Recently, my wife ordered a couple items from Lane Bryants online store. She paid with our check card. Little did she know, they do business with a “web loyalty” outfit called “WLI*Reservation Rewards”.
This week, as she was going through our charges, she noticed a $9 charge to this company that we did not authorize. She contacted Lane Bryant, and was told that they would refund our money. It turns out that they have been getting a deluge of people calling about this unauthorized charge. She was told that Lane Bryant was going to be discontinuing their ties with WLI, and are considering legal action against them. I did a little research and have discovered just how freeking HUGE this scam is.
How in the hell can a company do this and not think that people won’t catch on? HOW IS THIS NOT FUCKING THEFT?
From the second link, a list of companies that are connected with these filthy theves…
If you have done online business with ANY of these companies, look at your credit card bills or check card charges VERY carefuly for any unauthorized charges to a WLI*Reservation Rewards. Chances are, you’ve been stolen from as well.
A neat tip for MBNA credit card holders: From their website, you can get a free ‘one-use’ CC number. It is associated with your credit card, obviously, and after you use it once, it goes poof!, and no worries about online fraud.
We had this happen years ago with whatever credit card we had at the time. The charge was miniscule, like $3 and I called on it found out essentially the same thing and it was taken off our bill. When we paid it off, we cancelled the card and gave the notice of why.
Actually, no matter where or how you use your credit card, you should keep an eye out for unauthorized charges. Even when your credit card is used in a brick-and-mortar store, employees have access to your number.
On the bright side, you can usually clear unauthorized charges fairly quickly. I found a charge on my Bank One Visa statement and called the credit card company right away. They marked the charges and contested and sent me a form by mail, which I filled out and returned. On my next statement, there was a note that I was not being charged interest for the contested charges, and on the following statement I’d been refunded the money. They sent a letter saying that they had been unable to get any confirming information from the merchant (they’d said when I called that the merchant didn’t even had a phone number listed with them.) There have been no subsequent suspicious charges, so I didn’t have to change my number. I have no idea who was using my number, or where they got it (I use that card for both online and IRL purchases), or even if it was some kind of honest mistake.
A similar thing happened to a friend of mine whose credit card had been used on some porno sites.
So, watch your statments carefully and report any bad charges right away.