Identity Theft

388 thoughts on “Identity Theft”

1. Everything on this page makes sense. My updated info is the following:

   My mother has a AAA acount, and she wanted me to set up an online bill pay which happened to be through MBNA. Now right after I set this up I got the charge for 8.99 both months in a row not a week after signing up. Th cjarge on my statement was DIRECTDEBIT/VISA TLG*GREATFN1777077800-285-5903 CT $8.99. Now when I called the number listed and entered the account number, the automated system could not find me in the system. I even tried taking the number 1 off. Still did not recognize me. So now, erg, I am going to toughen up real quick and call that number again to see if I can actually get a real person. I did change credit cards with my bank last night, and filed a couple complaints, and also removed my account information from the MBNA online payments. Hope this is more helpful info. I truly think someone got our info from MBNA. I will also fill out the other forms on this site. I have never had any issues at all with unauthorized funds until I sugned up with MBNA. Will check back and let you all know what happens. Thanks all. 🙂

   Ok, I did not post this yet, thank goodness. I found the info… Any of you Buy.com users? I just went to my order history and there is a link to click for a rebate. This link takes you directly to : https://secure.buy.com/corp/trilegiant/offer.asp?

   ok, now there is a place for you to sign up for these offers and create an account. I never filled this out. It was automatically generated when I purchased my item from buy.com in DEC. Link to puzzle guys? My email address is kkatriss25@msn.com and would like to be added to your updates. Hope this helps.

   ,Mel

2. oh yea. I did cancel my account through great fun, and they said they would refund both charges, so I asked how they would do that if I had cancelled my card. She put me on hold, and asked. She came back and said it would still go to my bank and my bank would issue me a check since I changed my card account. I’ll let you know if I get a reund.

3. I am also charged $8.99 on my credit card and that also for 3 months in a row. How ignorant I am!! 1st transaction, I did not notice, 2nd transaction I thought I might have done that!! 3rd transaction, no way, I did not pull out my Credit Card even from my pocket. This is a scam and I have complained to my Credit Card company. They are replacing my Credit card now and lodged dispute for these three transactions.

   I searched for “GREATFN” on google, and I found few webpages where I found many people were victims of this scam. I have bought something on BUY.COM in december too, and then I was taken to a rebate page where I entered just my email information (No Credit Card information was entered here). Does this mean, BUY.COM is cheating people OR having connections with wrong people.

   What the hell is going on!!!

4. I have been called by a place calle CompuPlus Benefits offering me a Mastercard with a $2500 credit limit – I don’t have great credit and have been turned down a few days ago by Mastercard – now here’s this phone offer – of coourse they want my banking info, my social and driver’s license number and will take $350 out of my account and will send me this card in 7 days – I called the number he gave me and it wasn’t to the place he claimed – I called 411 to get the number for this business and there is no listing for CompuPlus Benefits in St. Petersburg, FL – sounds like a scam to me – what do you think – don’t think I’ll bite. What do you think?

5. Not that I’m an expert on this but for offers like this, if you REALLY need a credit card and have to resort to one of these pay to get credit or pay-in-advance credit cards I suggest you find a place on your own and NEVER trust someone who calls you.

   This goes for any phone call you get, even if they say they are from your bank, credit card company, insurance company etc. Never give out information to someone who calls you, only give it out when you KNOW who you are calling. If you ever feel uneasy about a question someone is asking you take that as a sign and say you’ll call them back later.

   This also goes for e-mail offers or e-mails that claim to be from Paypal, ebay etc.. Even if the URL in the e-mail looks legit, if you click on it and look closely you’ll see that it takes you to a fake website. This is called ‘Phishing’ and the people that are doing it are getting very slick, to the point that I, a computer geek & somewhat cyber-paranoid individual, have almost been tricked. My mother is scared by these e-mails all the time and I tell her to always throw them out and if she is really worried something has happened to her ebay account to go to ebay via her book marks and log in as she always does, and if their was something wrong she’d get a message there.

   So that’s my 2 cents. It’s fun having you all here on this blog, even if it’s for a crappy reason. I’m glad this blog entry is serving as a resource for so many people.

   -Matt

6. >So that’s my 2 cents. It’s fun having you all here on this blog, even if it’s for a crappy reason. I’m glad this blog entry is serving as a resource for so many people.

   I gave it to CitiBank to help them with my fraudulent charges. 🙂

   Len

7. A charged showed up on my account today from TLG*GREATFN. I traced it back to buying movie tickets online at Fandango. There was a rebate offer, so I clicked on it. It was not a pop-up because I have them blocked. I did not enter my credit card for the rebate. I purposely looked for a membership fee, because I knew a $20 rebate on 2 movie tickets seemed too good to be true. I usually don’t persue things like that, but I trusted and got burned. Just got off the phone with Great Fun and they said they would credit my account, and cancel my membership. There was no wait time and the attendant was very amiable. She didn’t question my cancellation and appeared as though she had done this before many times. The number I called was: 877-709-0966, it took a total of 3 minutes. However, I did have to ask if my account would be credited after she canceled my membership. She had to look up something, as if it wouldn’t have been if I didn’t ask. I’ll repost when I actually get my credit.
   Thanks for posting this site.

