Hey looks like the wheels of fate have picked me up in their treads and dealt me out as a scam victim. Someone got a hold of my debit VISA #, which I only use online at places I trust (Amazon.com, etc.) but apparently I trusted one too many sites, or someone in one of the places got a hold of my info and levied some charges against my account. Luckily I noticed these pretty quickly, which is surprising actually since I normally don’t watch the activity on my account all that often (or at least up ’til now I didn’t).
First off I’ve cancelled my card and will have to wait up to two weeks to get another. No ATM / debit charges for me for 2 weeks. AND now all the sites I’ve set up to auto-charge this card (Mobil Speedpass, Maine Transpass, AT&T Cellphone, Audible.com, etc) need to get updated before they send me nasty notes. Probably about time I retired that number anyways, seeing as I memorized it about a year ago and thus it’s far too easy to impulse buy online.
Today I’ve been making phone calls trying to get more info and get charges reversed. Luckily they are small charges (mostly $1 pre-auth charges, though the ‘real charges’ could come through at any moment).
Here’s the summary so far: (I figured I’d provide the info here in case anyone else has similar charges and googles around and finds my page)
Charges to TLG SHOPPERS ADV PURCH
Turns out that TLG is Trilegiant. I found this website (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/scam_alerts/tlg.html) and they are basically an umbrella company to a bunch of somewhat sleazy looking websites like shoppersadvantage.com and NetMarket. Calling these folks was n’ar completely useless since they wouldn’t listen to me explaining that these $1 charges were just someone checking if the card was valid and that the actual charge, probably for much more. They insisted these must be ‘membership charges’ and that I could have signed up for these from a number of sites like AOL and etc. I tried to explain that I KNOW I DIDN’T MAKE THESE CHARGES but they said my name wasn’t in their customer support system yet and I should check back at the end of the week, though I may need to wait 2 or 3 weeks for my ‘membership to be processed’. I’m going to call these folks again in a little bit to see if I can get someone with more of a clue. (Note – I just called them again and got a more abbreviated version of the same dance, but this time I felt like the person actually heard what I said, but he said I ‘wasn’t in the system’ yet but should be by Thursday (much different than the 2 or 3 weeks mentioned above)
Next charge was to BLOCKBUSTER ONLINE. They found me in their system and were able to reverse the charges and cancel the account promptly. They gave me the e-mail address the person used to fill out the membership form, I dropped it a note and it didn’t bounce. I’m debating dropping them a longer note 🙂
Next charge was to TWX MAGAZINE ORDER. Found out they had subscribed to TEEN PEOPLE, SEVENTEEN and ESCAPE BOATING magazine. They asked if I was sure that someone else hadn’t placed the order for these magazines and I explained that I was 36, my son is only 20 months old, and I don’t own a boat! I had the order cancelled though they said I may still receive a few issues. Golly, can’t wait.
Final call was to STAR CLUB REWARDS who said they hadn’t actually charged my card the $1, that was just what it looked like since they had verfied it was active when they created the membership (with the same fake e-mail used elsewhere)
That’s it. I know I’m lucky compared to most, especially considering this card was my debit VISA it could have been alot worse. Note to self, don’t use that online anymore.
don’t tell mary i spilled the beans…but…legally with your visa debit card you could only ever be responsible for $50 if the transactions were unauthorized and we can’t prove they were authorized. they just started requiring the letter, you didn’t always have to do that. and also, i’m sorry it’s such a hassle for you.
Hello – this same thing happened to me yesterday I noticed the charge from TLG Shoppers. The only thing I did differently online was a free trial for a credit report that asks for your cc number for membership charges after the free trial! I also used a debit MasterCard. My bank said to do nothing until I call the TLG people. I tried calling and the wait is over 10 minutes and still no one answered. I am upset because nothing on the credit keeper site refers to TLG and I have a security system to block hackers from getting my personal information. Please keep me posted and I will do the same. I am trying to call again later on tonight. It is really a pain seeing as how I can’t reconcile my bank account because I do not know what the charge may come through as…. Thanks a lot for posting about your situation – I wish you luck!
I just found 10 TLG charges for $1 on my credit card statement (5 are temp charges). There is also a Blockbuster charge ($10.59) and a TWX magazine order ($1). Being Saturday night, nobody was at any of the listed phone numbers except one poor TLG girl who gave me direct numbers for all the TLG services (netmarket, computer home, travelers advantage, great fun, autovantage, buyers advantage, shoppers advantage.) She said I might have inadvertantly signed up via a popup which I know I did not do. I forsee hours of phone calls and a letter to the FCC or relevant government agency.
Me again. What I’d like to know is, why do I have exactly the same charges as Matt? TLG and Blockbuster and TWX Magazines. Why would somebody steal my card number only to charge this odd combination of stuff? Maybe they’re just trying to make my forseeable future a living hell. I called my credit card and they won’t have anybody there who can help me till Monday, this being Saturday night. At least I got somebody at TWX who cancelled the charge for the magazines. I can’t find anything else on Google except Matt’s blog here. Hm.
Hi Colleen – Sounds like the EXACT same thing that happened to me, how weird? I wonder if the same person that had my card got yours?
I had my card cancelled immediately and most of those charges, except blockbuster, all disappeared after a few days. According to my bank they were ‘pre-authorization’ charges towards larger charges, and I guess with my card being cancelled the larger charges never came through or something. Since they disappeared I stopped calling TLG. When I did call them they gave me the same ‘oh I’m sure you clicked some popup, we represent a number of companies’ even though I explained, over and over again, that I’m not that stupid.
