Trying Again: Information you should know.

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 14 Jul 2010 Posts: 3

This is my second attempt at this so we'll give it a try. I posted ealier about Di8ital Rivers. Look, what follows is personal because it happened to me, but I know so much about it because I've read about before it happened. I was just complacent thinking it wouldn't happen and in the end I'll probably get the charges reversed. That said, this scam will probably happen to you as some point in your life. It may have already happened or be happening right now and you might not even know it.

First a little background on the problem. Companies can sell your information to affiliates. This was stuck into that little privacy act passed some years ago. Basically if you don't opt out all your personal information including you’re credit card number and bank account is fair game.

Some light reading on the subject.
http://commerce.senate.gov/public/?a=Files.Serve&File_id=c7b50606-8e74-4cbb-b608-87ab8b949d9a

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/business/20tele.html

http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/10/u-s-senate-committee-hearing-on-aggressive-internet-sales-tactics/

http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/10/u-s-senate-committee-hearing-on-aggressive-internet-sales-tactics/

Now that we have a little background, lets look at some of the scams.

Scam A: Hello, we're an affiliate of x company and have a special offer and to thank you for your valued patronage we're going to empty your bank account. These companies focus on old people.

Scam B: So you buy a plane ticket from Price Line. At the bottom there is an add that offers a discount on your ticket and you click it. You're routed to an affiliate who then without your knowledge signs you up for a subscription. They count on the consumer to not notice the charges.

Scam: C Scammer creates a company. Lets call it at&t solutions. They don't have anything to sell, but they want to make money so they buy customer information from a company like Di8gital rivers and look Di8gital rivers offers to process payments too! Now At&T Solutions starts billing all those credit cards. (This company bought all your information so they know which company to clone. Personalized fraud weeee!) Customer, lets call her Granny Smith, calls At&t wanting to know what the charges are for. A billion class later Granny Smith is no where closer to knowing why At&t is billing her an extra $50.00 a month. But of course At&t isn’t billing her. It’s At&t Solutions. Charges for this bullshit range from 1.00 to hundreds of dollars. If you think I’m full of shit google Di8ital Rivers +scam. I’ve added some links for prosperity sake.
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/digitalriver-us-inc-c293025.html
http://iripoff.com/5891/DRI*DigitalRiver.com_www.ord.com.html

Where not talking about virus or spyware. Nobody broke into my computer or had to hack a company to get my information. They just pay for it and voila.

Companies like Amazon and Verizon are selling not just your name or the crap you buy but your credit card number to any company they want to call an affiliate. These affiliates then can resell your data to other affiliates. Sometimes legit companies buy this data for marketing purposes (though why they need my credit card number to market to me I don’t know.) But more often than not, your data ends up with a company who only exists to make a mirror companies with similar names to the places you shop. The smart ones charge nominal fees you won’t notice, but if you do you'll end up calling a company you do business with and they won't have a clue what you're talking about.

Maybe you bought a pizza at Papa John’s so they make a company called Papa John’s Pizzas. Nobody remembers buying the pizza, but you figured you must have and that’s what the count on. Hey, fifteen bucks ain’t so bad and the most successful companies don’t dip too deep, but yours hard earned money.

By law you have 60 days to dispute a charge from when it first appears on your bill. If you’ve been billed $15.00 a months for 12 months you can dispute the last two months and that’s it. Sometimes card companies will go further, but they don't have to. And if it's your bank account the company has gotten a hold of, your in for a bullshit ride. Plus if your card company decides to, they don’t have to reverse any charge under 50.00 or that occurred more than 100 miles away from home.

So here's my question: Do you really want companies you don’t know dipping into your bank account anytime they want? I wanted to go after Di8ital Rivers because I see them as the middle man. They buy data and resell it. They offer payment processing to some legitimate companies and in the same breath process payments for a lot of scammers. Thus, they’re key for many scammers ability to operate, but they’re not the only company who does this. I bet there’s many sleezier ones.

That’s it, I’m off my podium. Anybody want to help me take on this problem? I don't think it's going to be very glamorous. It'll probably involve alerting consumers about whats happening and explaining how they can opt out of information sharing. And pressuring companies to not do business with payment processors who work with scammers, but there could be some fun too like pretending to be a scammer and being up front with the payment companies to see what kind of business solutions they offer.

Anybody interested?

Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 6:24 pm

Aaand you're a ranter and probably a troll.
In case you aren't, do know that this site is not really concerned with things on that level.
Also, this "information you should now" crap is stuff that I'm pretty sure everyone her is familiar with. Scams are what we deal with.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 14 Jul 2010 Posts: 3

"Welcome, now got lost!"

Gee thanks.

I'm not a troll. Give me a break effing break, will ya? Maybe I'm ignorant to have just learned about this, but it is NEWS to me. $300.00 bucks is missing form my account too and that's a fresh wound. Yeah and I know I'm being long winded but it feels like the ground I'm standing on isn't safe. A company I trusted does business with a company that can't be trusted and that company sold my information to another company who caused my bank account to go into overdraft. And then when I start digging around I discover I can't practically shop anywhere safely. What's the effing point in protecting your identity? The worst part about is I can't do anything about it and I HATE THAT. I wrote a effing dissertation because it makes me feel better. I'm sorry that pissed you off. The decision I made come here is now very clearly wrong. I just wanted to do something. Sue Me

Anyway, I just thought that maybe some people would give a shit and I'm sure some people do somewhere. If anybody knows where that is and will be kind enough to point me in the right direct, I'd appreciate it.

Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:43 pm

@jrhc - Give a good welcome.

Hello JaneyD. We don't actually deal with these types of scams, if I understand your concern. If you're a victim of a scam, please go to our sister site ScamWarners.

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 9:39 am

Hello JaneyD, as gerald says, we don't cover this type of situation here at Eater. Here, we bait Advance Fee Fraud scammers.

I don't know anything about Digital River, so cannot comment about that, although I understand that they were victims of a data breach, which may explain recent problems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_River

I suggest that you seek legal help if you fear that you have unaccounted-for financial losses, and also, of course, communicate with your bank.

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 10:16 am

Hi Janey, I'm afraid it was me who canned your original post, as calling litigious multi million Dollar companies fraudsters is your right of course, but not using Eater as a medium, as its our ass that gets sued.

JaneyD wrote:

Sue Me

As Branwen points out, they have had a data breach, so although it may be DR's fault your details have fallen in to the hands of scammers, its not them who are scamming you. To suggest so may be seen as libellous - not to me, but to an expensive lawyer.

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