Am I Being Scammed? Please Say No?
I received a telephone call from 8663792003 today, but I missed it so I decided to call them back. They told me that I was referred to them by someone and that they wanted to give me some free stuff with one catch. There were three programs that wanted to give me a $40 gas card, a $25 dollar Visa (?) gift card, and a $25 Wal-Mart gift card. All of the companies required that I give them a $1 trial fee that will will be billed to my Debit Card in 1-5 days. After 30 days of having this trial I will be charged another $25 from each company if I don’t cancel, which sounds pretty easy to do. I can’t remember the first two companies, but one was Privacy Matters 123. I Google’d them and they seem fishy, but I called back for more information and they make it pretty clear that there will be no other charges other than the $1 and $25 if I don’t cancel in 30 days. I don’t see how anything could go wrong if this is the case. I literally made the guy repeat this to me four times over the phone before entering my birth date on my keypad.
However, they already had the last four digits of my Debit Card number beforehand and I read complaints on the Privacy Matters people. Please help me. I can’t cancel until I receive the things in the mail, which will be within two weeks they told me, and I REALLY don’t want to be scammed. I don’t have hardly any money and I can’t afford to lose what little I have. If I’m not being scammed, please let me know, and if I am, please tell me how I could be if I made them go over the terms clearly. Also, if I am being scammed, what can I do do prevent them taking more money? Thanks in advance.
Thanks for the quick responses guys. I called my local police department and they told me to change my card number, which I promptly did. Will this be enough?
A side note: I never actually gave these guys my card number.
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September 22nd, 2009 at 3:16 am
You are being SCAMMED in a manner used frequently nowadays on the internet.
The best thing to do is call that same number and emand the names and phone numbers of the three companies and cancel immediately. Then notify your credit card company that you are cancelling those three companies and not let any charges be added.
Companies are scamming people nowadays by offering a free sample and then charging exorbitant monthly fees once you order the free sample and pay shipping. A good example of this are the scam ads for ‘Google Ad Words’ that people are maketing saying you can money just by typing in ads for Google. You cannot. The catch, here, is the fact that once youorder the kit by just paying shipping, you also have a signed checkbox that says you agree to the terms and conditions. Sadly, those terms are usually that you must pay the company an exorbitant monthly fee. That ranges from about $40 to almost $100.00 per month charged automatically. That is how these companies makemoney; not from the ads themselves, but sucker (I mean you and others) that sign up for freebies at first.
Remember: Call the first number 8663792003.
September 25th, 2009 at 10:50 am
I’d be leery about giving out debit card numbers on the phone. talk to your bank.
September 28th, 2009 at 11:17 am
Get onto your credit card company right away , explain the situation and they will tell you the best thing to do ..This is definately a scam i would reckon.Good luck I **** scum like these preying on all the poor people I hope they rot in hell
October 1st, 2009 at 6:01 am
It’s so easy to get “roped” into these scams and not even know it until you have thought about it. My response is by pure experience and caught off guard! Just because “they” say you cannot cancel, does not mean you cannot. YOU CAN AND YOU SHOULD IMMEDIATELY, before you loose any more money.
First, you should immediately call your bank and explain the situation and stop any automatic debits and/or, personally, I would close my account and get a new one; however, I would just stop any debits from that company first, then speak with your personal banking representative if it would be necessary to close the account. You may get a $5.00 charge for a new debit card, but if you are waiting to “cancel” what you ordered they already have your debit card number and no doubt already making charges to your account.
This happened to me before and what took place is the $1.00 came off my account immediately, and as soon as I realized I made a HUGE mistake, I first “minimized” the website I was on so I wouldn’t loose it, then I checked my bank account online and the additional charges were already taken from my account. Then I get an e-mail from this company “thanking” me for my order and disclosing the amount debited to my account and I wasn’t even done with it yet! So, before I even got to checking on what I did, they already were taking, and I’m saying taking instead of “debiting”, as it is a scam, from my checking account. AND don’t forget they now have your debit card number, so you should follow any advice your bank representative and/or customer service provides you.
Now I was able to stop anymore charges from this company and I could have filed a complaint to retrieve the funds taken; however, at the time I caught it, it was only $11.00, as I called customer service immediately that evening as it is a 24/7 answering sytem. So, for the $11.00 I did not feel it warranted bank personnel time for that amount, as their cost would be considerable, due to my mistake. Your bank representative can tell you the best way to handle this. You can stop any unwanted debits and you certainly feel uncomfortable with the situation, so you should and should immediately.
In the future, receving such calls, the first thing I would ask the caller is “who did you say referred me” (as they do talk quickly to get over those type of questions) , it would have to be in their computer should this really be the case, which it is NOT. They will have some excuse and/or they will say they cannot provide that “confidential information”, and sometimes when YOU start asking the questions they will hang up on you!
I would tell them to please remove your name from their call list. One more thing I found out about “requesting your number be taken off any call list”, is you must also first state, please remove my number from any automatic call backs, THEN, tell them to permanently remove your phone number from future calls. Sure they will remove your phone number from the call list, or say they will, but the “automatic” call backs….nope, completely separate. And even then, it doesn’t guarantee them from calling.
As what happens is and I’m sure you have experienced this also, our phone numbers are dialed and it rings 2 or 3 times, it may quit before you can answer the phone and/or you are standing there saying “Hello….Hello….Hello?”, and you either hang up or finally someone answers the phone. It’s because of the “automatic calls and/or call backs”. They are finishing talking to someone else, they can tell if the phone has been picked up so they hurry to seal the deal with their previous customer, onto the next “victim”. If you continue the conversation, out of curiosity, be sure to get that person’s name calling and the company they are calling from. You were lucky that when you returned the call you were able to get through. I have found that sometimes those telephone numbers when you call back there is an automated response from the phone company that it’s a disconnected number and/or no longer is service, or something similar. Also, IF someone leaves a message the “call back phone number” is different than is what on my Caller ID.
Personally, if you get a toll free phone call with NO message, if you want you could write if down in case they may call back or you need it for reporting as a scam as you may need now; however, there is no sense to call them back. I get absolutely furious when my phone rings 2 or 3 times, which how many of us can grab the phone on the 2nd ring unless we have our phone with us all the time…I can’t get to my phone if I’m at one end of the house and the phone is in my office or livng room. And I get there and either it’s a dial tone, or I get no response when I say “Hello”!
I have been receiving so many “toll-free” calls lately with no message. My caller ID only indicates “toll free call and/or out of area”. What I have done is kept a list of those toll-fre