My Mom got an unsolicitated call from a guy named Paul Quintana. He seemed to know everything about us - that I was an A/B student, lived on so-and-so street, went to this particular high school, etc. He said that he was a counselor who was going to help me prepare for the SAT, saying that I must take the mandatory test on May 2 or June 6.
He was selling a CD-Rom, free for 30 days, full of software that was all aimed at helping me prepare for this test. A series of credit card charges would be issued, starting with $164.80, for the CD, if I wanted to keep the CD beyond the 60 (yes, it was originally 30 days) days or happened to damage the disk.
He then asked for my Mom's credit card number and said that the CD would be shipped Priority Mail. He asked if I had a PC or MAC computer, to know which type of CD he should send. He then gave a confirmation number and asked if we had any additional questions and gave us a phone number.
When my Dad got home shortly after this phone call, he called Paul back at 1.800.858.9673. Ext 300 and ended up speaking with Nazir, the manager. Nazir said that Paul had left for the day and when we asked him to explain more about the CD-Rom, he couldn't access my file and didn't know where the records were. He then asked for our phone number.
My Dad asked for the company name and their location. Nazir said that they were called Wordsmart and were located in San Diego.
After my Dad asked that we would like to know more about what it was we would be receiving, Nazir informed us that the credit card had been charged. Paul had said that the credit card would be charged only after the 60 days trial, not immediately.
My Dad then wanted to get a refund and cancel the charge. Nazir then started saying something about Paul being fired for this. He said that he would call us back after he looked more into this.
A few minutes later, Nazir called back and said that a refund had been issued for the $164.80. First, he wasnt able to access the account, then he was able to give a refund. My Dad decided to close the credit card account since the company did not seem quite legit.
Do not give out information to Wordsmart!
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