I registered with this company who required a valid credit card number as proof of age/identity stating no charges would be deducted unless premium services were used.
Not only did I not use any premium service, I did not use any service, I never logged back into the site or used it once - EVER.
A month later they charged my credit card US$1-, then
WPI waited a month to see of the charge would be rejected.
Then for the following 5 months they charged monthly amounts of US$5.95 (once) then US$6.95 each month for the following four months althought I had never logged into the site nor had I provided any authorisation to them to charge my account at all.
I subsequently had to cancel my credit card and have it re issued.
I tracked down the company telephone and contacted their arms length "financial processing" operation called WPI. I informed the "operator" I worked in credit card fraud, that by law in both the US and in Australia they had committed credit card fraud and I demanded a full refund of the funds taken without authorisation and without reason from my account. I further stated I would report their operation to both my bank (one of Australia's four largest) and the head of Fraud Investigation for the Asia Pacific region of VISA International.
I have also lodged an internet fraud complaint with the Australian Federal Police on behalf of the almost three hundred complaints on this one English only website.
Were this company operating in Australia authorities would have closed it down by now. That WPI iFriends can operate with impunity in the United States is a daming indictment on the financial regulatory shambles the US has sadly allowed to evolve.
Visa Master Card and others should have long before now flagged the merchant as a potential fraudulent operator based on its charge back rate and revoked its merchant status and monitored its ability to reapply.
It is unconscionable.
Credit card fraud supervisor
Sydney
Australia
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