The only charge that was still on my card from the whole thing was the blockbuster one. They said they would reverse it and I also filled out a form at my bank denying it was me which should reverse it too, so I’m hopeful it will get reversed. Even if it doesn’t, if I can get out of this with only losing $10 and not having my ATM/Debit card in my wallet for 2 weeks, then I’m pretty grateful.
Good luck!
-Matt
This is EXACTLY what is happening to me right now. Luckily, my credit union contacted me to let me know about the charges. I’m in the middle of having an investigation done, and TLG/BBV is still trying to charge my card! I’m going to contact both companies tomorrow regarding the matter. Is there anything we can do about this legally?
For anyone else who finds this thread and needs to call these companies:
• TLG – 1-800-562-8888
• Blockbuster Online – 1 866 692 2789
• TWX Magazines – 1-800-773-3142
• Star Club Rewards – 1 800 280 4945
Matt, don’t feel alone!!! Thanks to Google, I found your blog and I am yet another who had the *exact* same 1.00 charges from TLG and also a $10.49 charge from Blockbuster Online. So now the question is: How do you STOP a scheme like this? I would like to find the source, which is pretty difficult. However, by comparing notes maybe you, I and the other few that found your journal can figure it out. Here it goes: The only Web-based purchase I made around that date was for an online purchase of a magazine – .pdf version of Popular Mechanics issues ($3 for 3 issues in pdf).
Anyone do something similar?
One more item: I found this on… http://www.sptimes.com/2003/06/26/Action/Firm_s_record_poor_on.shtml
Item of interest: These complaints against Trilegiant started in (take a deep breath) 2003!!!
The article concludes with: The bureau’s report suggests that residents of Florida mail any complaints against the company to the Economic Crimes Division, Office of the Attorney General, The Capitol, Tallahassee, FL 32399-1050. We contacted that office and learned that the company is under investigation for unfair trade practices in direct marketing.
I didn’t order any magazines online in the past week. I did use that card fairly regularly online, but only at places I trust like Amazon or other ‘name’ places where I felt as confident as I would with my information as I would at any retail store. (which really isn’t that much). I’m also very careful to make sure I’m on a secure site, though again, that doesn’t mean that much.
I suspect someone got data from a place we all did business with in the last year or so and just happens to be doing this scam now. All it takes is a bad egg at one of these businesses to copy some of their transaction database.
I don’t really thing TLG is the culprit though I do think their customer support and response time is horrendous in regards to these complaints. “Oh I’m sure you just clicked on a banner or a popup” is NOT an acceptable response.
If it was a charge I placed in the last few weeks that triggered this I would guess it was a place I ordered a shareware script for my website from on 1/19/05.. but I have no reason to guess that except it was the last new place I ordered something
Since TWX is a separate company, I think that its a combination of companies doing this. Someone is obviously paying the person doing all these sign-ups.
I just contacted TWX and someone signed me up for Teen People, 17, and Teen Vogue magazine. I don’t have anyone here who would reach such magazines. They told me “I” had signed up using my full name, debit card number, telephone number, and home address, through orangebrick.com, a site I’ve never heard of. They cancelled the order.
Blockbuster video online also had my name, debit card number, address, phone number, and home address in their system as well. Under 2 accounts, nonetheless. I was told that someone signed up using an @lycos.com address and a ****reptile***@writeme.com address. They would not give me the first part of the email for “privacy reasons.” BBVO refunded both charges of $10.85 to my account.
TLG still refuses to refund all the $1 charges to my account. I was told I signed onto Netmarket, Shoppers AD, Complete Home, Autovantage, and Greatfun through a site called netflip.com, which I can’t even access! My computer has a program on it that I installed, which blocks access to “junk” sites suck as netflip.com and a few others, which are often found in pop up ads and redirect weblinks. I have $6.00 in charges from TLG.
The last two places I used my card online were Amazon.com (3 merchant sellers) and beanfarm.com (a reptile product seller.) Amazon claims they do not give out credit card numbers to anyone, and that their staff does not see the complete number, only the last 4 digits. beanfarm.com is run locally to me by a friend of mine, and I know he doesn’t sell his customer’s information. The only other places I have used my card have been at run-it-through-yourself places, such as Petsmart, Safeway, Fred Meyer, Subway, and Home Depot.
I ran AdAware on my computer last night, and found a few cookies, but no malicious software which could have “swiped” my card number. Whoever used my card number also knew the expiration date and security code on the card.
Mystery solved. I strongly encourage you to buckle your seatbelts for this one, it’s gonna be a rough ride. After speaking with a few key individuals and a bunch of e-mails, the situation is clear. (I was sooo ticked off by this, I found time to do this late-night and in addition to my normal 10 hour work day). Here goes: buckle up.
1.) Don’t assume TWX is a separate company. Trilegiant currently bills under AOL as well.
2.) Trilegiant is a company that solicits partnerships with organizations that have large subscriber bases and promises them something like this:
a.) Allow us access to your customers
b.) In states that allow “negative enrollment”, we can make money together while providing value-added services (more on this later)
c.) At the end of the day, a small percentage of people will actually read junk mail and “opt out”. When you bill, you will receive a larger number of complaints, and you simply handle them in a customer-friendly way: You credit the charges. You will be left with approximately 40% of people who will never contest the charges and we will split the revenue 50/50 with you. That’s the game, period.