8. Guys, you can probably absolve MBNA of any wrongdoing. I just found two unauthorized charges on my Visa check card, which is not with MBNA but a local bank; the charges are around 1/20, and the fraudulent MBNA charges were on 2/1.

   The difference this time is that there weren’t charges for TLG or Blockbuster; one is a Bidpay charge and one is somebody called newsfeeds.com. I called Bidpay and it was $110 for some model car that I did not buy. They will not give me any further info but will assist my bank. The other charge, $9.95, is some outfit called newsfeeds.com; the phone number on the bank statement didn’t work, but I’ve left a message at a number I found on the newsfeeds.com web site. It seems to be a legit company, as is Bidpay. I have yet to scrutinize my Feb and March statements.

   Because of the closeness of the dates, I think the compromising of both my cards is related. The task now is to figure out who would have both of my card numbers. I buy regularly from several vendors with both cards, but they’re all reputable. At least it’s a clue. I really think all of our info was involved in one of these huge stolen-information events. I just heard about another one this week. Maybe whoever steals the info sells off parts of it to different people, who use it for various scams (free iPod referrals, for instance, or just plain buying stuff like my Bidpay charge.)

   I haven’t bought anything from buy.com using this card since Feb 2003. My last buy.com purchase with the MBNA card was Dec 2003.

   This is a ROYAL pain for me, as I use that check card for all sorts of recurring payments. I’ve changed the number and will visit the bank next week to see if we can track these jerks down. At least the bank sounded more sympathetic and willing to pursue it than MBNA did.

9. Sue-
   There is a reason to cancel the card even if a new number could also eventually be stolen and that is because someone already has the current number and will continue to make referals on your account until the number is invalidated. It is true that once the card is canceled that the reoccuring charges can still happen but not new ones.

10. I disagree with you Ryan. First off once you know a cards info has gotten out of your control I would ALWAYS cancel it. Even if you think they can get your new card info also in the future that’s still no reason to leave your self open to more fraud.

    Also, when I cancelled my debit VISA in January I had to fix a number of places that had it for recurring charges and some I didn’t get to in time before they tried to charge it and were denied, so my experience here proves that once a card is cancelled, it’s OFF, no one can charge new charges to it. Charges that were in process and not completed perhaps, but recurring charges are new charges and would fail if the card is turned off.

11. I guess your right the charges I had were outstanding one time charges that were to be charged in the future after i cancelled it…i thought the same woud go for reoccurring, i didn’t think of the distininction, just that charges had been applied afterwards…either way we agree that the card should be cancelled

12. Great Fun credited my account today.

13. the same thing happened to me !! thank you so much for your info. i will now do the same annoying steps to get it sorted out…..

14. C’mon peeps, wake up. You fell for a bait and switch. I know someone that works for a certain company and she say people always go for the $20 offer, or the $15, or the free tickets, etc. You signed up for something and you didn’t read the fine print, end of story. As for the victems of real credit fraud, the scary company is:
    http://www.choicepoint.com/privacyatchoicepoint/
    But there are other boo-boos too, like when my credit union cards got canceled ’cause BJ’s wholesale database was stolen. You have to send every single opt-out notice back to yo cc company, cable company, online porn site, etc if you don’t want junk. But guess what, it don’t matter anyway, you r caught in the net like a mexican of the freeway, so just watch yo bills like a chicken hawk and don’t squak ’cause you got bought.

    -Killabisquit

15. For more info on TLG, go to: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/scam_alerts/tlg.html

16. I just had 6 $1 charges on my Washington Mutual debit card:

    TLG*GREAT FUN 1796800-290-8603 CT
    TLG*TRAVELADV11375800-318-2709 CT
    TLG*AUTOVANTGE1796888-657-2733 CT
    TLG*COMPLETHME1137800-490-2712 CT
    TLG*NETMARKET 1796800-209-7131 CT
    TLG*BUYERS ADV1796800-553-4948 CT

    I remember getting all these “membership cards” in the mail at one point, but I threw them out as junk mail. Like everyone else scammed by TLG, I’d like to know how they got my info. Is Washington Mutual in partnership with Trilegiant?

17. I forgot to mention that I reside in New York and besides those membership cards have not received any products in the mail.

