Simple Escapes
Rip-off Fraudulantly charged my Visa Debit card $134.95

On 10 Mar 03 my Visa Debit card was fraudulently charged $134.95 by a company called Simple Escapes. I have since learned that the company is part of a larger company which has a website called www.dealpass.com.

Upon calling my bank I was given a 1-800 number that was listed on the charge. I called the number and was told that the computers were down and I would have to call back. Of course I was highly skeptical so I went online and did a search of the company and found this site, usacomplaints.com.Com. On the site was another number in the rebuttal section to call. The number is 1-888-206-2321.

I called that number and a very polite lady came on and I explained the circumstance and she said that my card would be credited for the 134.95 and that I should see it within 4 to 5 days. The ladies name was Megan and she gave me her id nr. Of 2939. She told me that they have a popup on AOL that someone must have clicked on. I do have AOL, but do not personally use it. I have it for my granddaughters. However, AOL is set to not allow popups so I did not believe her.

I then called AOL and reported it to them. They said they have never heard of the company. They do have similar companies that do have popups and they can use my credit card information that was supplied to AOL. This concerned me and I told them so and told them I would cancel my AOL if this was allowed to happen, to which they offered me two free months of their service. I told them I didn't care about that. I just wanted to know how that company got my credit card number and why they were saying that they got it from AOL. AOL said that it was not their doing and I tend to believe them. However, that still doesn't explain where the company got my credit card number.

I suspect my youngest granddaughter clicked on a popup from another website. But again, that doesn't explain how they were able to obtain my credit card number. The gentleman at AOL said he would report it to his supervisor.

I then called my bank with this information and they called the company and got a different person, a Ravi with an id number of 1430. The bank said that they too told her my money would be refunded. However, both the bank and I are very skeptical. The bank said that if my account isn't credited within 30 days (they must wait 30 days before they can do anything else) then they will take care of the matter. Apparently they can credit my account and the bank will pursue the company for the monies. This I was surprised about.

In any event, I am going to wait the five days and see if the account is credited. I have severe doubts about it happening.in thirty days the bank will take care of it, hopefully.

Finally, as a disabled vet on a very limited income, it really hurts. It left me with five dollars for the rest of the month, two weeks. Thank goodness I had the extra five dollars and had no checks bounce or it would have been worse.

I will provide an update when it happens.

Company: Simple Escapes
Country: USA
State: Connecticut
City: Stamford
Phone: 8882062321
Site: www.dealpass.com

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