BEWARE: Wife caught up in Internet SCAM (could have been me!)

[legion]

Hmm...

I have ordered from EB Games and my wife from Chadwick's. I'll have to look over my CC statement...

[Sonic dB]

Thanks for the notification. Hucksters and cheats are everywhere. Accordign to the link, the company did $86 million in "sales" last year (no doubt at least $1-2 mil fell into that shady CEO's pocket).

What I don't get is that this list of associated companies includes
some reputable names:

Broderbund
Chadwick's
Classmates.com
Drugstore.com
EB Games.com
Lane Bryant Catalog
PETCO
The Learning Company
United Online

Is this to say that they are in on the scam/deception as well....or is they being used as pawns without their knowledge?

Certainly a publicly traded company such as PETCO would love to know about that sort of thing... wouldnt they?

[slakjaw]

well, you did owe you wife a grand from that bet you made with her. what is your time worth?

[Joeaksa]

Pays to really scan your CC statements every month. I have found a lot of errors and false charges there pretty often.

[id10t]

I need to have the wife check hers, since I htink she's bought from them before...

Also, she got stung last year trying to be nice and renew some domains for me. Didn't realize that domain stuff is email only, sent a $50 check to some scammer in NY.

[pwd72s]

Wayne, sorry you got caught...I never give my credit card info on line. Things like this are why. Sorry, but I phone in my orders...even to you.

[Sonic dB]

This is from their website. Its obvious to me that this is a shady way to make money...but apparently their "partners" do not care. But what "package of benefits" do the consumers get for their $10 per month membership fee?

How It Works
Webloyalty creates a new revenue stream for e-commerce companies.

Ecommerce sites who partner with Webloyalty.com earn an extra $.50 to $2.00 per transaction on their Web sites and generate a lift of up to 12 percent in repeat transactions. They do it by rewarding their customers for purchases with a package of benefits, provided and fulfilled by Webloyalty, that strengthen their brand and give their customers a reason to return to buy again.

The program is simple, effective, and creates benefits for both you and your customer.

Here's how it works:

After completing a purchase on your site, each of your customers sees an offer from Webloyalty as a thank you for their order:
$10 off their next purchase at your site
Free access to a package of valuable discounts and services for 30 days.
Your customer enjoys the benefits for the full month — or until they choose to cancel their enrollment. They can cancel at any time and even if they do they keep the $10 coupon — and their incentive to return to your site.


After the free month, for as long as the customer wants to keep their benefit package the customer pays Webloyalty $10/month. That's how we make money. Should a customer ever choose to cancel, Webloyalty's industry-leading customer service practices make it easy — no red tape, no questions asked. They simply email us, call our 800 number, or visit our web site.

Webloyalty pays you for every customer who accepts the free trial of the benefit package. And we guarantee these payments will result in earnings of $.50 - $2.00 for every transaction on your site.

Webloyalty makes money by making your customers happy. You make money from the Webloyalty payments and repeat business. Your customer gets valuable benefits for trying our services.

[legion]

Wait, so those coupon/rebate offers at the end of transactions (that I ALWAYS turn down) are the part that signs me up for this crap?

[dhoward]

Yup. That's why I use a "one shot" CC number on line.

[Icemaster]

Thank you Wayne, for both the warning, and your conscientous business. Nice to be able to do business with folks who haven't lost touch with reality.

And happy birthday to your daughter BTW....

[hatpix]

Everybody's got a scam. I signed up for Dwell Magazine, I start getting offers from other design companies. How do I know its them? They misspelled my name on the subscription, same misspelling on the offers.

I buy books from the Easton press, all the suddent The Franklin Mint is bombarding me with sales literature.

Its all part of their business models, they give you the product for a cheap priice, but sell your info to 3rd parties to make up the difference.

Companies like LowerMyBills.com gets $50 per name every time they sell your name to a lending instiution. The had a big party in the office the first time the made a Million dollars in a single day.

[rick-l]

I got burned by a similar scam through JC Whitney

PPOT thread (short)

It was WLI*SHOPPERSDISCOUNT

They refunded my money one month at a time

[widebody911]

Originally posted by dhoward
Yup. That's why I use a "one shot" CC number on line.

Tell me more.

I got scammed a couple years ago by (IIRC) Network Solutions/Verisgn on my domain names. I got an official-looking bill in the mail for domain renewal, stating that they had bought the other provider I had been using, but in reality it was a domain transfer trick! I didn't read it closely, sent off the cash, and blammo! It took some pulling of teeth to get back out of that one.

[cashflyer]

Yes... tell more.
I want to know about "one shot" cc numbers.

[dhoward]

Citi and a a few others do this. You go to your account on their website, and the have a button that generates a "one time use" credit card number attached to your account. It's only good for one transaction. Check your CC company's web site.

[Neilk]

Originally posted by dhoward
Citi and a a few others do this. You go to your account on their website, and the have a button that generates a "one time use" credit card number attached to your account. It's only good for one transaction. Check your CC company's web site.

Dan beat me to it. I was going to suggest the same thing. I always use Citibank's virtual CC number program whenever I make a purchase from a merchant that I know will only be a one time deal. They don't need my real CC information if I am never going to buy anything from them again.