UNAUTHOTIZED CHARGE FROM MY CREDIT CARD
Complaint
Dorothy G. Celosia
Country: United States
Please stop the $40.00 monthly charges from my Bank of America Credit card. I have not signed a written agreement with the company. Please cancel the account. I want my payment in March and April 2008 refunded to me.
I already reported to Bank of America about this unauthorized charges.
Thank you.
I already reported to Bank of America about this unauthorized charges.
Thank you.
Comments
Note that the alleged "authorizations" described fail to meet FTC's "verifiable authorization" TSR requirement for preacquired account information telemarketing. Deceptive tactics are similar to those reported in complaints against SmartStep and Level AD.
Discover earned $300 million in revenue from these "products" in 2009.
http://www.ag.state.mn.us/Consumer/PressRelease/120610DiscoverBank.asp
"Press Release
December 6, 2010
ATTORNEY GENERAL LORI SWANSON FILES SUIT AGAINST DISCOVER BANK
Lawsuit Alleges That Credit Card Company Deceptively Charged Customers For Pricey Financial Products Marketed As A Way For People To Protect Themselves From Fraudulent Charges and Financial Instability
Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson today filed a lawsuit against Discover Bank for deceptively charging some credit card customers for pricey optional financial products that the company markets as a way for people to protect themselves from fraudulent or unauthorized charges and to enhance their financial security in the bad economy. Discover, one of the nation’s largest credit card companies, claims to be in one out of four households with 54 million credit cards in circulation.
“The company charged some consumers for expensive add-on financial products without their understanding that their credit cards would be charged. The irony is that the credit card company markets these products as a way for consumers to protect themselves from fraudulent or unauthorized credit card charges and financial instability in the bad economy,” said Attorney General Swanson.
Nationwide, in 2009 Discover earned nearly $300 million in annual revenue from the sale of these optional financial products, an increase of over $80 million, or over 37 percent, from 2007. This is in addition to the revenue the bank charges customers for interest and penalty fees (e.g. late fees, over-the-limit fees, etc.) In 2009, Discover reported net income of $1.3 billion.
The lawsuit alleges that Discover Bank and its affiliated processing company made aggressive, misleading, and deceptive telemarketing calls to sign people up for these products. The company first lures the consumer into believing the call is a courtesy call from their credit card company and not a sales call—that is, that the caller is simply touching base to make sure the customer is aware of all the benefits of the card. In some cases, the company has charged people’s credit cards for enrollment in these add-on products even though the consumer did not agree to purchase anything. In other cases, the company tricks people into unknowingly signing up for these products, usually by inducing consumers to say “ok” or “yes” to a benign statement without understanding they are signing up and then treating that response as authorization to bill their credit cards. In many cases, Discover refuses to make refunds to aggrieved consumers.
A typical telemarketer generally cannot sign up a customer for a product or service unless the customer gives out their credit card number or other form of payment. Unlike a typical telemarketer, Discover is the consumer’s credit card company and already has their credit card number. This enables the company to charge consumers for extra financial products by making deceptive telemarketing calls in which some consumers did not give knowing consent to purchase the paid products.
As noted above, some consumers were tricked into unwittingly signing up by giving an affirmative response like “ok” or “yes” to a seemingly benign statement or question even though the consumer has no actual understanding that they are supposedly agreeing to purchase a paid product to be billed to their credit card. For example, in some cases telemarketers read the consumer a purported “disclosure” in which they butcher or alter the text, leave out key words, run sentences together, pause when there is no period, or speed read the text, all to make it incomprehensible to the consumer. In other cases, telemarketers leave out key terms like the fact the consumer is purchasing something or the price, and instead emphasize portions of the script that do not suggest a sale is taking place, like the company’s customer service number. In other cases, the company leads customers to believe they are simply authorizing the company to send them materials in the mail to look over, with no agreement to purchase a product or have their credit card billed.
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Most people are scammed by scams that have not been shut down.
1. Bank of America improperly divulged its customers’ personal information to third-parties (including Smart-Step and Intersections, Inc.); and/or
2. Smart-Step improperly obtained the confidential information in violation of California and Vermont state privacy laws; and/or
3. After Smart-Step obtained such confidential information, its agents directly or indirectly contacted Bank of America account holders via telemarketers and solicited them to purchase accidental death insurance; and/or
4. Bank of America and/or Smart-Step thereafter withdrew funds directly from Bank of America customer accounts, on a monthly basis, without the proper consent of these customers.
Salehi & Associates, in its continuing discovery of this case is greatly interested in any information or assistance that Bank of America account holders and/or Smart-Step insureds may have, specifically from residents of the State of Vermont or California where there are strict privacy laws. We may be reached at (800) 428-0304, or for more information please visit our site at www.salehiclassaction.com. Thank you very much for your time and attention.
My name is Amir Salehi, and I represent several Bank of America customers who have filed suit against Bank of America for unauthorized charges to their accounts for SmartStep (also known as Level AD) Insurance. I am looking to speak with other Bank of America customers who have experienced these unauthorized charges to their accounts, and from your complaint, I understand that you have noticed charges to your account that may be unauthorized. If this is the case, any information you provide regarding your experiences could be important. Please contact my staff at www.salehiclassaction.com, or 310-820-3366 if you would like to discuss your experiences with Bank of America and SmartStep (or Level AD) Insurance. Thank you, and have a great day.
https://complaintwire.org/complaint/2eTJBy8j- ... er-866-237-8236