$1000 shopping spree
Complaint
Mary
Country: United States
I got a call yesterday that my credit card company entered me in a contest because of my good credit and I won a $1000 dollar shopping spree. They were vague about the stipulations, but tried to get me to sign up for 6 magazines a month for 60 months. They ended up signing me up for 24 months. After looking into it today, I realized it was a scam (which I thought it might be anyway) and called immediately to change my credit card account number. These people are insane! Who does that? If they contacted you, change your account number ASAP! They already had mine, and I don't know how!
Comments
Your credit card company did NOT enter you into a contest. That was a lie at the beginning, to lower your guard by stealing the credibility of your credit card company. They falsely claimed they were connected to, even vouched for, by your credit card company, whereas they are just some scam company. That deception is material, as knowing that it was false would affect your choice on whether to even do business with them, hence using that deception to get your business is an act of fraud.
The safest way to deal with this sort of scam is what you did: block the money. There is no way doing business with them will turn out well, regardless of anything they say.
The "$1000 shopping spree", by the way, is just a website with a bunch of overpriced junk used by scams like this. In no way is it really worth $1000, although in one court case, one similar scam was made to cough up reimbursement calculated on the basis of $1000 per victim.
"They were vague about the stipulations, but tried to get me to sign up for 6 magazines a month for 60 months. They ended up signing me up for 24 months. "
They were "vague about the stipulations" because they intended to change them after getting your credit card number. You will probably have them harassing you shortly, even claiming you "agreed" to pay a lot more than you were told. Adding undisclosed terms after obtaining your account information, then claiming you are bound by it, is fraudulent, and violates FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule.
Some of these scams actually try to deliberately mess up their orders with missed deliveries or the wrong magazines. In those cases, they are really trying to get "cancellation fees".
They often aim to get around $800 to $1200 out of people, paid up front, or maybe $400 to cancel this "uncancelable contract".
As a point of reference, common magazines only cost $10 to $15 per year directly from the publisher, paid only on a yearly basis, and can often be cancelled at any time with a refund for undelivered magazines. Furthermore, you don't run the risk of some fly-by-night operation running off with the money for what you believe you prepaid for. That would make your 6 magazines for 2 years come in at around $120 to $180 total. I bet they start demanding far more than that shortly.
If you have any problems, file complaints with your state Attorney General, FTC, and the Attorney General of Georgia (presumably that is where they are located).
Good luck to all who fell for this and remember "If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is!"