On September 23, I logged on to my online banking site and noticed that a charge for $79.95 to "Electronic Purchase CIC*Credit Monitoring 800-2202626 CAUS". I had never heard of CIC or authorized this charge. Although I used annualcreditreport.com once, I never gave them a checkcard number, so I found it very scary to find that this company charged my account.
I reported the fraudulent activity immediately to my bank. I changed the account number to prevent further charges, and requested a Federal Regulation E form. My new Visa checkcard and the form are supposed to arrive within the week.
I also called 800-220-2626, and was initially advised to call another toll-free number, 888-988-2229. However, the second number only allowed me to listen to a recording about how the FTC had taken action against the company for this scam and SOME people would be able to get SOME of their money back. Not satisfactory.
I called the first number AGAIN and selected the "cancel membership" option. The representative was very polite, but hard to understand. I believe their customer service calls may be routed to India. The woman initially insisted that I give her my Visa card number. I was not comfortable with this, and she agreed to look it up using my SSN instead (also not comfortable). At first, she tried to get me to call that recording number AGAIN. I kept insisting that I needed to speak to a person who could correct the situation immediately, that making fraudulent charges is a criminal activity, if they can CHARGE me today then they can certainly help me fix the problem today, etc. I also made it very clear that I have reported their fraudulent activity to my bank, the FTC, local media and the Better Business Bureau. She put me on hold for a few minutes, and when she came back her "supervisor" had mysteriously allowed her to refund the charges. If I do not receive a refund before the Federal Regulation E form from my bank arrives, I will still file that form.
This operation in obviously a horrible, low-down-dirty SCAM to make some rich jerk richer while slowly draining money from regular people trying to maintain good credit. I encourage everyone who has been ripped off by CIC (which is otherwise known as consumerinfo.com and is actually part of Experian) to FIGHT THE CHARGES. Do not let them get away with this! What they are doing is wrong. They have been busted in the past, WILL get your money back. These criminals count on people (a) not monitoring their statements and (b) giving up too easily when trying to get the money back.
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