18. Oh yes, and I have previously used this card to purchase used books through Amazon, and also paid for ebay purchases through Paypal. Perhaps I should call these companies to see if I have a fake email address under my name, too?

    I have to disagree that this is the work of a few individuals trying to get free Ipods. This is simply too large, with too many victims for it to be the work of some random college kids….

19. “Shoppers Advantage has come to the attention of the Better Business Bureau. People have called to complain about the cancellation policy that goes by a different corporate name. It’s called the Trilegiant Corp.

    The Better Business Bureau’s Jeannie Hoskins says Shoppers Advantage has an unsatisfactory record. “A lot of people unfortunately forget to cancel so they’re stuck in a contract. But with this company there seems to be a problem. Even the people who do call up and cancel, it doesn’t show up on their records.””

    http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=3175593

20. http://www.sptimes.com/2003/06/26/Action/Firm_s_record_poor_on.shtml

    Firm’s record poor on canceling memberships
    By NANCY PARADIS, Times Staff Writer
    © St. Petersburg Times
    published June 26, 2003

    I had a membership with TLG-Buyers Advantage for 2002. I didn’t get much use out of it, so I didn’t renew it. But the company charged my credit card $79.99. As soon as I saw the charge, I contacted Buyers Advantage. I was given a cancellation number, which I called in to my credit card company.

    I did get a refund, but it was $13.34 short. I was told it was prorated. I am an 83-year-old retiree, and I don’t spend money on something I don’t need or can’t use. What I want is a full refund of $79.99. I am hoping you can get this corrected. Walter Sorenson

    Response: Kristin Buonagura, director of customer relations for Trilegiant in Norwalk, Conn., the parent company of TLG-Buyers Advantage, said customers are never forced to remain members. According to the company’s policy of “satisfaction guaranteed or your money back,” the unused portion of a membership is refundable at any time during the annual membership.

    She said the company is sorry your initial request to cancel was not effectively processed. This has now been done. An initial credit of $66.65 was issued to your credit card April 28, she said. Two additional credits in the amounts of $13.34 and $69.99, totaling $83.33, will be issued as full reimbursement. Buonagura did not say, but we suspect the additional $69.99 credit is for your first year’s membership.

    We checked them out at theBetter Business Bureau site, http://www.bbb.org According to the Connecticut Better Business Bureau report, Trilegiant Inc. offers a variety of membership programs to credit card customers. The bureau’s report states the company “has an unsatisfactory record with the bureau due to a pattern of complaints concerning deceptive selling practices, unauthorized charges to customers’ credit cards, and non-cancellation of memberships following cancellation requests.” Although the company has resolved most of the complaints brought to it by the bureau, some remain unresolved or unanswered.

    Trilegiant, a spin-off of Cendant’s former direct-marketing division, Cendant Membership Services Inc., also does business under these names: AOL AutoVantage, AOL Credit Alert, AOL Netmarket, AOL Travelers Advantage, AutoVantage, AutoVantage.com, Buyers Advantage, Citishopper, CompleteHome, Credentials Services, Dental Plus Group Plan, Dinner On Us Club, Family FunSaver Club, Great Fun, Great Options, GreatFun.com, Health Saver, Homeowners Savings Network, Hot-Line, Just For Me, Macy’s Hot-Line, Netmarket, Netmarket.com, OurCompleteHome.com, PrivacyGuard, PrivacyGuard.com, Sears Discount Travel Club, Shoppers Advantage, ShoppersAdvantage.com, Today’s Homeowner Values, Travelers Advantage and TravelersAdvantage.com.

    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.

    You can contact Kristin Buonagura, director of customer relations, directly at kbuonagura@trilegiant.com

21. Trojan horse in an envelope

    By Jeff Gelles

    http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0205/gelles021005.asp | Something seemed odd about the bill Howard Moed got from Macy’s.

    For one thing, he hadn’t used the retailer’s credit card in a year or so.

    Then there was what he found inside: a $99 charge for an item listed as “Auto Gold.”

    Moed, of Montgomeryville, Pa., didn’t recognize the name, and wasn’t about to pay a charge he didn’t owe. But when he called the toll-free phone number listed alongside the charge, Moed wound up with more of a mystery on his hands.

    He learned that Auto Gold – officially, AutoVantage Gold – is a membership club that offers services such as lock-out protection and roadside assistance, as well as discounts on auto maintenance or repairs.

    All well and good. But why was it on his bill if he’d never signed up?

    The AutoVantage representative told Moed that he had done just that – by cashing a $2 check sent to him as a marketing tool. His endorsement signed him up for a trial membership. When he didn’t cancel within 60 days, he was billed for a whole year.

    A plausible explanation. The trouble was, Moed didn’t recall ever seeing such a check, and was confident that neither he nor his wife would knowingly fall for such a pitch.

