I have had 2 experiences with attempting to do business through emails I have received but did not actually do anything.
The first time was when I wanted to buy a digital camera, and saw an email saying I could receive a free digital camera if I completed their survey. The survey was primarily whether I would be interested in buying certain things such as a new car, etc. I said no to all of them but then there was one that said would I be interested in receiving discounts on many ordinary items that I might buy, and I checked that box, the survey continued and I kept saying no to everything, but I got tired of it and I decided to kill it and forget about it, and went out and bought a camera. Three months later I happened to notice that my telephone bill was way too high, I have it paid automatically each month, and I never really looked at it. I contacted AT&T and they informed me that a certain company, that I had never before heard of, had told them that I had purchased their service and they were charging me the sum of $14.00 a month. That may be the wrong sum, I don't really remember the amount. They gave me their telephone number and I called the company. They told me that I had checked their service on a survey that I had taken, and they were charging me because of it. I remembered the survey and I said that there was nothing on the survey that mentioned any fees. They insisted that it did, and I am sure it wasn't where you would normally look, just paging through the survey., then I said that I had killed that survey, it was never sent out, so how could they know such things. They then agreed to refund my money, which they did. No further problem.
A year later I kept noticing that the credit companies were continually advertising "do you know your credit number?" and offering a free credit score for whoever opens their email. I decided to see what my free credit score would be. I opened their email, and answered their questions about who I am, my address and telephone number. Then they asked for my credit card number. After thinking about it, I decided that I would not do that and killed the email. This happened 2 or 3 times as I thought other credit card companies would actually give me the free score but I ALWAYS stopped when they asked for my credit card number and killed the email.
On my next months bill I noticed a total of 7 bills totaling about 85 dollars on my credit card from 5 different companies. At no time when I opened the emails were these companies listed any where that I saw, and I had no idea who they were and what they were charging me for.
What I want to know is HOW DID THEY GET MY CREDIT CARD NUMBER? I THOUGHT I HAD COMPLETE SAFETY IN USING MY COMPUTER TO BUY THINGS ON THE INTERNET! I can assure you that I will NEVER AGAIN TRUST TO BUY ANYTHING ON THE INTERNET. And how come looking at an email from experian, or one of the other credit companies that I know are legitimate get me charged bills from 5 different companies when I never wanted to buy anything in the first place?
Three of the companies I contacted agreed to refund my monies, and cancelled my so-called membership. The phone number on one of them was declared nonexistent by the telephone company and the last one gave me no way to talk to a person, or make a complaint.
The 5 companies are: Pharmacy gold card, Identity.com, Privacy Matters, Your Savings Club, and Simply You.
I do not really mean to speak in anger, but I think this is a matter that needs to be addressed.
Thanking You for reading this long letter,
George
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