HELP ME PLEASE!!!! I NEED ADVICE!!!!
Complaint
Janey
Country: United States
I received a text in February about a $200 gas voucher and I naively became excited about it because I wanted to give the gas money to my mother as a gift. So I stupidly called the number. Long story short, I stupidly gave them my information. I NEVER received the gas voucher. They charged me a couple of times until I realized that this whole s**t was BU***HIT and changed my card number so they wouldn't be able to charge me any more. Since, I've still been receiving unwanted magazines in the mail.
NOW they are saying I owe a lot of money to them and that if I don't pay it, the amount will go into "collections." Should I believe that? What I'm worried about is if this will effect my credit...but I don't no if they're lying either. What should I do? What should I believe?
NOW they are saying I owe a lot of money to them and that if I don't pay it, the amount will go into "collections." Should I believe that? What I'm worried about is if this will effect my credit...but I don't no if they're lying either. What should I do? What should I believe?
Comments
Now Central Rewards tells me that I ordered them last November, after I was unemployed, and got a $500.00 grocery voucher that I never received but they say they have confirmation of receipt. I don't want the magazines and I never received the voucher. How do I get these people off my back. I'm still not working so I don't have the money to pay the bill, which they say, if I pay, I can cancel the subscriptions. I'm struck here and don't know what to do. I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau but I don't know what else I can do. My husband says they can do whatever they want but we don't want and didn't order the magazines so we're not paying for them. Comments
They are not in "Phoenix", or "Florida", or any other location they might claim in the US.. They are operating out of a call center in Mumbai India, and have a long history (years) of consumer complaints reporting increasingly aggressive fraudulent telemarketing.
They are reported to be running a wide range of fraudulent telemarketing and billing shakedown rackets, from "gas voucher" scams, to these fraudulent "magazine subscription" scams.
They also use 800 numbers they have gotten 1 digit different from major US company call centers, like banks, insurance companies, and utilities, to capture dialing errors and con the callers into thinking they are getting some "deal" affiliated with their bank, etc. Or they call, claiming to be "with VISA" or "with MasterCard". They are a polymorphic swindling operation, continually developing more variations.
They use the "gas voucher" or "grocery voucher" offer as a lure to get account information (claiming it's just for "shipping and handling") but once they have it, they cram on additional charges, under various pretenses, like some "membership", or in your case, these unordered "magazines".
It's wire and mail fraud, nothing more. As for some "contract for magazines", they have nothing in writing from you, and it sounds like they didn't even disclose this "offer" with the voucher scam, just decided to make it up, toss some magazines in the mail (or sign you up for sample freebees with the publisher), and start billing. That's how this game is played, in Buffalo, Atlanta, Denver, and now Mumbai.
You disputed through your bank and blocking their charges, as you have the right to do, since the charges were unauthorized and fraudulent. Nothing short of that would stop their stealing, anyway.
Now they are trying to extort more money directly. Hey, might as well. What are you going to do? They're in India.
This "magazine subscription" scam appears to be run like similar scams out of Buffalo. Get account information, then bait and switch, using it as a pretense for a false allegation of a "multiyear contract" at inflated prices no one would ever actually agree to if it was disclosed, and documented by nothing in writing, so they can create a pretense for jacking it up whenever they feel like it. They will typically threaten credit damage, or even "prosecution for fraud", but the fraud is all their own.
No reason to send you invoices to tip you off, as long as they were successfully stealing your money.
Now that you blocked it, expect harassment and threats, starting with bogus bills. Then expect them to play up some multi-thousand dollar "debt" for this fake "contract" which you haven't even received all the unordered magazines for. That is an opening move in their next scam, which is to force you to "settle" the "contract" by paying them off with a $400 "termination fee", basically for nothing.
File fraud and theft complaints with FTC, and your state Attorney General, and with the US Postal Inspector.
Also, file a police complaint for credit card fraud and theft, since I assume your bank could not chargeback and refund all the stolen money, and get a copy of the police report. It can be sueful later, if you get some collections troll trying to shake you down by trashing your credit.
So far, they have not been reported to pass of these "accounts" to any US based debt collector, Only debt collectors who would collect on this junk have to play real careful, pretending they "don't know" it's fraud, and ready to back off if you complain to FTC or a state AG.
FTC just caught one of these scum, costing them millions, which apparently they are "too poor" to pay.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/05/luebkenr.shtm
If they do, dispute the alleged "debt" as fraudulent, and file fraud complaints against them as well, and get an attorney and sue them, for deceptive collection on faked "debt". You can find a consumer attorney in your state through www.naca.net
You got swindled already out of months of fraudulent charges. Don't pay them more.
"Company" name?
Phone number?