FRAUD/Scam
Complaint
Cheryl VanLengen
Country: United States
They sent a solicitation thru the mail to my 88 year old mother- offering $100 coupon for shopping if she purchased a magazine for a one time charge of $4.95. She agreed and then her credit card was charged over $108 for over 20 magazines she supposedly ordered. I disputed with the credit card company but 'lost' the dispute because Central Rewards 'proved' my mother engaged in business with them by supplying her credit card. I am furious and will take this to our Attorney General.
Unfortunately, the credit card company is the only one out the money because my mother is not going to pay that bill.
The magainze company has their money. Sad state of affairs!!! and shame on the credit card company for accepting charges from Central Rewards.
Unfortunately, the credit card company is the only one out the money because my mother is not going to pay that bill.
The magainze company has their money. Sad state of affairs!!! and shame on the credit card company for accepting charges from Central Rewards.
Comments
No surprise there.
"Central Rewards" is a well known fraudulent telemarketer running scams from a call center in India.
They routinely lie in their "sales" calls, fail to disclose what they later claim are the "terms", submit fraudulent charges, and even intercept calls made by consumers to major U.S. company customer service numbers (like banks, insurance companies, and utilities), pretending to be making "offers" connected to the companies they are impersonating.
Look up their BBB report. It includes the allegations of fraudulently intercepting calls consumers make to others.
http://www.bbb.org/south-east-florida/busines ... nes-fl-90012137
http://www.bbb.org/west-florida/business-revi ... mpa-fl-90057020
Note that BBB also now shows them "in Phoenix AZ". Consumers report the Indian telemarketers pretend they are calling from Phoenix.
http://www.bbb.org/central-northern-western-a ... x-az-1000021191
They are engaged in fraudulent telemarketing and wire fraud.
Other consumer complaints suggest they may be illegally buying card number information, so they can pretend to be "with your bank" and don't have to get your whole card number to pretend "you authorized it". Some consumers report they only wanted them to "verify several digits from your card" to see if you "qualify".
The $108 charge was fraudulent. All their charges are fraudulent. That's all they do.
"The magazine company has their money"
You don't actually know this, even if that is what they claim.
Why don't you call the publisher and ask them?
They might not even have been paid anything, only been requested to send a "free sample", maiking you think there was a "subscription".
Also, what exactly is this "20 magazines"? 20 issues of a magazine, that might cost you $15 or $20 if you subscribed directly through the publisher, if a subscription even exists?
Your bank fraud department is full of idiots. Apparently they don't know that getting consumer card numbers through false promises, then charging unauthorized amounts beyond those disclosed, is one way credit card fraud is done. The fact that your mother was conned into disclosing the card number does not change the fraudulent nature of the larger unauthorized transaction.
File a theft and fraud complaint with FTC, your state AG, and your local police.
Shut down the account to prevent additional fraud,
And file a complaint against your bank with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The bank did not "investigate" this obvious fraud in any reasonable manner. They just treated it as a "merchant billing dispute" and handed these known crooks your mom's money, on their say-so. They could have punched the name into Google, and found HUNDREDS of similar complaints of fraud.
Guess what? Crooks lie!
You might also run this by an attorney, to see if you can sue your bank in lieu of suing Central Rewards. SOL is 1 year from the date of theft. You might try www.naca.net to find an attorney in your state.
An also get a new bank, one with some brains this time.