So, what I learned was that it had *nothing* to do with recent purchases. Instead, it had to do with an alliance/partnership between Trilegiant and a company who had a large number of customers *and* had their credit card information. This is where it gets sickening: I learned that my bank (USBank) had partnered with Trilegiant. See an article here: http://www.eurams.de/news/news_detail.asp?NewsNr=181932
Ok, back to “negative enrollment”. In some states, a company can send you junkmail and… If you do not read and “opt out” within 60-90 days, the company can charge you. States are getting better about revising their laws but, these doors for Trilegiant still exist. It may sound far-fetched, but here is an example: http://www.aarpelderwatch.org/public/alerts/beware_of_unauthorized_charges_template.html
A few things to know about the animal “Trilegiant”: The CEO was former senior attorney for Walt Disney (this is important – the person guiding their organization knows the ins and outs of law and is capitalizing on it). Their president was a former CFO. Combine law with money and you have a DANGEROUS combination if their goal is to capitalize on legal loopholes – we have felt the effects. Trilegiant has had NUMEROUS complaints filed against them in almost every state’s Better Business Bureau dating back to 2003. They still operate today because of loopholes.
To be fair to USBank (my bank), I would bet 1000% that they didn’t know who they were getting into bed with.
How to stop them (the do’s and don’ts):
1.) Don’t call the 800 number that is listed on the line item of your credit card statement, this number is *intended* to be a maze *and* they are practiced at wearing you down. I called two last night. One was dead air every time and the second ended up with a recording stating “the number I have dialed has restricted access from your area code”.
2.) *Do* contact the institution that you actually billed you and dispute the charges as fraudulent. They will usually initiate the dispute very easily (keep in mind that many times they are in partnership to a limited degree) – Trilegiant then has about 9 days to substantiate the charge or they drop it. They will drop it.
3.) Think twice about claiming this as identity theft. It isn’t. Requesting a new card with a new number is only a hassle for you (if your bank is in partnership with Trilegiant). This doesn’t stop the charges. If *real* identity theft is suspected, you should ignore this point.
4.) Do: Focus your efforts. Don’t get too worked up – the charges are usually minimal $14 – $89.99. If your goal is only to protect yourself, you should dispute the charges and then make sure that if the company that actually billed you (USBank in my example) allows you restrict the exchange of information with 3rd party companies, that you do request they restrict the exchange of information.
Since these discoveries, I have successfully e-mailed all of Trilegiant’s executive staff as well as have the cell phone numbers of two of their media relations folks. If you would like to voice your opinion directly to them, please do. Caution: Do this only once. You can tell them your opinon but multiple contacts can be construed as harrassment and you can be prosecuted. If you want to contact them, explain how this experience affected you (don’t get emotional, angry or unprofessional) and also explain how you plan to SPREAD THE WORD.
Spreading the word:
1.) Write a single letter (I will send the template, feel free to change) and copy it 5 times.
2.) Send one copy of the letter to your state’s BBB (Better Business Bureau) – make sure that the letter describes your personal experience, inconvenience and disgust (in a professional manner – resist the tempation to get emotional… This is business and law, nothing more)
3.) Send one copy of the letter to your local State Representative
4.) Send one copy of the letter to your State Senator
5.) Send one copy of the letter to your State Governor
6.) Hold onto the last copy for yourself – you will need something to frame along with the article that reads: “Trilegiant Closes It’s Doors”.
You can also participate in a class-action lawsuit already targeting Trilegiant’s unethical actions. This route can be equally as effective. If you take this route, you will be profiting a law firm substantially and you will probably end up with a check some day equalling about eight dollars. Here’s the link if you want to take this route: http://www.girardgibbs.com/trilegiant.html
A note to Matt: THANK YOU for starting and hosting this topic. Myself and my girlfriend have both been inconvenienced by this company and state law in the last 3 months. I am considering changing my bank… I will as soon as I know that the next bank’s philosophy abhors partnerships with the likes of Trilegiant.
I guess I lucked out in that I only had to spend two or three hours on the phone straightening this out. I had to call 10 Trilegiant companies; all of them cancelled my “trial” membership, some with better grace than others–they will strenuously try to sell you a service you’re calling to complain about. I didn’t even try to get the $1 charges reversed after fruitlessly arguing with the first operator about it. Blockbuster and TWX said they’d credit me the charges they’d made, with no argument. The Blockbuster charge was for a membership fee; apparently I’ll be getting a free magazine or two from TWX, but I didn’t ask for details.
I called my bank, MBNA, two days ago and the fraud specialist I talked to said she had not seen this pattern before. After reading the excellent post by Doug above, I called the fraud department back today and asked if MBNA has any partnerships with Trilegiant. This operator admitted that yes, they do. I told her that I wanted to register a protest that MBNA would partner with such an unsavory company, and that I was very surprised that as a result my credit card information is now in the hands of that other company. I’m going to change my credit card number after some pending orders have gone through.
To their credit, MBNA was very helpful in having my account fixed so that no information will be shared with other companies, though I did have to request it based on Doug’s recommendation. They also offered to talk to me about an identity theft protection service they offer, but after I pointed out that the only breach to my security has been perpetrated by MBNA itself, they didn’t press the issue.
I’m still kind of puzzled that one of the unauthorized charges was Blockbuster, and the TLG charges came from a Netflix invitation. From what I’ve read, the competition between Blockbuster and Netflix is of mythical proportions. Are they linked in some underhanded way?
Thanks to Matt for hosting this thread. Without it I would undoubtedly have wasted many more hours doing detective work.
–Colleen
Doug, can I get a copy of that letter template you mentioned? Can you post a link to it?
