Annoying phone calls
Complaint
Oscar Kelly
Country: United States
My Bank of America credit card was compromised via the internet in August 2009. Bank of America re-issued the credit card but since that time I have been receiving telephone calls from an unrecognized number 623-239-4511 that appears to be a fraud attempt to get identity related info. My home phone number is 214-374-2825.
Comments
They are reported to cram some autoshipment plan onto trial orders, in the fine print, then load up with repeated multiple charges at their regular inflated price.
https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-623-239-4511
Rating: 0 Robert - 22 hours 30 minutes ago
on caller id: Phoenix AZ 623-239-4511
It's Dazzle White, and they are a scam - the online ad sold me a free trial of Dazzle Smile teeth whitener. After I ordered it, I got a call from them; they asked to add whitening trays to my order, which I could return if I wasn't satisfied.
...
I did not wait to have any product shipped, I called them and insisted everything be cancelled.
When I insisted they tell me the name of the head (owner, president) of the company, they said they would cancel the "membership" (they snuck that by in the small print) and the shipping charges as well.
Dazzle White
3600 Army Post Road
Des Moines IA 50321
..."
You have cancelled that card number, but keep a close eye on your statements since charges against the old number can roll over to the new number for a few months, particularly when the merchant claims they were a repeating autopayment, like this type of scammer usually claims.
Also watch for unauthorized charges under other names, since scammers sometimes sell account information to other scammers.
This would argue against typical individual id theft as the origin for these charges if you have actually had no contact with "health product" companies. If so, this may indicate that they are obtaining account information from unauthorized sources to mix totally fraudulent transactions with their "legitimate" charges, in effect hiding charges using bought card data in a stream of charges where the card data was provided legitimately, even if through deception.
Normally, these types of businesses depend on the "trial offer to automatic shipment" model, with most complaints regarding automatic charges without authorization or after cancellation, or adding additional product shipment and charges that were never authorized by the consumer.
There were some cases a couple of years ago, however, where FTC found that some shady merchants were selling card data from their transactions to other "companies" that then used them to run through fraudulent charges. The sucker lists weren't just contact information. Although they might go through the motions of telemarketing, with card data it didn't matter whether the consumer agreed to anything, since they could be charged.
It is actually harder to detect a clear pattern of card data theft and fraud when most of the transactions involve actual consumer contact, than if it is entirely a sham fraudulent charge operation. Although charges based on illegal card data purchases may be a small part of the mix, they may still make the difference between continued "profitability", and closing the doors, as the marginal costs are lower than for actual shipped product. It would probably take an audit comparing shipping or phone records against alleged orders to catch.
I'll be watching my credit card for unauthorized charges.