Who the hell are you, why did you charge $79.99 to my credit card...

The BBQ Pit
1

AND HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET MY CREDIT CARD NUMBER

No, I did not sign up for a membership with your company. I never even heard of you until I called to get my credit card balance and there was a mysterious $79.99 charge to my account.

No, I do not want you to explain the benefits of my membership. I want you to credit back my $79.99.

NO, I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR A MEMBERSHIP.

No, I never got a “gift check” from you, with an agreement that if I cashed it I was buying a membership to your service. OK, I may have gotten it, but if I did, I never cashed it. When I get these “gift checks” that obligate me to spend money down the road, or God forbid, authorize the company to charge large amounts of money to my credit card, I throw them away.

No, I did not sign up for a membership.

I never got anything from you.

Do you understand that?

OK, go ahead and send me a copy of this alleged check. I’d love to see whose handwriting is on the endorsement, 'cause it sure the hell ain’t mine. If somebody cashed it, the endorsement signature is forged.

NO, I DID NOT GET A CHECK FROM YOU. I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR A MEMBERSHIP WITH YOUR COMPANY. I WANT YOU TO CREDIT THE MONEY BACK TO MY ACCOUNT. I DID NOT AUTHORIZE YOU TO MAKE A CHARGE TO MY ACCOUNT. WHAT PART OF I DID NOT SIGN UP FOR A MEMBERSHIP DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND

Whew. I feel better now.

As soon as the charge is credited back to my account, I’m calling my credit card company and having them cancel my account and issue me a new one. Somebody has my credit card number. I find that disturbing.

2

No need to wait for the charge to be reversed before having your number changed. Call now, and also request that your credit card company do a chargeback, so you’re not relying on this mystery company to do it.

3

Agree with Otto. My dad had someone steal his credit card number and bought a whole bunch of stereos. He had to call up the credit card company to get things straight. He even had to call up the police to let them know he his number was stolen. In your case, if someone else had charged in your name, he/she will get arrested. If it’s this company that’s shotty, then they’ll close it down and arrest the guy who’s running it.

Either way, some guy gets handcuffed.

4

Initiate a chargeback immediately – the merchant is the one who gets the nasty chargeback fee, not you (chances are the company will take forever to credit your card or will dispute it.) Report the card stolen right away.

5

Actually, my credit card company told me that I would have to contact the Evil Company to get this taken care of. They wouldn’t take the charge off.

Apparently the Evil Company has some kind of sweetheart deal with my credit card company allowing them to market their memberships to account holders- they send out these “gift checks” to customers, and cashing the check is an agreement to sign up for a membership. The charge is automatically billed to your credit card account.

Except that I never cashed their “gift check”.

Evil Company did finally agree to credit my account back, and as soon as it’s done, I’m going to change my account number.

I’d change credit card companies, but right now, my credit is down a shithole and I wouldn’t be able to get a new credit card.

6

Gift checks suck serious ass. Someone stole some of ours from our mailbox (and so we never knew they were missing) and rang up $1800.00 in “cash” charges–plus friggin’ $40 in finance charges for each check. This, after $4000+ in fraudulent charges was attempted just a few months prior. Some $3000+ plus was from some car detailing shop…the rest was cell phones and crap. From what we could see, he/she only got away with a $300 phone.

Bastard.

We got the same contact the company, not us bullshit with that $300 charge. The major charges, like the car crap, was not in line with our shopping pattern and the card company called us and tipped us off. The $1800 in “courtesy checks” came two months later–and we didn’t know 'til we got a bill.

Change ALL account numbers–it’s free, and fairly hassle-free. If those gift checks are at all like courtesy checks (I’m not sure I’m reading it right), you can opt out of them–but it takes 6-8 weeks to process! Yuck!

Hang in there!

7

I think you should still call the cops.

8

My mom had an interesting near-miss with credit card fraud. Someone charged $20 or so on her account at a movie theater. This was before the days of internet ticket sales, so she was duly perplexed. After calling the theater, she was told “Oh, we had a problem with billing certain people so we had to charge everyone who made these kinds of purchases again.” She settled for like $50 in gift cards to the theater plus a cancellation of the charge (she already paid as she was supposed to have), but I was kinda seriously urging her to file a class-action lawsuit.

9

As someone who works as a fraud analyst, I can safely say you can file a report, but fraud ranks low on the police priority list.

10

Actually, we’re talking about two different animals, here. Courtesy checks are basically checks that you write on your credit account. Write one out, and the money is charged to your credit card bill.

Gift checks, OTOH, are something a company sends you in order to bribe you into signing up for their service. Endorsing and cashing the check is basically signing a contract. I will accept this money, in exchange for which, I will change long distance services. Except that instead of a long distance company, these folks were selling some kind of insurance dealy where repairs of household items are covered. So, by endorsing and cashing the check and accepting their money, I would have been agreeing to sign on for a membership. Except that I never cashed a check from them. When I get these “gift checks”, I just toss them in the trash. I know the gimmick, and I’m not interested.

11

Shreaders are cheap. :smiley:

12

Yup, that’s what I use.

My first thought re the OP was that someone had stolen the checks out of your mailbox.

My second thought was they’d stolen them out of your trash.

13

I can probably help you. What was that card number again…?

14

Now that I’m actually awake, a better reply :slight_smile:
Thea Logica, most major credit cards unfortunately have these partnerships. We (the slaves at BigAss Bank) can’t cancel the charges or take them as fraud since the telemarketing drones work (supposedly) for us. You did the right thing by cancelling the charge and updating the account number.

In the future, and this goes for everybody, if you get a gift check, shred it. If you get convenience checks and don’t use them, shred them. Even better, if you don’t use them, call the bank and tell them not to send them to you.

What happens is, customer doesn’t use account so bank sends out, without a request, a convenience check at a promotional rate hoping the customer will a) do a balance transfer from a higher rate account or b) make a purchase. Either way, they’re using the account again. Unfortunately, as Ruffian pointed out, they do get stolen.