    Moed was rebuffed when he asked for a copy of the check. When he finally got one_ after I contacted Trilegiant Corp., the Connecticut company that markets AutoVantage – he said his wife may have signed his name, mistaking it for a rebate check.

    Even so, Moed objects to the whole marketing method as, at best, a confusing gimmick.

    He’s not alone in his complaint about AutoVantage or Trilegiant, a subsidiary of Cendant Corp., a vast real estate and travel-services conglomerate that owns such familiar brands as Avis, Orbitz and Century 21.

    The Florida Attorney General’s Office says it is investigating hundreds of complaints about Trilegiant, typically from consumers who believe they were wrongly billed for services such as AutoVantage.

    The Better Business Bureau of Connecticut says Trilegiant has “an unsatisfactory record” because of “a pattern of complaints concerning deceptive selling practices, unauthorized charges to consumers’ credit cards, and noncancellation of memberships following cancellation requests.”

    The Connecticut bureau says Trilegiant has resolved most of the complaints it referred to the company, but not all, and says it is referring further complaints to the state attorney general.

    Moed’s complaint was resolved swiftly, though not by Trilegiant.

    When the best offer he got was that Trilegiant would send him an application for a credit, Moed asked for a supervisor. After a long wait, he hung up and called Macy’s instead.

    At Macy’s, Moed heard a different tune. With him on the line, its customer-service rep called Trilegiant, then promised him that he’d get a refund.

    Jean Coggan, a spokeswoman for Federated Department Stores, says refunds are given to any customer who complains about AutoVantage or a similar travel-and-entertainment service that Macy’s also markets – a full refund, even if the complaint comes 10 or 11 months into a year-long term.

    Why such a liberal policy?

    “Customer service is one of our hallmarks,” Coggan says. “And if a customer isn’t happy with one of our products, we want to make it right for them.”

    Trilegiant, too, has a no-questions-asked refund policy, though only for the unused portion of a membership, according to spokesman Todd Smith.

    As for Moed’s broader complaint, Smith says that signing up customers with a “live check” is a common marketing practice, and that the terms of Trilegiant’s offers “are clearly and conspicuously disclosed.”

    Smith says Trilegiant has “a very small complaint ratio” from its millions of customers. “If a consumer problem arises, we fix it,” he says. “We took care of it with Howard, and he’s a satisfied customer.”

    I hate to break it to you, Todd, but that would be stretching the truth.

22. Rachel

    Trilegiant is such a huge company, and markets so aggressively, that I’m not surprised victims of more than one scam fall prey to their unauthorized charges.

    In the particular pattern that started this whole discussion, a bunch of us got fraudulent charges from not only a number of Trilegiant companies, but also Blockbuster and TWX (Time-Warner magazines). That’s the pattern where we suspect our cards are being used as “referrals” in the free iPod/free cash schemes.

    I’ve seen those $2 “checks” in with my credit card statement, and they do say on them that by cashing it you’re letting yourself in for a membership to something or other. Always remember there’s no such thing as a free lunch and read the fine print accordingly.

23. I just received a call today from Compu Plus Benefits. The company called my cell phone number. The caller id from cell was displayed as 1-223-2263. The first time this company called I could not answer my cell phone, so I call the number and, of course, the call could not be completed. So today when I received the second call I answered the call and spoke to a Andy Silva who stated I was approved for a $2500 credit card and he needed my social and checking account number for verification.
    I told him that I would need to do further investigation before given out info over the phone. So he did give me a Customer Service # 1866-860-8661. After so many questions the call suddently dropped. I called the number and it seems to be an outsourced customer service call desk called CCR (Customer Service Company) I talked with an agent who could not answer many questions and seemed quick to get me off the phone. But she stated that it would cost $398.00. I am so glad I found this web site. It saved me a $400.00 lost. Thank you

24. I have received this order. I have been charged by TrileGiant (aka GreatFun) following this order. In doing some research I see that Buy.Com is associated with/affilliate with TrileGiant*. I am disputing the charges from TrileGiant. I will not do any further business with Buy.Com until such time that Buy.Com terminates the affiliation with TrileGiant.

    I am notifying you according to the Better Business Bureau:
    ” has an unsatisfactory record with the Bureau due to a pattern of complaints concerning deceptive selling practices, unauthorized charges to consumers’ credit cards, and non-cancellation of memberships following cancellation requests.”

    ConsumerAffairs.Com has a Scam Alert about TrileGiant. This alert can be found at http://www.consumeraffairs.com/scam_alerts/tlg.html.

    I would be interested in Buy.Com’s stance on discovering/knowing about its partnership with such an irreputable company. Does Buy.Com plan to continue its partnership with TrileGiant or any of it’s parent companies/subsidiaries? How can Buy.Com help me get my money back from TrileGiant?

