I received some information in the mail today from HomeWorks, informing me I needed to renew a membership I never was aware I had. It also informed me that if I did nothing within 30 days, my credit account would be charged $179.95.
I searched the internet for 'HomeWorks', came upon this website and discovered that many others were having similar problems with unauthorized charges by the company dba MWI and other names.
I called 1-888-584-5025, a number I found in a rebuttal to a message, here. I spoke with a person who identified himself as the Director of Customer Services. He informed me that a person named _[undisclosed, here]_, an employee of the credit card company, had authorized the payments. Of course, when I contacted the credit card company, they said that no employee is authorized to approve payments.
There is much more to this which I will not go into here other than that this apparently began in 1998 (!) and went unnoticed until today. According to the company's records, charges through January of this year amount to more than $860, all unauthorized by the cardholders.
I am initiating actions through the fraud department of the credit card company in an attempt to recover the unauthorized payments. And I have also contacted the US Postal Service, since this practice involved use of the US Mail.
Needless to say, with much expensive egg-on-face, we (my 'bookkeeper' and I) will revise our procedures for review of credit cards charges, effective immediately.
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