I came upon a BidFuel ad which promised to send a "free" CD for the low price of $1.97. They claimed to be the "Bible" of the Ebay auction business and could teach me how to get rich on E-Bay. So, I ordered their CD, but things got busy and I never did get a chance to watch it.
Within 2 weeks there was a mysterious charge on my Visa for $39.95 by an unknown company called Auction Mentor. This turned out to be a monthly membership fee that I had "agreed to" by electing to receive their $1.97 free CD.
Of course, they only charge you shipping & handling to gain access to your credit card number, knowing full well that the bank will not reverse a single charge, and there is a fee for requesting a new card number. Even if all they ever steal is the initial $39.95, that's a hell of a lot of "free money" in their pockets with no product or service in return.
No wonder there are all these "get rich on the Internet" schemes... They obviously work. They got me this time! And, there are over 5 billion people on this planet who are prime targets to get ripped off at least once.
Legalized thievery.
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