    I have used Buy.Com for many purchases, personal and for work. I like Buy.Com. I will not compromise my credit as it has been compromised by Buy.Com through TrileGiant.

    * http://www.trilegiant.com/media/press_release.cgi/Corporate/110

25. Ken,

    I too have suspected Buy.com in my case. No solid proof. Star Rewards was one of my fraudulent charges. If you go to that Web site, you’ll see Buy.com and Apple Computer logos. Both companies had my credit card info…

26. I just today got my membership in this happy club. Tonight, I stumbled on this website….Thank Goodness.

    Today, I got my Visa bill with three charges for $1 on the 18th and three more on the 19th. Net Market, Autovantage, Great fun, etc. All with TLG.

    This afternoon, we were able to get in phone contact with two of them and got their load of doublespeak. One place said we had requested the order and it cane by Email thru Yahoo. As can be seen, I am not and never have been with Yahoo.

    Visa is issuing a new card and sending a affadivit which will allow them to cancel the charges. If I find they are in partnership with Agilient, the card will be cancelled immediately.

    I am also contacting my local newspaper and TV stations as well as notifying the Colorado Attourney General.

    Can’t believe this scam is so widespread and has been going on so long.

    Thanks to all for the information.

    Bud

27. All this happened to my husband, too, in the beginning of January, I think (I’ve been taking care of the loose end since he cancelled the credit card immediately after the first charges — to Blockbuster, AutoVantage, and Travel Atvantage– showed up). I’ve tried to no avail to find others who this has happened to since then, and couldn’t until today, when I FINALLY got the contact info of the subscription service that subscribed us to magazine (Oprah, Food & Wine, Travel & Leisure). The service was called “NewSub Services,” and when I called them to cancel, they said “I” sign up through OrangeBrick.com I finally found this thread after googling orangebrick.

    1.) The list of charges: It’s been a while but only a few things managed to be charged before we canccelled – AutoVantage, TravelAdvantage, Blockbuster Online. All the rest we’ve just received products for: the magazines listed above and AOL membership.
    2.) The name of the financial institution that billed the charges: CitiBank
    3.) The state where you currently reside: California
    4.) All physical materials received (letters, DVDs, etc.): DVDs from Blockbuster, TravelAdvantage Card, AutoAdvantage card, magazines (I *wish* I got the Entertainment book! Love that thing!)

    The iPod theory makes perfect sense to me. I’ve been trying to figure out for months why someone with our cc info would bother using it to send stuff back to us. I’d like to think that as sleazy as a corporation is, they wouldn’t be able to get away with this blatent of fraud, so I’m inclined to lean toward the internet booty theory.

    Here are some things to throw out to the collective as far as what we may or may not have in common.
    – Used freecreditreport.com
    – Used Amazon.com
    – Used iTunes music store
    – Use a Mac

    – Never bought from buy.com

    I’m punchy from reading this entire thread and staying up late, so I’ll end there and follow up later if I can think of anything else to add.

28. I’M GLAD SOME ONE HAS BOUGHT THIS TO MY ATTENTION I ALSO GOT A CALL FROM THESE PEOPLE COMPUPLUS BENEFITS THEY GAVE ME THE SAME LINE I HAD APPLYED FOR CREDIT I WAS TURNED DOWN NOW THEY ARE OVERTURNING THE DENIAL AND APPROVING ME FOR A CARD FOR A 2500.00 LIMIT AND LIKE AKILA SAID YOU HAD TO HAVE 354.60 TO START THE ACCOUNT LIKE A FOOL I AGREED TO THE TERMS AMD CONDITIONS I’M IN CREDIT TROUBLE ALSO SO THIS SEEMED TO GOOD TO BE TRUE, THEY HAVE NOT HIT MY ACCOUNT YET. I HAVE A PREPAID DEBIT ACCOUNT AND IF I DON’T SET UP A AUTOMATIC BILL PAYMENT PLAN WITH MY BANK FIRST IT WON’T GO THROUGH I’VE TRIED TO HAVE THINGS DRAFTED FROM MY ACCOUNT BEFORE IT DOESN’T WORK I HAVE TO CALL THEM AND HAVE THEM SEND THE COMPANY THE MONEY. HOPEFULLY MY BANK WILL NOT GO ALONG WITH THE GAME. I’M GLAD I LOOKED UP THE COMPANY AND GOOGLE AND FOUND YOU GUYS I WOULD HAVE BEEN IN ALOT OF TROUBLE ON THE 4TH OF MAY.

29. does any one here bank with BANK ONE. IF SO HAVE YOU HEARD OF THEM PARTNERING WITH ANY OF THESE FRAUDULENT COMPANIES?

