$40 was charged unknown to me within a space of 1 hour in 5 different charges to my MasterCard debit account within the space of one hour last Sunday night, October 12th to play a FreeRealms.com account. I had the credit card used in my possession the entire time, and the person that had that account lived over 100 miles away. After inspecting the account online, they DO NOT require input of the three digit security code and thus making their site open to fraudulent charges of which many other similar circumstances have been noted here.
I immediately called SOE*COMMERCE 858-537-0898 CA as listed on my online statement and spoke to someone (by the way, their customer service department does not "open" until 10AM which should tell you something about this company as well) who identified himself at first by "Frank" and then when I pressed for his customer service manager, said his name was "Bengie". I issued the complaint and asked that they reverse the charges stating that charges are able to be made to an online account without having the security code and that I personally do not have an account, nor have I authorized those charges, but only had authorized a $4.99/month membership charge. "Bengie" refused to connect me to a supervisor stating that I "must create a paper trail" by faxing or emailing the request, but that I would be able to speak to no one else. I said that I would make trouble for his company, which his response was "I don't like you threatening me" to which I replied I am not threatening you at all, but will take legal recourse (referring to such recourse as this report).
Bottom line: do not let your kids use FreeRealms.com or other SOE online games as they are shady, disreputable, and basically lie to keep money from fraudulent charges.
10-08
*debit purchase oct08 11:04p 1215
at 23:04 soe*commerce 858-537-0898 ca
$ 10.00
10-08
*debit purchase oct08 10:52p 1215
at 22:52 soe*commerce 858-537-0898 ca
$ 10.00
10-08
*debit purchase oct08 10:46p 1215
at 22:46 soe*commerce 858-537-0898 ca
$ 10.00
10-08
*debit purchase oct08 10:44p 1215
at 22:44 soe*commerce 858-537-0898 ca
$ 5.00
10-08
*debit purchase oct08 10:40p 1215
at 22:40 soe*commerce 858-537-0898 ca
$ 5.00
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