My girlfriend fell for the Premium Advantage scam, but we took defensive action immediately and recommend that others do the same. Here's our story:
We received a call early in the morning (we were both still half-asleep) and my girlfriend picked up the phone. The next thing I know, I hear her giving out her bank's direct deposit information, which I thought was strange, but I assumed that it was for a credit card or biller that she already had.
After she got off the phone, she explained that it was "Premium Advantage" and they signed her up for a new credit card. They claimed they needed $300 as a security deposit on a $3000 credit card. This money was to be debited directly from her bank account. She was then transferred to a so-called verification service representative who then asked her to confirm that she was signing up for the "full benefits package, " which consisted of a $299.95 charge. Thinking that this was the $300 security deposit, she said, "yes."
By this point I was wide awake and very concerned. Upon searching for "Premium Advantage" on Google, I learned that my fears were well-founded: dozens of others had reported being scammed by the company. We immediately took the following actions to protect ourselves:
1) We called the customer service # and demanded that the card and all associated services be cancelled. The customer service rep was exceedingly rude, but assured us that her account was cancelled and that she would not be charged. However, posts by other people warned that cancelling their accounts did not prevent them from being charged for various associated services and benefits. Therefore, we also took action #2:
2) We called her bank and told them what happened. They said that they could not block a specific company from debiting from her account until the transaction was posted. Of course, this meant that she'd have to catch it every time it occurred and also that she'd be charged the stop-payment fee each time. This was not a good solution, so we took action #3:
3) We visited her bank in person, explained the situation, and requested that her current account be closed down and that a new account be opened. They were quite amenable to doing this and provided this service for no charge.in addition, they transferred all in-transit uncashed checks from her old account to her new one so that they wouldn't bounce. Of course, she also had to update all her legitimate direct-depositers with her new account information.
While closing her bank account and opening a new one was a hassle, at least we can rest easy knowing that those scamming bastards at Premium Advantage can no longer touch us. I hope this information will help others slip through their net as we did.
Best regards and good luck!
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