And I forgot to mention–when my MBNA statement arrives I will dispute the $1 charges that I didn’t get refunded by TLG, so I’ll likely get the five bucks back eventually. It will be a little hassle for TLG for the bookkeeping, even if they don’t protest (disputed charges get deducted from the merchant’s bank account).
–Colleen
Hey, thanks for posting this update about your identity theft. The same thing happened to me today, and I am not so hesitant to change my check card number. Thanks for the excellent documentation.
Colleen,
Talk about irony!!! The Identity Theft Protection plan that MBNA offered you *is* partnered offer *through* Trilegiant. This is the plan that most banks partner with Trilegiant to offer. Hmmmm… Maybe this is their strategy!?!? Place small charges on your account so that you’ll get concerned and then offer you a Trilegiant plan to protect you from future Trilegiant charges. I know – I may sound paranoid, but after reading their practices, this sounds right up their alley.
Regarding the template. Yes, I will post. I want to make sure that it is most effective though by making sure I am covering the *correct* legal points and provide links to addresses regarding where to send. This might take me another week as work is a bit crazy right now. bear with me please?
Thanks.
Mystery solved again thanks to ALL OF *YOU*. My last one for a few days till I can deliver the template and other resources to make a difference. I propose that we refer to Matt as the pioneer/founder for posting this in the first place *and* having it end up in foremost searches via Google. After all, this *is* how we got the information. Thank you, Mr. Founder.
After reading through this thread again, the business scheme is even more clear… Thanks to you.
1.) We all give our banks credit for their help (read back in all of our comments).
2.) I, foolishly, even made the comment that I bet 1000% that my bank didn’t know who they were getting into bed with. How naive was that? Hindsight.
3.) Clara’s and Colleen’s comments filled in the missing pieces. (Matt is still the man).
a.) Clara was contacted by the bank to warn her of the charges… How much do you want to bet that if they offered her an Identity Theft Program, she would have taken it because of her recent experience. After all, they were watching out for her, right?
b.) When Colleen discovered that her bank had partnered with Trilegiant, they offered her an Identity Theft Protection program (for a recurring charge). That Identity Theft Program *is* a Trilegiant offering and a revenue share with the banks that we gave credit to.
We were naive, naive, naive. Let me say that again: we were all naive until we started sharing information.
I will take votes here: Which newspaper would you prefer this story to appear in? Pick a mojor one: Chicago Tribune, NY Times? We have a story and I will leverage my contacts to *try* and make it happen. I am concerned that major newspapers may have relationships with members of Trilegiant, so this avenue is iffy. After much thought, this is the *quickest* way to begin the process of shutting them down. I have to give kudos to Trilegiant: I was wrong about them… I thought that their primary skills were legal and financial. Their primary skill is psychology.
Please vote.
WelL I can’t speak to which paper would be better so I’ll leave that up to others who know better, perhaps your contacts?
I do recall getting a little ‘How to prevent identity theft’ flyer when I received my new ATM/DEBIT Card but I don’t recall if they were selling anything (I didn’t read it and promptly recycled it).
I only posted this thread because I figured someone else might be need to google any of those credit card charges some day, I had know idea I might have been the whistle blower on major credit card scam 🙂
As mentioned above there is one part of this puzzle that is a little weird, the Blockbuster Online charges that were created under fake e-mail addresses created with our names. Mine was matthewbaya@usa.com and I know another person on this discussion e-mailed directly and mentioned they had their full name @post.com. This is the only part that doesn’t seem likely as part of a ‘corporate conspiracy’ but who knows, I guess they could just automate that with some script or hire a temp to do this.
Doug thanks for all your hard work. It’s been interesting watching this thread evolve.
-Matt
More research. Today I called my local police department. They were interested (the detective even read this web page while I was on the phone with her) but can’t do anything because I didn’t physically lose my card. However, now if anybody else calls them with the same complaint they’ll know something about it.
I called the MBNA Fraud Department back to see if I could get them to pursue an investigation, or at least find out if there is any chance that the charges did in fact come from some sort of MBNA/Trilegiant partnership. I mean, we’re all blaming our banks on the basis of circumstantial evidence, right? When I suggested that, the woman got pretty huffy with me and switched me to the Customer Satisfaction department.
This person was nicer, at least. She said there is absolutely no way that MBNA would have shared that information without my permission. I asked if it could be the result of some opt-out deal but she still said no. I said that a group of victims are all assuming the fault lies with their bank, and she seemed genuinely concerned, but said she could not do anything about that. She also said the dollar amounts involved are too small for MBNA to bother investigating (even after I pointed out that, left uncancelled, the TLG $1 trial memberships could balloon into very big charges.)
Both women kept insisting that the only way to find out how Trilegiant and Blockbuster and TWX got our credit card information is to contact those companies directly. Well, I already asked Blockbuster (“all we know is, it was signed up for on the Internet”) and ten different TLG companies (“Through an online Netflix invitation”.) Maybe Blockbuster records IP addresses…? Would it take, like, the FBI to be able to get more information? As a simple consumer armed with only a telephone, I dont’ really know where to turn next.
—Colleen
Matt & Colleen
Matt & Colleen,
I agree. There are some loose ends to be tied up before this becomes anything more than circumstantial. May I have your personal e-mail addresses to share additional information and ask additional questions? By all means, feel free to set up temporary hotmail or other temp accounts for this purpose (takes less than 5 minutes). You can send these to: trispelunker@hotmail.com
Matt/Colleen, I understand the outstanding isssue regarding Blockbuster Online – I am researching. Colleen, thank you for your poking around and calling – I will share a response in private.
dude, it’s like some kind of id theft mekka! rock on.
