Received a cold call from a Hispanic boiler-room. No company name given. "You have been randomly chosen because your purchase history, blah blah, with Auto Advantage entitles you to a free card worth $200 which you can use however you want..."
So what do they want from me? They already have my number and address... Why not just send me their card?
"We only ask that you pay $1 for handling for this offer. Which card would you like to use to pay this charge?"
Why, no card at all - my alarm bells are all ringing by now. So I stall, and eventually get transferred to another guy in the room. Another heavy Hispanic accent. He says they're in California but have 'offices everywhere'. After some additional stalling I get him to give me the Customer Service number. I hang up & call the number (877-472-3388).
After a five minute wait on hold (latin hold music on a loop), Customer Service picks up. I explain that I've been called and ask him for more information. He says I'm a member of Auto Advantage. Never heard of 'em. I ask, Do you have a website? Yes, of course... Www.getretailrebates.com.
I hang up & check the internet. There is a Get Retail Rebates.com... Which claims their purpose is as follows: (this was taken from http://www.getretailrebates.com/aboutus.php
"So How Does This Work, Really?
Basically, all we are doing at Get Retail Rebates is gathering market research data. We are taking your answers to gauge motion within the marketplace to help identify anomolies within the marketplace. This analysis is a service is offered to our clients for a fee. We are taking a portion of that fee, and sharing it with you in return for your honest answers regarding your economic experiences. It's really that simple."
The getretailrebates.com site is copyrighted 2008 by W3M Consortium, LLC. So, who are *they*?
Further research revealed that W3M Consortium's stated mission is
"To provide affordable rebate incentives to small to mid size businesses in as many verticals as possible. These rebates feed our market research databases and allow for predictive modeling of transactional successes in various niches."
So they take your information and resell it. Lovely. W3M has apparently licensed their program to Ca$h Rewards Central, billed as the "Money in Your Mailbox" people.
And the trail continues from there. My best guess? There's probably a legit side to these data-collection businesses. But there's clearly also a rip-off angle, which may or may not be affiliated with them. It's possible that the rip-offs are coming from 3rd-parties-unknown who are playing these other companies for patsies, collecting account information then charging those accounts smallish amounts calculated to go unnoticed.
Bottom line: NEVER give out your credit card info to cold-callers! Get their website if you really want to do business with them, and run the transaction thru SSL.
If they don't have a way to take your credit card information over the Web, they're probably not legit. Oh, and the old adage 'If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is'... Still applies.
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