fraudulent withdrawals from my account
Complaint
IRENE HUFF
Country: United States
I had never heard of WC *BUDGET SAVERS MNTH until it showed up as an automatic withdrawel from my account. As bad timing would have it, I became preoccupied with family illness and subsequent funeral. When I again found the time and energy to address this problem, I found out it's a company I NEVER heard of and they say I authorized it. I NEVER authorize automatic withdrawels and I don't even use coupons, why would I request the services of a coupon clipping website? I am reporting this to our local police for fraud and theft and any other agency I can locate. I believe this may have been triggered by an internet purchase I made for "Aquabulbs" who, by the way, also ripped me off.
WC *BUDGET SAVERS MNTH broke into my account and stole 19.99 from me for 9 months.
WC *BUDGET SAVERS MNTH broke into my account and stole 19.99 from me for 9 months.
Comments
Google does not have full listings for the customer services phone numbers. The FCC is really not fast about stopping these scammers either.
I called them on Monday, 11/09/09. They asked for my name and my address and they could not find me in their system. I then gave her my card number and they still could not find me. They said my card number was associated with someone else. I asked how this could happen, and they explained that there was probably a mix up in their system and that they would correct the problem and credit my account. But, she reported they would need to investigate to verify and she gave me a cancelation number.
I watched activity on my account to see if there was a credit or any more suspicious charges. After a week, the two $19.95 charges from Advantage Care Plus had still not been credited back to my account.
I called Advantage Care Plus again a week later on Monday, 11/16/09. Again they could not find me in their system by name or address. I referenced the earlier call from a week ago asking why my account had not been credited. They were unable to tell me why. He gave me another cancelation number and said it would take 1 to 2 weeks for my account to be credited. He said they would also investigate and send me some paperwork in the mail but as of today (11/25/09) I have received nothing from them. After this 2nd call I started to get suspicious but I decided to watch my account closely and see what happened.
Right after I spoke to Adv Care Plus on the 16th, a new unauthorized charge appeared against my account for WC Budget Savers and I become concerned that the unauthorized charges from Adv Care Plus and WC Budget Savers were related.
At this point I called my bank (Wells Fargo) to cancel my card and their fraud dept is investigating.
I have no idea who these two entities are, and at no time by any means did I authorize them to charge my account. I have received nothing from them, tangible or intangible.
Thanks.
So people, here's what you need to do. Don't just [***] about it here. File complaints with the FTC and BBB and your state's consumer protection agency. That's what I'm doing. Screw these people.
This just happened to my daughter and she found out yesterday; and as the rest of our country her family is already having financial problems due to medical bills and things but that does not matter anyway; even if she did not have problems it is still stealing. I would like to make one comment though about the banks that pay these jerks from everyone's account. The banks already know who they are and that it is a scam; in fact when my daughter called her bank upset of course, the person she talked to basically explained to her that she had been scammed and by who; so here is my point; banks never have any problems sending out mass marketing materials to get there credit cards or other services so the least they can do when they know of a so called company being a known scam after they have filled out so many complaints and gotten at least some money back for the account holder of their banks the banks themselves are not protecting their own customers. There is a way to let everyone know who the suspected scammers are just by putting their names on their web sites or by sending out a mass mailing like they usually do anyway about every month on this mailing make a notice of suspected sites on the internet not to buy anything from; that would really be a good banking practice and I am sure people would be more apt to use a bank that would be helpful like that instead of a bank that knows of this activity going on and I would like to know just one month's worth of customers money these people have put through the banks. I don't know about anyone else but it seems like a good idea to me. I know some people will say it is illegal for the banks to name someone as a scam artist but there is certain wording that could be used to protect them; come on; they have good attorneys and you know I am sorry for anyone this has happened to and to let you know you are not alone and don't feel bad like my daughter did; she was crying because she had just felt so stupid but like I said; if Bernie Madoff could trick the people he did, then don't feel bad. Good luck and there definitely should be a class action; not for the little bit of money people would receive but to stop these kinds of things from happening.
Thank You
Berta C.