Something is rotten in Conneticut and Nebraska and Texas and Georgia and New York and Canada and by now, who knows where else.
For a number of years, MemberWorks, Inc., aka "MWI", of 680 Washington Boulevard, Stamford, Conneticut, has operated a number of front companies from offices in Nebraska, Texas, New York, North Carolina, and Montreal, Canada. Variously identified as "MWI Simple Escapes, " (vacation scam) "MWI Privacy Plus, " (credit report scam) "Homeworks Plus, " (retail scam) and a host of others, these companies conduct marketing shell games that prey upon the inattention of consumers.
Via televised infomercials, direct mail and internet "banner ads", MWI's ploy is to claim the merest contact — in one instance something as innocuous as a mistaken 'click' of a computer mouse button — as legal consent to initiate repetitive charges to a consumer's credit card
Last May, I noticed a charge of $139.95 to a credit card by "MWI Simple Escapes" for a membership in some type of travel plan. I had neither solicited nor authorized any such billing. A five minute internet search on "MWI" resulted in a veritable tsunami of woe inflicted by this organization and its front companies, and thousands of complaints to usacomplaints.com, darkangelzone.com, consumeraffairs.com, badbusinessreport.com, the Better Business Bureau, and 117 formal complaints filed with the Ohio Attorney General's Office. It was immediately clear that this company and its minions employ techniques that shave the nub of legality to an edge far closer than any triple-bladed razor.
And what's worse, MWI has enlisted major credit vendors and at least one major internet service provider as willing partners in charging their already-paying customers for "memberships" and "services" that are of dubious value at best.in the vast majority of cases, consumers found themselves victimized by MWI's claim that momentary inattention legally constitutes "consent" to be billed for a service to which they never openly agreed, nor were they even afforded the common decency of an "are you sure?".
It's hard to decide which tactic of MWI's — and by extention the internet service provider (ISP) or the credit card companies that facillitate them — is more devious:
The internet scam is an exercise in simplicity. One of those pesky and ubiquitous banner ads appears on your screen, and either from the viewer's curiosity, or inaccuracy, clicking on the ad when the intent was to delete it, a mistaken fraction of an inch and boom, they've got you. A single click, and the ISP, which has your credit information, willingly provides that information to MWI without your knowledge, and the charge is made to your account.
The other method arrives in your mailbox. Amongst the other junk mail is an official looking envelope festooned with the colors and logo of your credit card company and the words "Check Enclosed" in block letters. Within the envelope is a check for $4.00 and in bigger block letters, it exclaims, "As a cardmember, you are eligible for a CASH REWARD! Be sure to cash the enclosed check by (some date)!"
Unfortunately, most people read no further. Figuring the check as some type of refund from the card company, the check gets cashed and boom, you've been had. The fine print below the endorsement on the check said, "... I understand that unless you hear from me before the end of the 30 day trail (sic) period, the $139.95 first year's membership fee will be automatically charged to my credit card account..."
The ISP doesn't mind being in on the scam, because MWI pays the ISP to post the banner ad in the first place, and then most likely pays a fee to the ISP for each "sale" based on the ad - nobody told you to click on it, buddo.
The credit card company doesn't mind either, because to them, a charge is a charge is a charge, and they make money for every charge made against their card.
And that's where MWI's (and the ISP's, and the credit card company's) money gets made; they're playing the averages, betting that most people will not contest the charge. And they're right; a surprising number of people don't even notice they've been had until long after the fact. Many don't read the itemization on their statement at all, and many more assume that they or someone with access to the card agreed to the charge. How many cardholders do they get past that way? Plenty. Obviously enough to make it wildly profitable.
Okay, so one fine day you notice the charge. Your wife didn't do it. Your kids didn't do it. You didn't do it. Your dog didn't do it. It dawns on you that you've been scammed. You're rightfully outraged. You want your money back. What now?
Catching the ISP's fingerprints on the scam is difficult; they wear e-gloves. They have your credit information, but you didn't authorize them to release it to anybody, did you? Of course you did, when you clicked on the ad. But that's not immediately apparent, and even finding the fine print requires more effort than the average person is willing, or even technically competent to expend.
Besides, it was your credit card that was billed anyway - and the card companies have customer service 800 numbers splattered all over their documentation. So you call the number and contest the charge.