OK, I’m at trispy27@hotmail.com. Spelunker–that’s great.
BTW I called my state attorney general’s office and spoke to someone in the Consumer Protection Unit. She’s sending me some sort of complaint form; she says doing things on paper is ever so much more effective than email and phone calls. And that it’s a good starting point.
Interestingly, as soon as I mentioned Trilegian she sort of whistled and said they’d had a big to-do with TLG a few years ago. So TLG’s slimy rep precedes it everywhere, apparently.
–Colleen
Just a quick update. In the mail yesterday I received my ‘membership cards’ for two of the sleazy Trilegiant services that I didn’t sign up for, AutoVantage Gold, which seems like a more commercialized version of AAA, and Travelers Advantage which supposedly gets you discounts on hotels, rental cars etc. Both are ‘credit card’ like cards. The mail accompanying them doesnt say anything implying ‘negative enrollment’ but they do say ‘Attached is the membership card you requested’
Here’s the thing though, these $1 charges that were associated with these memberships disappeared off my card. They were originally just ‘pre-authorization’ charges and since the real charges never went through they dropped off after a few days. However receiving these cards proves that things are still going on. I wonder if I hadn’t cancelled my debit visa card if they would have applied the full charges for these services?
I guess I should call them again since obviously I’m ‘in their system’ now and they can finally officially cancel this. (When I called them earlier I ‘wasn’t in the computer yet’, which I suspect is their stock answer for any new calls)
On the bright side my 21 month old son now has two fake credit cards to play with. 🙂
I expect I’ll get cards in the mail soon from the other 4 or 5 services that TLG signed me up for several weeks ago.
-Matt
The first TLG operator I called (at the number listed on the credit card statement) gave me direct numbers to all these outfits. You might have better luck calling these numbers than the ones on your statement. Worked for me. I got through to every one.
Trilegiant:
netmarket 800.209.7131
compl home 800.544.4663
travelers advantage 877.259.2689
great fun 800.214.6422
autovantage 877.259.2696
buyers 800.553.4948
shoppers advantage 800.526.4848
The names are close but not exact; I was trying to write fast.
And yes, Matt, I was told that if the temporary membership (not to be confused with a temp charge on your credit card) is not cancelled, eventually you’ll be charged something like $79 (monthly? annually?). The friendliest TLG operator I spoke to said that all the temp memberships I was signed up for would eventually run up something like $500 in charges.
–Colleen
Your telephone numbers for travelers advantage and greatfun are wrong. Traveler’s advantage is 800.678.3029 and greatfun is 800.290.8603. Also TLG has linkings to ticketmaster, budget, and avis. I work for TLG and I never knew all this stuff I just read. If ya’ll want any other telephone numbers or names or anything just ask and I’ll do my best. Peace!
The numbers I listed do work. I just called them again to check. I had to wait for an actual human to pick up at Travelers Advantage because the voicemail does not identify itself.
–Colleen
Today’s news:
I feel so warm and fuzzy and protected now that I have my AutoVantage membership card.
I also got a card in the mail from Synapse Connect, Inc., aka Magazine Processing Center, aka TWX Magazines about my subscriptions to Seventeen, Teen People, and Teen Vogue. Should I mention that everybody in our household is either over 50 or under 9 years of age? Anyway, the card says that I accepted an offer through OrangeBrick.com. Type this into your web browser. You get a generic “This Domain Is For Sale” page. However, if you google orangebrick.com, you get http://www.metareward.com/mr/fd/getNM/?code=orangebrick_form1&si=2463&ci=10919, which is purportedly one of those sites where you get free stuff by visiting web pages. This may be the origination point for all our memberships, but I still do not know *HOW* our credit card info got to these people.
Go to that page. All the links lead to dead ends. It’s apparently a phishing scam, but still, where does the credit card info come from? I put in some phony info (again, it never asked for credit card, just name, address, & email), and ended up at another dead end (the same This Domain For Sale page.) Great, now they have my IP address.
I did a whois on metareward.com. It’s NetFlip.com (not to be confused with Netflix). The phone number was changed, and I called the new number, and tried every extension but got voicemail everywhere. (I looked up how to block my caller ID before calling them. Am I getting paranoid?) If I did get a human I was going to ask why all the OrangeBrick links are dead ends.
I called Synapse Connect, asked for a supervisor, explained, got a call back (in a couple hours, amazingly enough) from Customer Service, who got me *his* supervisor, who was very helpful, especially since I stayed polite, stressed the fact that Synapse/TWX is not at fault, etc. She was not aware of what OrangeBrick is. However. when I asked if they record the IP address of whoever signs up, she said she can’t divulge that information, but acknowledged that they do have it. So I asked if they would provide it to a law enforcement agency and she said yes, of course.
Which is added incentive for me to fill out this nice form from the Wyoming Attorney General’s office that also arrived yesterday. I think getting some law enforcement action is our best course. It may be a sticking point that I have no actual monetary loss to speak of, but the fact that my credit card info escaped or was stolen should interest somebody, I hope. (Though that didn’t interest my credit card bank.)
–Colleen
p.s. Go to metareward.com. ALL the companies we’ve been talking about are clients of theirs. MBNA, Trilegiant, NetFlix, Blockbuster, plus Citi, American Express, you name it. MetaReward is definitely a nexus in my case. It’s “A Leader In Online Customer Acquisition” and was recently acquired by Experian.
