Received "Thank-You-Gift-Offer" together with my Sears Card billing statement.
There were about 10 different "Gifts" on that paper and we decided to order an electronic game for $ 7.94
What was really strange was the fact that the consumer could not use his Sears card or any kind of credit card for the "gift order" -only checks or money orders could be submitted. We wrote a check for $ 7.94 and sent it to "Sears Gift Services" in june.
On 9/12 the check was cashed but we never received anything. We called Sears and they told us "no, we don't receive any checks at all" we were given about 6 different 1-800 numbers for "Sears Gift Services" but each time we called one of these numbers we were talking to some independent company which "does not receive any checks" Our Bank sent us a copy of the check (issued to Sears Gift Services" and it was cashed by "FLEET... 10 digit number follows" and our bank told us that nobody else than "Sears Gift Services" would be able to cash the check.
Obviously there is no "Gift Service" Department at Sears and Sears works with a number of contractors which call themselves "Sears Gift Services". The billing dept. Which had sent us the "Gift Offer" was not able to give us any information. We don't have a copy of the paper we submitted because we thought that we were dealing with SEARS, not with some unidentifyable contractor.
The next thing we are going to take is to file a fraudulent check claim, that's probably the only way to identify the company which cashed the check. (9 different phone calls did not get any results)
Probably this is one of these scams which don't cause a lot of publicity because people just forget about the couple of dollars they lost and they get tired of losing hours and hours on the phone.
Steven
Phoenix, Arizona
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