HIDDEN SERVICES NOT REQUESTED, USURY AND FRAUDULENT PRACTICES
Complaint
walter kumin
Country: United States
this is to report that I have been SCAMED 226 dollars by HSBC´s Account Shield Plus for services I did not request when I signed with the 36 Month interest FREE SCAM at BEST BUY. How could the Attorney Generals of the various States allow this practice to happen to the tax paying consumers of the STATE?, Where are the FEDs when you need them?
I have spoken by BEST BUY, HSBC, and Account Shield representatives chand explained to them that I did not request the Account Shield Service, but no help was offered since it has been over 60 days since I first purchased the goods for BEST BUY.
I have copies of receipt purchases and invoices from BEST BUY but there is no record of muy purchase of such services. However, ACCT SHIELD REP assured me that there was an electronic signature that I submitted to open the account. We, my wife and I declined the Shield service to Patrick of BEST BUY Sacramento, Natomas Store during January 2011 purchase and credit card agreement.
BEST BUY has informed me that they sent every record to HSBC, so BEST BUY is out of the LOOP leaving the customer hanging.
What can the consumers do to bring the likes of HSBC and BEST BUY to the attention of the good old American Justice System?
I have spoken by BEST BUY, HSBC, and Account Shield representatives chand explained to them that I did not request the Account Shield Service, but no help was offered since it has been over 60 days since I first purchased the goods for BEST BUY.
I have copies of receipt purchases and invoices from BEST BUY but there is no record of muy purchase of such services. However, ACCT SHIELD REP assured me that there was an electronic signature that I submitted to open the account. We, my wife and I declined the Shield service to Patrick of BEST BUY Sacramento, Natomas Store during January 2011 purchase and credit card agreement.
BEST BUY has informed me that they sent every record to HSBC, so BEST BUY is out of the LOOP leaving the customer hanging.
What can the consumers do to bring the likes of HSBC and BEST BUY to the attention of the good old American Justice System?
Comments
A number of the major banks have been caught running similar fraudulent schemes.
File a written fraud dispute with HSBC regarding the fraudulent charges. As you already found out, they will just claim "you authorized it" by this "electronic signature", which is the usual BS they offer in such cases, but you should at least get the charges to stop, and get 60 days of unauthorized charges returned. Send your dispute IN WRITING, mailed certified, so they can't claim they "never received it".
File additional fraud complaints with FTC, your state Attorney General, and with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, at www.occ.gov Some have reported that some banks have caved and refunded all charges after an OCC complaint.
In addition, contact the office of Sen. Jay Rockefeller, whose Senate Commerce Committee held hearings on these scams a couple years ago.
In the future, be careful what banks you use. HSBC has a reputation for poor customer service, particularly with unauthorized charges, and Best Buty has its own "reputation". Your experience is in common with many complaints against both.
Do that, and you both block their future charges, and document that you have disputed them as fraudulent. With these types of scams, the fraudulent telemarketers are often passed bank customer account information by the bank, which may have a comarketing agreement with the marketer giving them an incentive to just pass complaining customers back to the same fraudulent telemarketing call center that perpetrated the fraud in the first place.
By closing down the account, you block their charges. By both disputing immediately with your bank, AND in writing to your bank, mailed certified, you establish the date you disputed on, which is critical to invoke the protections of FRB Reg. E. Your bank was notified on the date you first reported the fraud to them, but it was also "constructively" notified on the date you mailed certified, which is proveable by your certified receipt number.
If your bank fails to protect you from further fraud, and fails to reverse the charges, you file a complaint with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and you back that up with proof of your timely fraud notification. Your bank wants to deny that, they start standing out as in need of further auditing, for failing ot comply with FRB regulations.
Alternatively, you can sue within the 1 year SOL, but that may be harder, as you may have to find an attorney to take the case, over only a few dollars of fraud loss. Not likely, unless it's part of a class action.
Follow the written bank dispute path. That is your best odds.
Contact your state Attorney General.
There are numerous complaints by consumers reporting fraudulent charges in connection to these unwanted "subscriptions", and that their information was passed to them without authorization.
These complaints go back at least a couple years.