On 9/9/04 I received a charge to my debit card for 9.95 from a company listed as MWI Simple Escapes 2. I had no idea who this was and proceeded to check it out via the internet. Imagine my suprise to find that I wasn't the only one with a mysterious charge, from an equaly misterious company. The difference was, I DO NOT HAVE AOL.
So, I couldn't figure out how the charge came about. My bank was helpful though and asked if I had recently purchased a credit report online. And sure enough, on 9/7 (just two days before the charge was posted) I had purchased a credit report online from Trucredit.com. I would completely blame Truecredit.com except for the fact that I have been purchasing credit reports from them for the past 3 years, and this has never happened to me before. I did NOT click on a pop up, as I have pop up protection and never get pop ups. My internet company is Time Warner, so it didn't come from there. And, I have not received a telemarketing call, due to the fact that I am on the do not call list. We moved (care of the military) only 4 months ago, and when my account was charged, they knew my new address, meaning that it had nothing to do with past charges.
I had to cancel my debit card and file a report with my bank. It will take me about 3 weeks to receive my refund and my new debit card from the bank.
My Advice: BEWARE! If you can, don't purchase things online anymore. If you have no choice, use a credit card you can monitor carefully (not a debit card or bank account) and that you rarely use. Then the charge will stand out and if you have to cancel the card, it won't be such a pain. You don't want to get stuck without your ATM/Debit card or having to cancel and reopen your bank account. Fix the problem immediately by reporting the charge as fradulent to your credit card company. Don't even mess with MWI SIMPLE ESCAPES on trying to get them to refund the money. After you have fixed it from your end, report it to the better business bureau and anywhere else you can find.
I did call the numbers that people had kindly listed on here to cancel the Simple Escapes account (that I never opened) and while the recording said that the account was cancelled, I am wary. From what I have read, they say that and continue to charge. So, I'm now stuck writing checks for the next 3 weeks. And hoping that it was just my debit card number they had and not my bank account number.
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