AHA! Colleen, I think you just figured this out! I’ve been wondering all along why people would sing us up for magazines to our own home, and subscriptions to services to our home addresses, and make fake e-mail addresses based on our names. What is the purpose of spending all this time signing strangers up for stuff? But when you mentioned orangebrick.com as a place to ‘get free stuff by visiting web pages’ it made me think of the ‘freeipod.com’ sites out there. The way they make their money is by getting people to sign up, and sign up for a few free trials, magazine subscriptions etc., and then find 5 others to do this too based on your referral.
SOOOO… if some sleazy individual stole our information from their workplace, say Amazon.com or another online vendor.. Or maybe dumpster dived some files that should have been shredded.. who knows.. then they take this info and sign us all up for this crap, based on their referrals, and they get the credit and a free ipod etc. out of it.
While TLG and others are complete weasles, I suspect this boils down to more of a handful of individuals trying to profit from these scams.
Just to be sure i googled for free iPod and autovantage, and just like Colleen said for metarewards, all these companies show up. I think this is what’s happening.
Now if only we could figure out where our information was taken from.
-Matt
Yes, Matt, the only sticking point so far is: where does our credit card number come from? Like I said, the OrangeBrick signup process (which deadends even if you fill out all the forms) does not acquire credit card info.
–Colleen
Thanks to Matt for starting this blog and to everyone else for investigating this scam. On 2/9 UPS delivered a DVD(2 day air] from Blockbuster.com. It went downhill from there. I have sitting on my dining room table a box of CD’s from bmgmusic.com, DVD’s from Columbia House DVD Club, vitamin samples from Trimlife.com and an entertainment.com coupon book. Wait, but that’s not all! Two cosmetique.com make up kits will be arriving soon, which I will refuse and return as instructed by a company Rep after I called them. I also have six one dollar charges on my credit card statement from TLG for various discount clubs. I have called each one to cancel, but will keep an eye on my account.
I am working with my MBNA fraud department, but as soon as all the fraudulent charges are refunded I will find another credit card company. I also plan on filing a police report, calling my state AG, BBB, etc.
I know this may sound paranoid, but I think access to my account may, in some way, be through MBNA. Maybe they share customer info with Trilegiant. -Teresa
Teresa: Wow, you hit the jackpot.
I would give MBNA the benefit of the doubt until we know for sure. My bank is also MBNA. I’ve spoken to the fraud dept three times, and they *swear* they don’t give out our info without permission.
–Colleen
I called to cancel the services for the cards I received the other day. I called the #’s provided on the cards:
AutoVantage – 1 800 759 7218 – They now have me in their system, what a concept. Spoke with Belinda. When I said I wanted to cancel that obviously triggered her pre-set script for what great services AutoVantage included. I interupted her and said ‘I already have AAA’. Not missing a beat she said ‘That’s great, cause Autovantage also includes…’
‘I’m not interested, I want to cancel’
‘but you have a membership through March, are you sure you don’t want to try it out’
‘I didn’t sign up for this, I want it canceled’
‘Ok I’m cancelling your membership. Your confirmation # is . Stay on the line so you can save $20 on your next restaurant visit…’
‘I’m NOT interested’
Call to Travelers Advantage (1 800 Tel-Trip) was much better, in fact the man I spoke with said, in response to my mentioning that I had not signed up for this service. ‘Really? I spoke with a woman this morning who said the same thing. Have you heard of NetFlip ? She said that’s where she had been signed up from’. I mentioned my theory about the free ipods etc, that TLG pays websites for referrals and we chatted a while about this.
I also note by Blockbuster Online charge has yet to be reversed. Hmmm…
Colleen I hope you are right. When I spoke with someone in the fraud dept., they admitted to doing business with Trilegiant ” because they market services our customers might want” or something like that. When I asked how six charges got on my account, she said something about offers that I did’nt “opt out of” and that I should be happy that MNBA was refunding all the fraudulent charges. She got a little snippy when I asked if MNBA could make sure that my new card would not have charges from TLG. I asked to speak to her supervisor, but her supervisor was*busy* and would call me back. So far no response.
Matt, I spoke with Belinda also when I called AutoVantage! My conversation with her was identical to yours. It seems she is not surprised to hear that people are calling with the same complaint concerning fraudulent use of their credit and other personal info.
I received a package in the mail today from i-deal Direct Interactive out of Camp Hill PA. A bottle of Coral Calcium pills. I’m beginning to dread picking up the mail.
-Teresa
Gee, Teresa, at least you’re getting real merchandise. All I got was credit card charges. Snif. Matt, Blockbuster reversed my charge within 2 days.
ALL credit card banks appear to partner with Trilegiant. You’re not going to find one who doesn’t that you can switch to, I bet. They also all appear to partner with Metareward. Yuck.
Even if somebody is signing us up for all this junk so they can get a free iPod, that still does not explain where they got our credit card numbers. I might call Metareward back tomorrow and ask about that–after all, they might be a victim too, much as they might deserve it. Sure sounds like a lot of work for a free iPod, though, doesn’t it?
Imagine this: somebody, somehow, gets a list of credit card numbers with associated info. They say to themselves, “Hey! I can get a free iPod if I sign all these folks up for Teen Magazine! And I know that when they call to cancel all the unwanted junk, there isn’t enough tracking going on to affect my credits toward the free iPod! It’s much safer than using one of the stolen cards to actually order a bajillion iPods!”
Somehow, this scenario feels like it has a screw loose. Can anybody else think of a better one?
BTW I went ahead and changed my credit card number today. Teresa, you should at least consider doing that.
