Community Reading Club Of Fort Lauderdale obtained debit card number fraudulently and stole money from my bank account without my knowledge or consent Fort Lauderdale Florida
On December 4, 2004 at approximately 4pm, I received a phone call from the Community Reading Club of Fort Lauderdale. They told me that they were calling because some of their other customers were "being harrassed" by phony magazine companies and they wanted to verify my information so they could prevent this.
They had all sorts of personal information about me: my name, my address, my home phone number, my work number, my debit card number and my social security number. They were very confusing to talk to and soon I found myself answering very strange questions (ie, how much do I make in a year, etc.) I soon became suspicious and hung up.
They called back in a few minutes and this time, they talked to my wife. They told her that I had made an account with them a few months ago. This was the first either of us had ever heard from them! They went on to say that they were going to take $49.95 out of my account every month for the next 26 months, as per a "verbal agreement" I had supposedly made over the phone. They said they had my voice on tape confirming this agreement. I told them to cancel whatever subscription they thought I had. They told me that I had missed the deadline of 72 hours and that the "contract" cannot be cancelled.
Furthermore, they told me that they had not taken out any payments and would not. Instead, they informed me that they would send me a copy of the agreement (how do you send a copy of a "verbal agreement" on paper?) and turn me in to a debt collector.
Since they had my debit card number (don't know how they got it--I never give that information out!) I decided to cancel my debit card and apply for another. I called the bank immediately. The bank told me that CRC of Fort Lauderdale had taken out $49.95 at 3:55pm that day! That was 5 minutes before they called.
The whole phone call with CRC of Fort Lauderdale was highly unprofessional; the individual I talked to did not even give his name, the company's address, or a phone number where they could be reached. I was able to get a phone number from the bank (it was listed on the "transaction"). The only information I could glean online was this company's supposed website, also very unprofessionally rendered, with virtually no information at all.
I wasn't even sure that this was actually a valid company so I checked online. That's how I found this website. I hope that this can be of some help to me and to others. Of course, even if I had known about CRC of Fort Lauderdale, it would not have mattered. They already had my financial information and had used it before I even knew of them.
Matthew
Jacksonville, Florida
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Matthew
Jacksonville,Florida,
U.S.A.
Community Reading Club of Fort Lauderdale has ceased harrassment after much struggle
#2Author of original report
Tue, March 08, 2005
The month following the initial scam was difficult and full of phone calls to various government agencies, as well as CRC (Community Reading Club) of Fort Lauderdale.
Immediately following the phone call on December 4, 2004, I called the bank and applied for a new debit card number. I also alerted the bank about the fraud and the charge was never taken out. I alerted the three credit reporting bureaus and had a fraud alert placed on my credit reports.
On the following Monday (December 6, 2004), I called CRC of Fort Lauderdale and talked to the manager. He told me that I had set up an account with them via telephone on Saturday, December 4. (Not "several months earlier" as they had told me when they called that day!) He also said that I had until that Friday to cancel. I told him to cancel me, then. He said that I had to wait until a confirmation came in the mail. (To date, it has never come.)
After I ended that conversation, I called the Federal Trade Commission and filed a complaint against CRC of Fort Lauderdale. They told me that the confirmation promised would probably not arrive and that my best defense would be to call up the attorney general's office, which I did.
It took two days to get ahold of them, but the wait was worth it! During those two days, my household was being harrassed hourly by calls from "a debt collector", "a credit agency", "a magazine company" and so forth. When my wife would ask the specific name of the company, they would tell her that they were giving her the specific name. (Yeah, since when has there ever been a debt collecting agency known as "A Debt Collector"?) We knew these calls were coming from CRC of Ft. Lauderdale to intimidate and harrass us.
I decided to send my own cancellation notice to CRC. (yes, consumers can do that and it is legally binding.) I sent it certified along with a return receipt. I wasn't sure if the address that CRC's manager gave me was real or not (couldn't find them in any phone book), but the receipt came back.
On Wednesday, December 8, 2004, my wife and I talked with a representative from the attorney general's office. She listened to our complaint, complete with the obnoxious phone calls we kept getting, and advised us to write down a complete report of what had happened and fax it to them (the attorney general's office) along with CRC's address, phone number, a copy of the certified letter I sent, the receipt, etc.
I also kept a log of the harrassing phone calls and made sure to notate the time they were recieved, the name of the person making them (if they gave a name) and the company they claimed to be from. Most times, my wife or I would say, "I'm not talking to you. Don't call back." To which the person would reply, "I'll call back later." (Harrassment and totally illegal. If a consumer tells a company representative to stop calling, they must respect the consumer's wishes and instead contact them by mail.)
The month of December went on as normal, except for the daily or sometimes, bi-daily harrassing phone calls. We finally started pretending that we had changed our phone number and that we had just gotten this number, so the person they kept asking for wasn't there. (Isn't it great when everyone you could possibly ever want to talk to calls you by a little-known nickname?)
Towards the end of December, right after the Christmas holidays, we received one final call from CRC of Fort Lauderdale. The person claimed that I had been a customer and that other customers were being harrassed by other companies so he needed to "verify" my information so that my records could be sealed. My wife, who had answered the phone, said, "Like we're falling for that one again. We have never been your customers, we are not "verifying" anything for you, do not call back here ever again!"
About a week later, we got a letter from the attorney general's office. It was a carbon copy of a letter sent to CRC of Fort Lauderdale, telling them to cease and desist. That was the first week of January. Haven't heard from them since!