30. Hey Sharika – If I were in your shoes I’d go get my debit card cancelled BEFORE that charge hits. Since you agreed to it it’s quite possible your bank wont think it’s a scam and will approve the $354 charge. If nothing else go contact your bank and make sure they dont approve anything from that company.

    Better safe than sorry.

31. UPDATE: I called each of these companies to “cancel” my “membership”. Each one told me that I would receive no future charges, but that the $1 trial fee wouldn’t be refunded. This doesn’t matter to me since I have already contested the charges and received a refund from Washington Mutual. I then asked each phone rep if there was an email address attached to my “account”. For all but one, there was this email: emilyfiskrusse@unlimitedmail.org I asked the first phone rep if she could spell that out for me, and she said in a very rude tone, “What, you don’t know your OWN email address??” Lol…if my name is Rachel, why would I have an Emily Fisk Russe email address? Anyway, this may indicate that I am also a victim of “free ipod” referrals…I don’t know. But I do know that the evil Trilegiant is complicit in this whole scheme…I don’t know how Nathaniel J. Lipman looks at himself in the mirror every morning or gets to sleep at night. Shame on you!

32. Kerri,

    – Used Amazon.com
    – Used iTunes music store
    – Use a Mac

    ***********************

    Me too. And Apple had my CC number for all purchases, beyond iTunes.

    Len

33. Now I don’t feel alone.

    I also had my info used to sign up for a ton of different TLG offers and others too. Luckily I caught it the next morning and cancelled the card in about 30 seconds.

    Here’s what I found.

    Almost all(99% of the 15-20 offers this idiot used my card on) were part of incentive programs through a site called http://www.perkcentral.net. The genius used my info to receive bonus points on the site which they could cash in for money by signing me up for lame offers.

    The 1 I couldn’t figure out, as it was not available on perkcentral.net was Buyer’s advantage. Lo and behold, I found it. The person went through http://www.netflip.com where I guess they earn cash for signing up for crap. This info was given to me by the fine folks at buyer’s advantage.

    The best part is they used my card info to sign up for a compuserve email account and then used that fake email address in my name to sign up for the rest of the offers. That way I didn’t get confirmation emails sent to me.

    I loved calling these people and have them tell me my fraudulent email address. Usually they would try to convince me I signed up for the garbage because they had my home address. Like I wouldn’t remember signing up for 15 crappy programs in one evening. Unfortunately I cancelled the compuserve email account before I could send my new friend a gift.

    This all happened around the beginning of April, so it is still going on.

    I was also able to get the ip address of the computer used to make some of the fraud purchases. I submitted it to the local police. It actually resolved to a location about 20 minutes from me.

    Good Luck all and stay tuned…

34. still no conclusive evidence (there most likely won’t ever be) , but I still find it strange that most of us are mac or itunes users. (of course it could be amazon etc)

35. This thread makes a very interesting reading, thanks everybody. I haven’t been a victim of the free ipod scam (so far), but today I have found a $99.99 charge from Auto Gold on my Macy’s card statement. Yes, that is entirely my fault for not reading the fine print in a $5 check I got from Macy’s. 🙂 Anyway, the Auto Gold guy over the phone agreed to cancel my membership without protesting too much.

36. I had identical charges to Matt.

    I’m on a Mac, I use my Debit card for a lot of online purchases. I only caught this because I saw the Blockbuster charge and the AOL charges.

    I would never gie either one of those companies my money.

    Wells Fargo fraud dept was helpful but a pain to deal with.

    They claimed to not know about this scam. The worst part of all of this is the amount of time we are all spending on it.

    ugh.

37. I was also taken through the same procedures for the unamious “compuplus benefits”. My account was debit est. $350 and I recieved a bogus package the other day. The pckg. contains a number of different offers such as computers, satellite tv, cell phones, insurance, etc, which all require some type of funds to be mailed with.(suspcious) The letters enclosed with the pckg. from COMPUPLUS BENEFITS seem to be typed by a child. There is no address, names, phone number or anything on the letter; its just closed as COMPUPLUS MANAGEMENT. I was told that to recieve a refund. You have to send the pckg. to the address on the box, get a tracking # from the post office and call the 1866# with the tracking number to ensure the pckg. is being returned. After recieving the pckg. COMPUPLUS will in 30 days refund the money back into your checking acct. The customer service reps are not courteous at all. The try to get little attitudes with you and hang up b/c of their insecurity. I questioned who in there right mind would keep an account open after such process? My assumption is that they know that you close the existing acct b/c you feel that you have been a victim of fraud. But in order for a refund they have to have your acct# again. Refund or deduction??? You take a chance again of losing.