–Colleen
First off Matt, I would like to thank you for making this blog. It has proved very useful in figuring out just what exactly happend and why those fraudulant charges were in my transaction history. Doug I would also like to thank for providing much information.
Colleen- I just received my new MBNA card in the mail today. Now I need to notify all my auto pays, what a pain. At least the letter from MBNA says “zero liability against unauthorized use of your credit card.” I hope that also means any future hassles with all these clubs I was signed up for.
I think you are right , why would someone sit around all day and enroll people in various clubs , etc. They have the power to purchase whatever they want with other peoples credit.
What Doug wrote on 2/09 seems the most logical reason for this scam.
Has anyone else received as much merchandise as I have? I found another charge from Blockbuster today for 31.34, transaction date was 2/08, so far nothing in the mail. I called and canceled my card on 2/09 as soon as I received the first Blockbuster DVD. I have 13 charges total on my statement ( so far). I am waiting for pre-paid shipping lables to send everything back.
I look forward to getting this all resolved soon. This site has helped so much. Thanks again to everyone.
Teresa, it might be helpful for you to ask all these companies exactly how they got your information. That’s how I found out about Orangebrick/Metareward and Netflip/Metareward. Also ask to verify what info they have for you. Some people here have reported that all is correct *except* for a made-up email address.
I would believe that it’s our credit card bank doing some sort of “opt-out” deal with Trilegiant or Metareward except for three things:
1. My bank, MBNA, swears they didn’t (though Teresa’s, also MBA, told her it *was* an opt-out offer. Conflicting info there.)
2. Where do the made-up emails come from, if it was a “legitimate” partnering deal?
3. Why did Teresa get all that junk while most of the rest of us got trial memberships and standard bundles (i.e. teen magazines).
–Colleen
I don’t think I explained my ‘theory’ very well about the whole free ipod thing so let me try again. Lets say that somehow, a college student or teenager gets ahold of a list of credit cards either from their workplace from someone leaving files out, or not shredding stuff they should have, or via hacking.
Yes, once they have this info they could order plasma TV’s and all sorts of stuff, but they’d have to have it shipped somewhere and that leaves an immediate trace to them, or someone they know.
On the other hand, if they spend a few hours making up a dozen fake e-mail addresses, putting this info into a dozen advertisers on websites like metarewards/netflip, they can get a dozen free rewards of significant size., ie ipods/imac minis/ or even cash rewards etc. These are alot harder to trace back to them since these websites process so many referals, and the charges and so small it’s less likely people would pursue them as much as they would a $1000 lcd TV. Plus with the online cash rewards they could even do this all as a completely anonymous person with made up info, and then spend those rewards somewhere else online etc.
The reason this seems more likely to me than the Trilegient getting our info from our banks etc. and doing ‘opt out’ or ‘negative enrollment’ is that in in this scenario it only takes one or a few low level people in a business to break the law and take personal information, whereas the other theory requires someone higher up to make a corporate decision that could cause major reprecussions.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a firm believer that big corporations have pretty low levels of ethics when profit is involved, so I am not saying Doug’s theory is wrong, but mine does match alot better with the symptoms we’re seeing.
For the record, a friend of mine (who reads this blog) works as a teller at my bank, a local bank up here in Maine, (Union Trust, where the card in question came from. She said they do not partner with Trilegient, so I haven’t found a link to them myself.
I think Teresa was affected by someone who went a bit more crazy with her card, signing her up for places that actually ship stuff. Perhaps she didn’t notice the charges as fast as others here and got hit with a ‘second wave’ of charges.
Colleen- I called most of the companies, and the common response was that it was an online purchase, using my credit card, email, and personal info, and they could not give me anymore then that. Grrrr!
mbaya- After Googleing around I found so many sites for info on free ipods(free ipods 101, Geek.com, etc.) with detailed instructions on how to get free stuff and get five people to sign up, apply for credit, etc., even how to cancel offers after signing up. I was shocked that it seems to be such a mega craze. Almost like the “Cult of the Free ipod!” I agree with you that this may be the reason for most of the fraudulent charges. Is there anything we can do about it?
BTW I checked my MBNA statement today and all of the fraud charges have been credited back to my account, except the six TLG charges, hmmm.
Oh, Colleen, I too now have my Autovantage card, how nice. I think another call is in order!
I just was charged 8 $1.00 charges for various tlg netmarket services…. I called the 800 number and the woman informed me that the only way that these charges appeared was because I personally signed up for these membership. I had no idea what she was talking about. I know for a fact that I did not sign up for any memberships and yet she was so adamant that I did. ugh. Then she starts some crap about pop-ups. I own a mac and use a Safari browser. I have NEVER received a pop-up ad in the 2 years that I have used Safari. So, the clicking on a pop-up is lame. Anyhow, she found that someone using a fake email account was using my name and credit card info to sign up for the memberships. I asked her to cancel them and she did so. Now, I have the Blockbuster online charge to deal with. I suspect that this is part of the free IPod or Mac Mini scam too. I have a brother in college who told me about the IPod scam a few weeks ago and Blockbuster online was one of the companies you had to sign up for in order to obtain your IPod. What a mess!!!
Well,
I must agree with several recent conclusions. 1.) I think it may be a rogue who has taken advantage of a faulty process 2.) I am pretty sure (time will tell) that exchange of information between banks and Trilegiant allow the charges to occur. Let me essplain, Lucy:
This is an excerpt from my bank’s privacy policy:
“When we believe that an unrelated company offers products or services that would be of interest to you, we may communicate to you about them. These companies will not learn about your relationship with us unless you respond to their offer.”