That's when you find out that MWI is "an affiliated (or "approved") business partner." That explains the card company's colors and logo on the official-looking envelope. What that also gets you is an exasperated explanation by some long-suffering credit card customer service rep that because MWI is a "business partner" with your card company, the card company will not remove the charge; you'll have to call MWI's "customer service" line directly.in short order, depending on the rep, you'll hear, "... We get that a lot, " an 800 number for MWI, and if you're lucky, they'll transfer the call.
Now the fun really begins. Steam is already wafting from your ears as you realize that despite the promotional literature to the contrary, your card company isn't quite the pal you expected them to be when it comes to protecting you against vampires like MWI.
MWI's "customer service rep" picks up the line. If the initial "Awhwo?" doesn't clue you in, the next 10 seconds will. English, it seems, is at best a second if not third language for whomever is supposedly there to help guide you through this maze. Go ahead, say it. They practically dare you. "I want a refund."
What follows is best described as an education in declaration, obfuscation, misrepresentation, sublimation and accusation. You'll be told in no uncertain terms that most emphatically yes, you agreed to, consented to, and literally begged MWI to please take your money, the charge to your account is valid and that, as they say, is that.
It is a cast iron certainty that MWI's customer service training program devotes far more time to bullying and evasion techiques than any sort of valid customer service. MWI's gambit here is that having been pursued even that far, a fair percentage of people when properly chastized, will lose their nerve, meekly hang up and accept their opt-inned fate. Cha-ching.
Don't do it. Be adamant. Ask the rep for his or her name.insist to speak the supervisor. Threaten legal action. This is where obvious breakpoints in the MWI customer service script emerge. About the time the words "terrorist" and "FBI" make it across the wire, you'll be rewarded with a grudging acceptance of the refund request and a confirmation number. At ALL costs, get that number. And the name of the supervisor. And demand in no uncertain terms that your refund be posted *immediately*. Without those, you can reasonably expect to go through the whole process again the next month when you open your statement and discover that your account hasn't been credited.
By now, you've felt ripped off and victimized for some time. You're also boiling mad. You wonder how these people sleep at night, and feel entirely justified in turning the tables a bit. You do a little checking on MWI, and find out that by the tens, if not hundreds of thousands of victims, you ain't the Lone Ranger.By the volume of complaints, it's a cinch that that MWI has raked in untold millions of dollars with these scams, and yet nobody has stopped them. As a matter of fact, they're even listed with a "satisfactory" rating with the Nebraska Better Business Bureau. What next?
The operative rule here is the Golden Rule; them that has the gold makes the rules. They have it, and you don't. They have major corporations as partners in a dirty business. You can bet that MWI, the credit card companies and the ISPs each has a battery of lawyers shaving the fine print in the statute books with the aforementioned triple-bladed razors to maintain an air of legality about what they're up to. Is it legal? Probably — but just by the nubs on their chinny-chin-chins. Should it be? Absolutely not.
"Where's the government? Why aren't they stopping them, " you ask?
After my encounter with MWI, I filed a formal complaint with the Ohio Attorney General's Office, exchanged a couple of e and snail mails with a dedicated-sounding assistant, and it went about where you'd expect it would, utterly nowhere. Apparently, my and 116 other complaints against MWI just weren't enough to get a ball rolling. Why?
Well, multi-million dollar outfits like MWI, and multi-billion dollar outfits like credit card companies and the major ISPs pay at least a paltry few bucks in taxes, and contribute to local and national economies. As a result, the political powers that be for the most part will keep a low profile until enough wheels squeak to make it politically profitable to do otherwise. The state attorney general of Minnesota won a judgement against MWI. As a penalty, they paid a paltry $75,000 in fines, and promised to behave themselves by "modifying" their business practices. (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/memwrks_mn_ag.html)
Yeah. Right.
To me, the least asked question is the most troubling. The tactics and deceptions of MWI are relatively well documented. But without collusion and facilitation on the part of credit card companies, societal diseases like MWI could not even exist. As a matter of course during the Minnesota Attorney General's investigation of MWI's business practices, why wasn't the obviously unethical involvement of the credit industry drawn out into the light of day? I suspect the Golden Rule theory has bit us again.
At least the Minnesota Attorney General did something, however tepid the result. That's a start, but it's nowhere near enough. After last spring's rau with these blood suckers, guess what I found in yesterday's mail? Another envelope festooned with the colors and logo of my credit card company, "Check Enclosed" in big block letters across the front.
Be a squeaky wheel. Be mad as hell and refuse to take it anymore.
Andy
Medina, Ohio
U.S.A.
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