I came across this company's ad in our local paper, suggesting that I could get seized and foreclosed homes for "as little as $9.00 per month." I called their toll free number. They took down my credit card and also suggested that they would charge me $2.95 and promised that if I was not satisfied with the literature they were sending, I coud cancel my membership within 30 days. They also signed me up for a free card whereby I could rent a car after which they could charge me $25 per month (I never saw the card). They also said that my "informal membership" to their organization would cost me $39.80 per month, unless I canceled my "membership" or "subscription" within 30 days.
After two weeks, they sent me a listing of the supposed properties, none of which were located in my town/city. I called them and told them I was immediately canceling my subscription to their organization. The customer representative or teller told me that my cancellation would take effect immediately.
When I did a routine check on my credit card balance via a toll-free call, I was surprised that my bill was a little bit higher than I had calculated. I did not think much about. I thought that maybe, I had made more legitimate purchases on my credit than I had calculated and did not follow up by inquiring as to what I or who had billed my card.
When the bill came I was shocked to find that Bargain Network had charged my card $39.80, in addition to the initial $2.95 they had charged for the report. Although, my bill had Bargain Network's toll-free number, I did not bother to call them, becuase I knew that such a fraudulent company would never agree to reimburse me for their deceptive billing. I wrote off that $39.80 as irretrievable.
So I immediately called my credit card company and told them to cancel my card because I suspected fraud on one of my purchases. The credit card teller asked which company I suspected. I said Bargain Network. The teller naively gave me the BN's toll-free number that had accompanied the billing and told me to dispute that charge (as if it was that easy for these fraudsters to reimburse me). I called my credit card company later and lied to them that I had "lost" that credit card and so they decided to block and cancel that card.
A week later I got a replacement card. My lesson is that several unsrupulous companies such as Bargain Network that demand credit card information over the phone are really bogus.in hindsight, if I had canceled my credit card right after receiving that report, I would not have lost the $39.80.
The lesson is to cancel the credit card right away if one smells a rat in such transactions. I regret not having canceled my card right away, as I increasingly became suspicious of this transaction. That is why it is imperative to read one's billing statements or better still, call your credit card to monitor which transactions have occurred on your credit card, recently.in addition the information Bargain Network purports to have can easily be found on the websites of local realtors for free.
Stephen
Flagstaff, Arizona
U.S.A.
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