I think that an unethical individual submitted data indicating that we were interested (i.e. wanted to subscribe). Keep in mind that without this exchange of data, we couldn’t be charged on our personal accounts. I am now focusing on “what data” was exchanged.
An excerpt from a response of the legal department of US Bank: “Although we can not provide you with any specific information on your account that may have been shared, however we would by happy to send you our Privacy Pledge that outlines what information we share within U.S. Bancorp and our affiliates.” I can share the e-mail in its entirety to anyone who would like it, but the meat of it is above.
FYI: Not an IPOD scam – I never signed up and never would on something like that. I would encourage all on this thread to check with their bank or credit card provider (wherever the charges appeared)… Ask them this: “Do you offer an identity theft program? If “yes”, ask “Is it with Trilegiant”?
Personal update: After a week and a half of travel away from home, I collected my mail and found 5 individual letters… All read (paraphrased): Your $1 dispute has been settled, but you need to contact ‘x’ (a Trilegiant company) to stop the billing as it a monthly recurring charge.
I am an honest man and I don’t mind contradicting my own guesses based on more recent info, so here it goes:
– I doubt any collusion between the banks and Trielgiant. As I was attempting to connect the dots, these were the first connected. The connected dots helped *but* I really do smell an unethical individual rather than a corporate scheme, after much deliberation.
– The very fact that a partnership between Tri and a bank could be taken advantage of, wreaks of bad process and bad bedfellows – poor decision making on behalf of my bank. This is not small news… we can get the word out.
Colleen – Thank you for the personal time you spent. You are nothing short of a slueth. Your information will help tremendously.
Matt – I visited your web site. I have even more respect once I saw/understood your family focus.
“Anonymous”… Tell us more. *You* have the floor. My question for you: How does Trilegiant gain access to the card/account numbers? Is it via the partnerships?
Just received another ‘card’ in the mail, GREAT FUN!. 1-800-214-6422
They gave me the same fake e-mail address used on other accounts (my name @usa.com). They said I had been signed up on netflip and had opted for the free pair of walkie-talkies. I asked ‘Can you tell me where those were shipped?’ She then started reading my home address, so I guess I have some crap en route too (which I am NOT paying for)
Fun Fun Fun
-Matt
I’m a newbie victim of this perplexing scam. Have any of you signed up for trial memberships with Gamefly.com? It’s like Netflix, except for games.
Peter,
I have not signed up for a gamefly trial. Can you do me a favor? Tell me what bank or credit-card issuer actually charged you.
For me, it was US Bank.
Thank you.
Doug
Matt,
My theory may be wrong as I said before. I am trying to figure this out like we all are… Just trying to connect the dots.
I didn’t read the details of the Ipod scam that you mentioned until now, my apologies. Please read my personal e-mail to you. Several dots have been connected.
Thanks.
Doug
Thanks for your time, Doug.
Personally, I think the nexus of all this is Metareward/OrangeBrick/Netflip. They’re all the same company. Trilegiant got my info from Netflip; TWX got it from Orangebrick.com.
I’m going to ask my state attorney general’s office if they’ve ever heard of that outfit. Also the atty general may be able to make them divulge the IP address of the original applicant, which is one way I can think of to follow the trail.
I’m in Wyoming. What state are you guys in?
–Colleen
Thanks for the info. I began getting stuff last week. Mine began with a subscription to Walt Disney movies and continued with AutoVangate, cosmetique and the coral calciium. My credit card has several $1 charges for magazines, but I haven’t seen who the charges are to yet. After reading your postings, I shudder to think how many hours I’m going to have to spend to clean all this up. The card I know about being used is CitiBank (it was ATT until recently). I’ve changed the number. I hope you’re right about the bank not being involved.
I vaguely remember accidently clicking on the Disney ad while shopping on Amazon. I clicked off of it without reading it, but after the CDs appeared I wondered if Amazon had shared the credit card information. I did notice that several of you mentioned that you trust Amazon. I know I’ve seen an ad for the Coral Calcium, but I don’t remember where. Amazon, Paypal, Apple and William Sonoma are the only sites I remember shopping at lately.
I live in Maryland
I’ve found out more, but for now, the best advice for all who have suffered this is to
1. Change your credit card number (in case the banks aren’t to blame).
2. Contact Equifax, Transunion, or Experian to put a Fraud Alert on your credit. Whichever one you contact will tell the other two. The Fraud Alert lasts for 90 days.
3. Contact Consumer Sentinel (part of the Federal Trade Commission) to report your circumstances for their database. I called the toll free number, and the operator, Michelle, was friendly and more chatty than I expected a government operator to be. Very helpful.
Credit bureau fraud contact info: http://www.transunion.com/content/page.jsp?id=/personalsolutions/general/data/ReportingFraud.xml
Consumer Sentinel: http://www.consumer.gov/sentinel/idtchart.htm
–Colleen
(YELLING FOR EMPHASIS): IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED SIMILAR FRAUDULENT CHARGES, PLEASE LIST THE FOLLOWING IN YOUR POST… IT WILL HELP TREMENDOUSLY.
1.) The list of charges (as Matt did in his post which attracted all of us… please list each line item description on your statement along with the amount)
2.) The name of the financial institution that billed the charges (US Bank, MNBA, a community credit union, etc)
3.) The state where you currently reside.
4.) All physical materials received (letters, DVDs, etc.)
Together, we have connected many dots *but* need only a few more dots. Thank you so much.
Doug