I too have been ripped off by this company. And I have found out how it happened. Tonight, I went on line and checked my checking account out. It had a debit to my account from MKS*SIMPLE ESCAPES for $134.95. I had never heard of this company before nor did I purchase this "offer" that they told me I did when I called them.
They had all my billing info correct, and of course they have my check card credit card number. The only thing they did not have correct was my EMAIL address. The address they had was my 12 yr old son's address.
You see, I have AOL as my internet provider. I have set my son up a screen name and set his controls as "YOUNG TEEN". According to AOL, this prohibits him from seeing porn, and shopping on AOL using the master screen info that I gave to AOL. Boy are they wrong.
After 2 1/2 hours on the phone with not only "Simple Escapes" and AOL, this is how it happened:
My son was online one afternoon and one of the annyoing "pop-up" adds came on the screen that said "click here" and you will get a $25 gift card to Kmart. When he clicked this add, he authorized AOL to give MY credit card info to this company, and to bill me the $134.95. The 6th AOL rep told me this himself.
However, there is another issue in itself. According to AOL, this should have never happened because I set his parental controls as "Young Teen", ages 13-15. As they recomended.
This is a direct quote from the AOL web site:
Kids Only, Young Teen, and Mature Teen screen names can visit AOL or Web-based shopping areas, but they are unable to make purchases in these areas without a credit card. Some of the shopping areas may be available for browsing; however, they will not be able to actually make purchases with your account.
They are wrong. AOL has the proof on their system that shows this was done. So now I have to fight everyone to get my money back.
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