Unauthorized Charges on Two Different Accounts from Same Co.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

This has got to be some kind of scam. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed an unauthorized charge of $24.95 from a Visa Card I have through one credit union, for Experian Credit Info 866-5067894 CA. So I called that CU, they canceled that card and issued me another one along with a fraud form. From their records, I'd been charged two months in a row from the same company.

Now I just checked my regular checking account with a different CU, and found a $19.95 charge from the same company, dated Feb. 2nd!

I'm on the phone right now and my CU has told me that my Visa card has been compromised (along 8,000 other card holders), according to Visa.

Geez it's scary how easy it is for someone to get your private info.

[Y's_habibitk 2]

oh my! I hope you get it straightened out before any other charges appear.

It is scary, for real

[Ban Hammer 13,355]

it's goose!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

it's goose!

If it is, Charles, you and Nessa come on over for dinner, cause that goose is cooked.

[KandD 1]

Better get a fraud alert with all credit reporting agencies

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I did a little searching online and found that company is tied to FreeCreditReport.com. I have never signed up with them or used them and it looks like they've bilked a lot of people out of money.

[john & jean 37]

I did a little searching online and found that company is tied to FreeCreditReport.com. I have never signed up with them or used them and it looks like they've bilked a lot of people out of money.

SORRY 'BOUT THAT FANCY...maybe now they can afford better commercials!!!

[Peikko 1,575]

I think you will find that somewhere along the line you 'agreed' to some kind of contract with the company. While it is unscrupulous, it's apparantly not illegal. I am not sure if it was experian I had a problem with, but I did have an issue being billed by a company for services I didn't want because apparantly I had checked on an 'I agree to' box when I ordered something online. Of course, I might be wrong

Oh, I managed to cancel the contract and my money was refunded. Better that than identity theft, no matter how annoying it is.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Found this....

December 07, 2008

freecreditreport.com scam exposed AGAIN

I've often written about the freecreditreport.com scam. The website is run by the credit bureau Experian. Over at Smartmoney.com, in her story FreeCreditReport.com: Not So Free -- Still, reporter Stacey Bradford points out two key astonishing facts. First, that the site is ratcheting up its advertising:

FreeCreditReport.com spent a little more than $19 million on advertising during the third quarter, an increase of 28% from the same period in 2007, according to TNS Media Intelligence. A vast majority of that money -- roughly $14 million -- was spent on television ads.

Second, that the cancellation period to avoid being locked into the $14.95/month credit report monitoring service that the company sells is down to only 7 days -- and consumers are complaining that it is really hard to cancel.

The somnolent lapdog known as the Bush Administration Federal Trade Commission is responsible for the deception. Perhaps the numbers in the Bradford piece will wake them up. In weak settlements totaling a paltry $1.2 million dollars, it has continued to allow Experian to use the word "free" for its overpriced subscription service. Using the word "free" confuses consumers into thinking that they are going to the government-mandated annualcreditreport.com site where you can get an actual free credit report required by law. The web is full of other blogs that agree with me: (MSNBC Red Tape Chronicles blog, Huffington Post blog, Washington Post blog). If you are tricked into purchasing over-priced credit monitoring with the promise that it is "free", complain to the FTC and also to your own state attorney general (list here). He or she is a tough consumer cop, unlike the FTC.

Here's another thing: When the full history of the financial meltdown is written, it will describe the role of the credit bureaus. Not only did their super-duper credit scores fail to accurately warn of consumers' ability to repay, but their use of trigger lists and their incessant Internet ads for products such as lowermybills.com (also owned by, you guessed it, Experian) drove people to the mortgage companies where they got hooked on over-priced debt (previous blog). Over at his Center for Digital Democracy, Jeff Chester has written about the role of the credit bureaus in the explosive growth of behavioral advertising on the Internet.

http://static.uspirg.org/consumer/archives/2008/12/freecreditrepor.html

Edited February 3, 2009 by Mister Fancypants

[Peikko 1,575]

The key points being, they don't 'steal' the information, but rather piggy back onto a transaction people legitimately make and then hope that either you are too busy/stupid to notice, or that if you do notice, you don't try to cancel their service before the 'grace' period is up and hold you to it for x amount of months.

In other words, it's not illegal, it's not identity theft but it is unscrupulous and a pain in the #######!

