Share Your Scams...

[alko]

....not scams YOU'RE trying to pull...but scams that you've been a victim of. I got this idea when responding to a post by Paul Mitchell from my "VIN Check" thread.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/off-topic/52184-vin-check.html

Just an FYI. Watch the VIN check sites as there's at least one of them that will charge you a monthly fee after the first free check.

So basically I wanted to start a thread sharing scams that everyone is coming across these days. I'll start off by sharing the one I got hit with...

I bought movie tickets off of moviefone, and at the end of the transaction I got a pop-up asking me if I wanted to purchase tickets for $10 for future movies. So I said sure why not. I thought it was some kind of promotion moviefone was doing at the time. Half way through the transaction, I cancelled out. Well apparently when I clicked on "ok" to proceed, it took all the cached information from when I checked out on moviefone, created a bogus hotmail account under my name, and then this company (forgot the name) started charging me $9.99 a month for about 5 months. Apparently when I clicked “ok” to purchase the movie tickets for future movies, I basically had agreed to setting up some bogus account with this company, even though there was no fine print-NOTHING-indicating what I was doing. This was before I checked my bank account information everyday, but the reason I DO check it everyday. Well after alittle research I called them up and complained that I didn't sign up for anything. They were very quick to refund me ALL of my money and close my account, as well as extremely friendly. So I did some more research and people all over have complained about them and that $10 scam. After talking it over with someone once, they told me "its easier to steal $10 from a million people, than a million dollars from one person." They hope that you don't check your account every day/month.

[Flash Gordon]

Tell your detailer the car is "not that bad" on the phone so you can lock them in on a low price

btw, Paul Mitchell is a friend of mine

[Flash Gordon]

Sometimes when I see someone I know, I'll reach out my hand as if to shake hands then pull back at the last moment

[Flash Gordon]

One time this guy approached me at the gas station telling me he was from out of town and his car was broke down and needed $20 to fix it

[01GMC]

Cell Phone bill scam:

Small clif note, we were waiting on a contractor to call us back about some recently quoted work at the house. My wife had spoken to him last as she was home that day, and he was to call her back.

She received a call from (360) area code, and when she answered it said something of the following:

Thank you for entering in the contest, your submission has been processed.


Long story short, call the phone company, and no record of purchase was there. Get the bill that month, and a $9.99 change for a "Mindmediasite" was on there that was a subscription.

We were credited and it was removed, just shame how simple it can happen. Nickle and Dime you to death.

[Flash Gordon]

Sign Charlie Brown to your cell contract, then when you have an issue tell them you would like to see the "signed" contract...in general ppl never look at the name you sign

[Flash Gordon]

Tell your detailer you can send him all kinds of business if they can give you a deal

[Flash Gordon]

Amway

[SkateForGirl]

So I order from this website called CCS.com. Its the largest online skateshop pretty much. So at the end of all your orders , you checkout and submit your order a new page pops up. The page advertises a bunch of magazines and at the top of each magazine it says ***3 Months Free*** so im like why not

So I placed 5 orders within a 6 month time frame. Each time clicking these 3 month subscriptions thinking to myself this is awesome . In those 5 orders I did Road and Track 2 times, Car and Driver 2 time and Transworld skateboarding 1 time.

I never used to check my bank account balance ever. So I noticed a charge for subscriptions with one of these magazine companys and looked at a transaction history for the past year and noticed I was getting charged 30 bucks a subscription for the 5 times I placed those orders and didn't realize they were doing this .

Little did I know their is fine print at the bottom saying after the three months free subscription, the credit card provided for the CCS order gets charged for 12 months subscriptions. I immediately got a hold of the company's charging my account, cancelled and got my refund on each one. Every year they charge me still but I cancel it and get a refund everytime. I still get the magazines to this day


P.S. - I check my bank account 2-3 times a day at least once in the morning, once before I go to bed and sometimes during the day.

[01GMC]

Sign Charlie Brown to your cell contract, then when you have an issue tell them you would like to see the "signed" contract...in general ppl never look at the name you sign

Issue was not with the cell carrier, signautre wouldn't have kept me from asorbing the charges.