I was looking for a free credit report, and naively used consumerinfo.com.
The scam is as follows:
(1) they promise a free credit report.
(2) they offer a service called "credit monitoring", for a fee.
(3) they ask you for your credit card number to get the free credit report.
I naively assumed that (3) was to help for authentication. How can I be so naive in 2005?
After that, I did not receive anything from them, but I did get a charge for $9.95 twice. (once a month).
When you call them, they pretend that you signed-up for a membership the membership is free for 3 days and then you have to pay, unless you cancel.
I did read the terms and conditions and I did not notice this.
I had signed-up for a mail (snail mail / post) delivery of my free credit report and it never came.
When I called them they said that, "oh! You should just log online and get it electronically". The problem is, I never got an e-mail with my web username.
Total ripoff.
They claimed that there will be no more charges to my card and that they will send the (paper) credit report by mail.
I'm canceling my card now. And I'll check the mail in a few days.
Thanks!
Christophe
Brookline, Massachusetts
U.S.A.
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