my name, with acct info, name and address.

Problem was that the only account that I have, or do any business with that uses the e-mail address that was on that account is one I have with MSN music.

Seems that Microsoft is allowing this company access to accounts and allowing unauthorized accounts to be opened.

I did a search on the web and found forum discussions dealing with the scam dating back to 2003.

Call my bank to report the unauthorized use and charges, call to BBB of Lake Charles, a call to the States Atty Gen Office, and the FBI office of Internet Fraud, and of course getting in touch with the ReservationRewards customer service department.

The customer service department canceled the membership of course and stated matter of factly that they would not credit my account with the unauthorized charges.

I then told the woman again that the conversation was being recorded for my records on advice of my atty, she acknowledged this and then I gave her the name and 1-800 number of my attorney, asked for her supervisors name numbers for him to call her within the hour.

She asked me to hold, pause with elevator music, her supervisor came back on and introduced herself, I asked for her dept ext number and her desk number, she complied.

She immediately told me that a credit was being applied to my account as we were speaking at that moment. She repeated her statement of "we regret any inconvenience and that the last thing her company wanted was an unhappy member". Holy Freakin Cow Toes.

I reminded her that my atty would be calling as soon as I called him to give him her information. I also let her know that the City Atty, BBB of LC and La, the States Atty Gen office and the FBI fraud dept had been contacted and that I had made statements to all concerning their practices.

The "twit" actually said that with me receiving a credit of all charges that I should be satisfied with that and not have made the accusations to the authorities. What is it about a felony theft and access that she and her company does not understand.

I then called my atty, gave him her numbers and let him loose with a vengeance. Scruffy lil bastxxd that he is.

The damn company has a major website, which by the way pays Google to be allowed to side bar advertise on their site when you do a search. Not to be a random hit, but to be placed at the top right hand side of the page of your search queary.

I have also sent cc emails to google referencing this company and will add google as well as MSN Music to the Scam blog which turned up the original scam info, as google is a paid and duped willing partner. Their in bed with them because of the advertising. Can't make me believe that they don't know after this many years.

What a pain this crap is. But I'm getting and have gotten many jollies from this. Takes care of any erictile problems I'll have for the next 30 years, should I live that long.

Last word. BBB does not see any thing in error of what this company has done. This is the quote I got on the phone. I had her send me an email stating the same and received it for my records. So much for the BBB. Waste of oxygen there. I also let the agent with the Fed and the States Atty office know what the BBB had offered. They were a little taken aback by the statements. Especially with the return email I had for record.

The state is telling me that the company is on their list of active fraud/scam complaints for unauthorized billings and have added me to their list of complaints by name and contact info. Rather lenghty conversation there.

The Fed, interview by private returned call to my apartment by a local agent, whom I also gave copies of all correspondence emails and recorded conversations the next day, went well. He picked the information packet I had at the front gates where I work. Talk about helpful. Had tounges wagging with me talking to the dark suit in the dark Ford Sedan.

Chase Bank is telling me, actually the operator I talked with, that she has received several complaints and "stop future charge actions" against the same company, in my area as well.

I received a credit for the full amount, with an acknowledgement from that company that all membership has been cancelled and no further debits would appear. Pricks

My atty has found information of a class action against the company and doing research in the state of La for same. I gues the greedy lil bassttard is seeing dollar signs. Fess'd up that his wifes nephew had the same problem using Amazon.com, same company, same type of charging.

From doing searches of this type of fraud/scam with this company, they are getting our information from hundreds of companies on the web, such as MSN, classmates.com, Amazon.com, etc.

All this crap for stealing $9 at a time per person. I guess this kind of crap can add up to big monies over time. I need to rethink my retirement activities.

As I find out more, I'll update this thread.
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Night Shift Pastor of the "Good Church of the Mildly Annoyed".

If you can fathom that "Having faith is great, but in practice there are theoretical limitations", have a seat and enjoy the sermon.