AskBerkeley.com is the online retail website that offers "natural" supplements related to various personal needs. You may have seen commercials for Enzyte or Avlimil.
When you purchase your trial sample of a Berkeley product, your credit card is charged $4.50 for shipping & handling. Very reasonable.
You are also enrolled in "Managed Care Direct" which is a recurring-billing system that charged your credit card the full retail price of the product and automatically ships you your next refill, at the next billing cycle. The notification of enrollment is very obvious on the website.
AskBerkeley.com, and it's related partners, AskEnzyte.com and AskAvlimil.com, provide a direct opt-out option from the Managed Care Direct recurring billing program.
When you choose to opt-out, you must provide your name, address, e-mail address and credit card information for verification purposes. Once you have entered your information, you are shown an on-screen confirmation that says precisely the following (asterisks denote where personalized information would appear in your opt-out screen):
Dear *Your Name*,
Your request to cancel your membership in (*product*'s) Established Customer Program has been processed, and you will no longer receive automatic shipments.
We appreciate your business. Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance to you.
This opt-out confirmation does not send you confirmation by e-mail, mail, or other provable source. You are not provided an option or encouraged to print a copy of the on-screen confirmation for your records.
You can also call Berkeley directly and request over the phone to opt-out of Managed Care Direct. The telephone operator will confirm the cancellation, and fail to provide you with a confirmation number or any other submittable proof.
In either case, on the next billing cycle, YOUR CREDIT CARD WILL BE CHARGED! AND YOU WILL RECEIVE A REFILL OF YOUR ORDERED PRODUCT.
If you call the AskBerkeley telephone number to request a refund, you will most likely be told that Berkeley's computers do not have a record of the order cancellation. You are instructed to fax or mail written proof of the cancellation to Berkeley where they will process the request within 10 to 14 days.
Here's the scam:
The opt-out web page is bogus. When you are prompted for your personal information (name, e-mail, cc number) you can enter absolutely ANY INFORMATION YOU WANT, and you will receive a positive cancellation notice. You can enter a checksum 4321 credit card number, or a completely bogus number such as 9999, or any incomplete number, any post-dated cc expiration number, AND YOU WILL RECEIVE A POSITIVE CANCELLATION notice.
Since you are given no provable confirmation, it becomes difficult to dispute any claims against unauthorized charges to your credit card.
Try it for yourself:
Go ahead to AskEnzyte.com or any of the related websites, select the link to cancel your subscription to Managed Care Direct and enter random personal information. You'll see what I mean. Then, wait a few days, call Berkeley and ask to confirm your cancellation, providing the random information you entered at the website. They will indicate that you are not cancelled, but will promptly offer to do so.
Repeat this process for your own personal, correct information, and you'll be subject to the same scam.
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