AP9*VALUEMAX Unauthorized credit card charge Internet Internet
While going through my credit card statement, I noticed a charge for $249.95 from somebody named AP9*VALUEMAX. My wife and I didn't remember making this purchase, so we called the number listed in the statement.
We had to go through a phone menu, and since we didn't know what this the company was, ended up choosing the "enter your home phone number" option. Finally got to an operator who confirmed a lot of personal information with us, and finally said we had signed up for a subscription to www.dealpass.com. When we tried to tell her we never authorized this, she tried to sell us on the service - multiple times.
My wife was finally able to cut this lady off and said we wanted our money back. The operator said the money will be credited back to our card in two business days. I'm waiting to see if this is true. In the meantime, I intend to contact the bank to protest the charge, and I'm seriously considering killing the card off to prevent possible future charges. This kind of thing isn't supposed to be able to happen!
The lady on the phone mentioned that she had received other calls like ours, and that this is somehow linked to calling in on an infomercial, but neither myself or my wife remember doing anything like this. More likely, my wife was searching online for airline tickets recently and there are other fraud reports that indicate this may be the real starting point. We'll be following the advice on other reports from this site to begin the protest process.
Ryan
Albuquerque, New Mexico
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Ryland
Albuquerque,New Mexico,
U.S.A.
Good news!
#2Author of original report
Mon, February 14, 2005
AP9*VALUEMAX refunded the full charge to the credit card exactly 2 days (like they said) after we requested a refund. It took more like 4 days to post to the account, but the date of the transaction was two days after our phone call. My wife and I shut the card down anyway because it had been compromised, and we didn't want to be looking over our shoulders every time a statement came in. Not to be paranoid or anything, but as the saying goes, "fool me once, shame on you..." etc.
I had reported the company to the fraud division on my credit card as well (better safe than sorry), and they were great about crediting the card back while the charge was being disputed - many THANKS to the editors here at ripoff report for the excellent advice.
I've also warned everybody at work and home about this and advised them to be careful responding to infomercials, and to check their credit card statements carefully.
Bottom line - all's well that ends well! I'm going to be VERY careful with the new credit card number to try to avoid anything like this happening again.