Edited February 3, 2009 by Madame Cleo

[Amby 490]

This has got to be some kind of scam. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed an unauthorized charge of $24.95 from a Visa Card I have through one credit union, for Experian Credit Info 866-5067894 CA. So I called that CU, they canceled that card and issued me another one along with a fraud form. From their records, I'd been charged two months in a row from the same company.

Now I just checked my regular checking account with a different CU, and found a $19.95 charge from the same company, dated Feb. 2nd!

I'm on the phone right now and my CU has told me that my Visa card has been compromised (along 8,000 other card holders), according to Visa.

Geez it's scary how easy it is for someone to get your private info.

my visa through a credit union was screwed last weekend. cancelled it a little over a week ago. good luck.

I did a little searching online and found that company is tied to FreeCreditReport.com. I have never signed up with them or used them and it looks like they've bilked a lot of people out of money.

do you have fraud scout calls from your credit union? normally if there is a purchase that has gone through twice or something i don't normally spend money on or somewhere out of the country they call to make sure i made the purchase.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

do you have fraud scout calls from your credit union? normally if there is a purchase that has gone through twice or something i don't normally spend money on or somewhere out of the country they call to make sure i made the purchase.

Yeah, my CU is actually a bit too restrictive. I took my car to have some repairs done about a month ago and the charges were just over $500. When the auto repair shop tried to run my card through, it was declined. I had to call and talk to the CU to lift the purchase limit. It's a nuisance at times, but I understand why they do it.

[HAL 9000 96]

There needs to be a connection made between credit union visas and pirates.

[Amby 490]

do you have fraud scout calls from your credit union? normally if there is a purchase that has gone through twice or something i don't normally spend money on or somewhere out of the country they call to make sure i made the purchase.

Yeah, my CU is actually a bit too restrictive. I took my car to have some repairs done about a month ago and the charges were just over $500. When the auto repair shop tried to run my card through, it was declined. I had to call and talk to the CU to lift the purchase limit. It's a nuisance at times, but I understand why they do it.

yeah I never use my credit union visa for anything so mine is set at $100/day because my account is on "fraud alert"

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Found this...

Experian Unit Settles Allegations

An Irvine company has settled charges that it tricked consumers seeking free credit reports into signing up for a credit monitoring service that costs $79.95 a year, the Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday.

Under the agreement, ConsumerInfo.com Inc., a unit of Experian Information Solutions Inc., is required to provide refunds to consumers and to pay the government $950,000 in “ill-gotten gains.”

The FTC first contacted the company in July 2002, concerned that it had failed to explain that by ordering a free credit report, consumers automatically would be signed up for a credit monitoring service and charged $79.95 if they did not cancel within 30 days.

“Consumers ordered their free credit reports, and there was no adequate disclosure that they would be charged anything,” said Lydia Parnes, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “When this promotion first went up [on the websites], in the first four lines the word ‘free’ was in capital letters half a dozen times.”

The company used radio, television, e-mail and Internet ads to drive traffic to two websites, www.consumerinfo.com and www.freecreditreport.com. To get the free report, consumers were required to provide detailed personal information and a credit card number.

According to Costa Mesa-based Experian, 11.5 million free credit reports have been ordered since 1997. The settlement covers consumers who ordered free reports from Nov. 1, 2000, to Sept. 15, 2003.

“We believed that we had been providing full disclosure but believed that we could improve communication with our consumers and make the language even more clear,” said Peg Smith, executive vice president of Experian. “We’re very pleased to have this settled and put behind us.”

Under the terms of the agreement, those eligible for a refund include:

* Individuals who were enrolled in ConsumerInfo’s monitoring service from Nov. 1, 2000, to Sept. 15, 2003;

* Those who were enrolled during that time but canceled the service within three years and received a partial refund;

* Those who were enrolled during that time but complained about the charges within three years.

The FTC said ConsumerInfo would notify those eligible for a refund over the next few months. Consumers with questions about the settlement can go to www.ftc.gov/freereports or call the FTC at (202) 326-3457.

The FTC also alleged that ConsumerInfo failed to notify consumers that its two sites were not associated with the government’s free credit report program.

Under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, consumers can receive one free credit report each year from each of the three national consumer reporting agencies – TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. The legislation required that the three companies set up a central hub to process consumer requests; that website is www.annualcreditreport.com.

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/aug/17/business/fi-credit17