38. So I got my statement and had this $8.99 charge from the “TLG*GREATFN…” company and I did a bit of searching on the net and found this site. I called up my credit card company and they patched me through to the 800 number from this greatfn. Someone got on the phone and tried selling me something. After repeatedly telling them “i’m not interested…” they finally relented and stated that I would be refunded the money… but within either 10-15 business days OR 2-3 statements. WTF??? That is unbelievable. All throughout this conversation, they kept trying to sell me stuff… I asked where did I sign up for this and I was told buy.com. Well, Im a bit angry with them now. I never signed up for any crap from buy.com and if they are selling my CC information… that’s insane, identity theft by buy.com great! just what I need. Anyway, I called my Credit card company back and told them what grtfun said to me, to which the rep from the cc company said “well, if you don’t get the refund by the end of the month, then we can deal with it then.” My argument was, why don’t you deal with this s–t now? anyway, that’s my horror story from this afternoon…

39. I was charged by TLG Great Fun as well. I called my bank so I could get a contact number. I got in contact with them and they said that when I purchased movie tickets from Fandango, I asked for a “membership”. Which I never did. Well, to make a long story short, they gave me back my $9.99 and hopefully I will not be charged again. The number that is on your card statement is the Acct. # they have for you. They do not ask for you actually acct. number.The number is 1-877-709-0966. If this number does not work then just call your bank. Hope this helps

41. Thanks everyone for leaving their experience with TLG, I found it quite informative. 🙂 I was charged for $9.99 on 5/2, and I was utterly confused. I couldn’t figure out if I had bought something or not, and when I searched Yahoo for TLG Greatfn, I found this website. It’s been a lot of help, but I still had no clue of what I could have bought that could have triggered this charge. I usually buy from what I think are safe places such as amazon and such, but it wasn’t until the previous post by Katrina who said she bought tickets from Fandango that it hit me. I could have sworn that I have never heard of Great Fun, but when Fandango was mentioned, it clicked in my head that there was a pop up offer after I signed up with Fandango- which was Great Fun. Going through my old e-mails, I found the e-mail they sent me after I stupidly registered for it, since it turned out to be of no use at all to me.

    Number 7 of their membership terms and conditions quote “7. RIGHT TO CANCEL MEMBERSHIP – You have the right to cancel this Agreement at any
    time. You may cancel this Agreement by calling 1-877-709-0966 or writing to: Great
    Fun, 7 Cambridge Drive, Trumbull, CT 06611, Attention: Membership Department. If you cancel this Agreement during your trial, you will owe nothing more. If you cancel
    this Agreement at any time thereafter to be refunded the current month’s paid
    membership fee.You will remain liable for any other fees, purchases or charges to be
    paid pursuant to this Agreement.” I received this e-mail on March 21, 05- and so far, going back on my account, this is the first charge that I have received.
    Great Fun is definately affiliated with TLG,

    “Great Fun Membership Terms & Conditions

    AGREEMENT made between Trilegiant Corporation, a Delaware corporation with offices at 100 Connecticut Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06850, providing a service called Great Fun, called “GF,” and the person specified on the GF membership card.
    WITNESSETH: blah blah” and it lists it’s terms & conditions.

    Also, “Great Fun(R) is a service provided by Trilegiant Corporation, which may modify or improve any part of the service at any time and without prior notice. Great Fun is a
    registered service mark of Cendant Publishing, Inc.
    (c) 2004, Trilegiant Corporation”

    So I’m going to call Great Fun later, when they’re open, hopefully I wont run into too much trouble. Now the question is, should I still cancel my Visa Check/ Debit Card with Bank of America and open another one? Oh, and btw I’m in California. 🙂 Thanks everyone.

42. My suggestion, yes cancel the card. Your credit card number has been used without your permission and is ‘out of your control’. If one company got it, others could get it/have it also. Better safe than sorry.

43. The very same thing happened to me!!! I made a purchase from Amazon on 05/06/2005. That same day TLG*FinServ charged my account $8.99. I called my bank to question it and they had no idea what it was but did give me the 800 #. 800-285-5903. After sitting on hold with that number for over 30 minutes I called my bank back and cancelled my debit card. I won’t leave that number out there for future unauthorized charges. Yes, it will take up to a week to get a new card but it’s worth the hassle that will be saved in the long run. My bank is investigating at this time. I gave them a website of attorney’s that are filing a class action lawsuit against Triligent Corp.

    As for my Amazon purchase… I emailed the seller, explained the situation and told them to let me know if they didn’t receive payment and I would take care of it. Amazon assured me that the system they use can’t be hacked to get consumers information but who knows. Anything is possible. I’ve shopped at Amazon for about 3 years and this is the first time anything like this has happened… maybe someone did manage to get into the system.

    FYI ~ http://www.consumeraffairs.com/scam_alerts/tlg.html
    http://www.consumeraffairs.com/scam_alerts/trilegiant_complaints.html

    Let’s keep eath other posted on how things progress.
    Thanks!!

