I can't believe I fell for this bullshit. I found this on FoxNews.com of all places, and it looked like a news article "Make $79/hr working from home". I've been working from home for 2 years and make a decent living, so this didn't come off as a scam at all. I took it as Fox News reporting a great opportunity with Google. After I submitted the form and paid the $1.79 I saw the fine print about the $79 monthly. I tried to call the toll free number and there's a recording saying they're closed (it's Sunday). I just received this credit card, and we all know that getting a credit card these days is not easy. Has anyone been able to cancel this without racking up charges later?
I sent an email off to Fox News telling them that they are part of the problem. This ad was posted on their home page and looked like an article. I tried to go back to the home page and find it, but I guess there's a cookie or something that told the site I had already gotten fucked and not to display it again. I went to a friend's house and there it was. I have a screenshot if anyone would like to see it. It does say "advertisement" in small light gray letters above the area that contains the ad.
I'm curious about something. We all know that law enforcement can't keep up with all of this, but how the hell to these scumbags maintain their merchant account? I've had my Merchant account closed for getting 3 chargebacks in a year. Why do the banks allow these scams to continue billing credit cards? I've got to imagine that at least half the people who sign up either chargeback or cancel the card.
I was just skimming the forum new posts while on my phone, and saw your response to this, and had to come back in to respond. First off, you are not alone when it comes to people being led into these scams, since I have seen many of the stories of other angry people like yourself. The reason why these scams strikes home is because when I went to visit her, she was showing me this program (actually a printed out fake article), which led me into investigating these douchebags.
Believe it or not, somehow this shady practice is still considered legal, but shouldn't be for long. There are supposedly a handful of lawsuits against the companies that own and control these sites. Apparently, there are more than one company or individual behind many of these sites. These so-called companies have a shady practice of changing their very company names from one site to another making it even harder to be tracked down by the common person.
My best explanation for you to fight these charges is to call your credit card company, and dispute all of the charged. Explain to them in a calm manor of how these sites did this. Believe me, I'm sure the person on the end of the line has seen the exact same scam site complaints, and should be more than helpful to fix the problems.
What you can do to help us get the word out:Since you have been personally effected by these deceptive companies, I'm asking if you could please provide any kind of information you have gathered on them. That screen shot you spoke about could be helpful. Also, do you have any contact information gathered including phone numbers, addresses, business names, etc.?
Did they manage to send you the "free trial" DVD or packet that they were originally offering in the deception? If so, can you explain what exactly came in the mail, or possibly post any kind of return address information? This would be extremely helpful.
I've been looking into these scams over the last couple months, myself. I've tracked down a couple phone numbers that always lead to voicemails. I have tracked down a couple email addresses and physical addresses, but not quite sure if they are fake. I would love to get someone behind these companies on the record, and my main goal is to get them so far out into the spotlight (even if on a personal level) that they stop with these deceptive business practices!