44. Here’s the link if you’re interested in joining the class action lawsuit… http://www.girardgibbs.com/trilegiant.html

45. Hey ya’ll,

    I just got scammed by these guys as well. They charged my account a preauthorization for two magazines to TWX*MAGAZINE. Both were Video Game magazines.

    In the last few years, I personally haven’t bought any games one I got for a friend — I bought it from Electronics Boutique about two weeks ago.

    I asked about my ‘file’ and apparently EB sold my information that I had bought a game along with selling my credit card number. I vaguely remember the guy asking me if I’d like to join their club or get two free magazines — in which I told the guy I wasn’t interested. I don’t like a lot of small talk with gaming geeks. He kept pushing it as if Hey Man Its FREE and I said no, I just want the damn game.

    They had an earlier address on file — they had the apartment I lived in for 10 years before buying my own house.

    So here is one company that is interested in selling my information to scum marketters. I wasn’t really going to ever buy anything from Electronic Boutique again, but now I’m thinking of talking to my lawyer (I still have a few hours retainer left this year) because selling my credit card HAS to be illegal — if I put someone elses card online, I’d be locked up in a heartbeat.

    Electronic Boutique are scum marketters. Anyone else buy from these guys?

46. I just found out today that I am being billed $8.99 a month from TLG company. I have only made one online purchase, and I use it to pay my AOL. What’s the deal here? I had never heard of TLG until today. I spoke to a specialist at my bank, he said it is only listed as TLG company, and it appeared as a check card purchase instead of an electronic withdrawal. He seems to be helpful and has disputed the charges for me. I am so pissed, what can I do about it? how did this happen?
    I realize that $8.99 (x2 months) is hardly up to par with what some of you have had to deal with, but I am so very upset none the less. Why are these people still able to do this if (as I read here earlier) they were first discovered to be frauding people in 2003 ??? I want justice!

47. First of all thanks to this site and to Katrina, I hope that after calling both the number she provided and my bank, I will now be compensated for my loss. I discovered an attorney group that is suing TLG and all of their other “names”. The link is http://www.girardgibbs.com I left them a long letter discribing my problem. I encourage each of you to do the same, maybe they can nail these bastards.

48. Well if this is what the future has in store for us we as a society, thwn we are srewed a little futher up the road of time as we come to a world of moneyless transactions. On plastic when credit cards were first coming of age, they were a security front for the average person so that in the event a robbery were near by he couldn’t rob you of your cash. But as we all have seen now the very robbers we were seeking to thwart may now be our very own banking institutions. I for one think am going to be using checks from now on, so if I’m in front of any of you people and I’m writing a check to the store or some other place where I am shopping please give me a little more time than the guy who just swiped his card in front of me and gave that store all of his info about his financial staus. I am going to my bank tomorrow and tell them to just take these debit cards and cut them up and send me new checks. Lets also if possible teach these robbers a lesson and do as Matt suggested and make up these letters and send them out to the right persons, hopfully they will make there way to congressional members in office, and they may play ball with the receipts in the capitol until they find a way to finally pass a law to stop this type of highway robbery.

49. TLG GREATFN charged my card $8.99. When I called their # on my billing statement, they said I went to http://www.adteractive.com and joined their membership. I’ve never heard of that website, nor have I visited it. I finally checked it out, it looks like an advertising agency. This charge showed up after I cancelled my Blockbuster Online account.
    I’ve also had to cancel my credit/debit card. Now I have to wait 10-14 days for a new card.
    I’ve spoken to a Freida with TLG, after I told her about the Consumer Affairs (www.consumeraffairs.com) report of them being fraudulent, she was very quick of giving me a cancellation # and hanging up the phone. She said I will be refunded the $8.99, but I had already cancelled my card. My bank is sending me dispute paperwork, hopefully, they will do something about it.

50. “TLG Shoppers” has shown up on one of my credit cards as an authorization for $1. I found this out only because I had called my credit card company regarding a particular unrelated charge. I was told about the TLG authorization at the time. Since I had never heard of TLG Shoppers, I inquired more about the authorization with my credit card company. They told me that the company was in Connecticut, and gave me a zip code for them, and a toll free number, (800)562-8888. I telephoned the company, and was told that they were “Shopper’s Advantage” and that they did a lot of business with many companies, some of which were credit monitoring serves, and also AOL. I eventually found that this authorization was related to a credit card monitoring service on the web (www.mycreditkeeper.com), which I recently had signed up for a 30 free trial. At the time of signup I was not informed that they were doing an authorization, or that such would appear under another name. Credit Keeper does seem to be a legit company, though, and as of yet they HAVE NOT chrged my account. However, the fact that these companies do not fully disclose to the consumer is not good business practice.

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