MWI* Simple Escapes2/Homeworks Plus ripped me off again and again! I believe Wal-mart sold them my information. Rip-off! Nationwide
I noticed an unauthorized charge of $96 on my credit card in March 2004. Upon calling the credit card company, I found that "Homeworks Plus" (a Member Works Inc agency) was responsible for the billing and that I should contact them before I could have the charge removed. I then contacted Homeworks Plus and after several minutes of heated conversation, they agreed to reverse the charge.
That credit appeared on my April 2004 statement along with a huge surprise. An unauthorized charge for $96 again appeared, this time from "Simple Escapes 2" (a Member Works agency, also). In the discussion with "Homeworks Plus", I insisted that no further charges should be made to my account and that I never approved membership in any Member Works company. Further, I never, ever gave a credit card number over the phone and I never, ever do that with anyone. It appears that they did not need my credit card number because they already had it.
A phone call in February may have been the source of this fraudulent charge. During that call, the telemarketer was repeatedly told "no" to a series of questions and he would not stop until I finally had to hang up. Early in that conversation, he made a reference to a charge that I had recently made at Wal-Mart. From this, I assume that Wal-Mart "sold" or otherwise made my name, phone number, and credit card information available to Member Works, Inc.
A law needs to be passed to prevent sale of credit card information without the express consent of the customer. And by that I mean, express consent on "every" transaction. Not a sentence buried in a lengthly contract that "authorizes" the sale or transfer. In the meantime, I hope this helps someone.
Diana
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Frater
Clarksville,Tennessee,
U.S.A.
Re: MWI - Simple Escapes - Homeworks Plus - WalMart
#5UPDATE Employee
Thu, May 20, 2004
Diana-
To my knowledge, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Does not sell information about transactions that take place in thier stores. In fact, every e-mail that I recieve in my buisness e-mail comes up as "Wal-Mart Confidential". This could be anything to changes in the company, sales, I tend to believe even the e-mail that I recieved from the company CEO, was listed as such. So to think that they would release customer information out there to an outside company is at best very difficult to believe.
I tend more to suspect that your phone call was a con artist, since I suspect that if I where to call any given phone number in a metropolitan area and stated "From your recent purchases at Wal-Mart" that I would get someone whom had shopped at Wal-Mart recently about 93% of the time. Sure you have that margin of error of 7%, but that is not a bad margin of error. Especially for a con artist whom lives his life to play numbers like that in order to take someone elses money. If you don't believe it get to know someone from Vegas whom works in a casino.
I noticed that you stated that you never give your credit card number out over the phone, but I must ask if you give out your number over the internet? Not uttilizing sucure connections while making purchases over the internet can certainly make you a possibility for identity theft. Not to mention even with secure connections, there are hacks out there to get through the incription codes that they use.
Just a few thoughts on the matter.
Frater
Clarksville,Tennessee,
U.S.A.
Re: MWI - Simple Escapes - Homeworks Plus - WalMart
#5UPDATE Employee
Thu, May 20, 2004
Diana-
To my knowledge, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Does not sell information about transactions that take place in thier stores. In fact, every e-mail that I recieve in my buisness e-mail comes up as "Wal-Mart Confidential". This could be anything to changes in the company, sales, I tend to believe even the e-mail that I recieved from the company CEO, was listed as such. So to think that they would release customer information out there to an outside company is at best very difficult to believe.
I tend more to suspect that your phone call was a con artist, since I suspect that if I where to call any given phone number in a metropolitan area and stated "From your recent purchases at Wal-Mart" that I would get someone whom had shopped at Wal-Mart recently about 93% of the time. Sure you have that margin of error of 7%, but that is not a bad margin of error. Especially for a con artist whom lives his life to play numbers like that in order to take someone elses money. If you don't believe it get to know someone from Vegas whom works in a casino.
I noticed that you stated that you never give your credit card number out over the phone, but I must ask if you give out your number over the internet? Not uttilizing sucure connections while making purchases over the internet can certainly make you a possibility for identity theft. Not to mention even with secure connections, there are hacks out there to get through the incription codes that they use.
Just a few thoughts on the matter.
Frater
Clarksville,Tennessee,
U.S.A.
Re: MWI - Simple Escapes - Homeworks Plus - WalMart
#5UPDATE Employee
Thu, May 20, 2004
Diana-
To my knowledge, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Does not sell information about transactions that take place in thier stores. In fact, every e-mail that I recieve in my buisness e-mail comes up as "Wal-Mart Confidential". This could be anything to changes in the company, sales, I tend to believe even the e-mail that I recieved from the company CEO, was listed as such. So to think that they would release customer information out there to an outside company is at best very difficult to believe.
I tend more to suspect that your phone call was a con artist, since I suspect that if I where to call any given phone number in a metropolitan area and stated "From your recent purchases at Wal-Mart" that I would get someone whom had shopped at Wal-Mart recently about 93% of the time. Sure you have that margin of error of 7%, but that is not a bad margin of error. Especially for a con artist whom lives his life to play numbers like that in order to take someone elses money. If you don't believe it get to know someone from Vegas whom works in a casino.
I noticed that you stated that you never give your credit card number out over the phone, but I must ask if you give out your number over the internet? Not uttilizing sucure connections while making purchases over the internet can certainly make you a possibility for identity theft. Not to mention even with secure connections, there are hacks out there to get through the incription codes that they use.
Just a few thoughts on the matter.
Frater
Clarksville,Tennessee,
U.S.A.
Re: MWI - Simple Escapes - Homeworks Plus - WalMart
#5UPDATE Employee
Thu, May 20, 2004
Diana-
To my knowledge, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Does not sell information about transactions that take place in thier stores. In fact, every e-mail that I recieve in my buisness e-mail comes up as "Wal-Mart Confidential". This could be anything to changes in the company, sales, I tend to believe even the e-mail that I recieved from the company CEO, was listed as such. So to think that they would release customer information out there to an outside company is at best very difficult to believe.
I tend more to suspect that your phone call was a con artist, since I suspect that if I where to call any given phone number in a metropolitan area and stated "From your recent purchases at Wal-Mart" that I would get someone whom had shopped at Wal-Mart recently about 93% of the time. Sure you have that margin of error of 7%, but that is not a bad margin of error. Especially for a con artist whom lives his life to play numbers like that in order to take someone elses money. If you don't believe it get to know someone from Vegas whom works in a casino.
I noticed that you stated that you never give your credit card number out over the phone, but I must ask if you give out your number over the internet? Not uttilizing sucure connections while making purchases over the internet can certainly make you a possibility for identity theft. Not to mention even with secure connections, there are hacks out there to get through the incription codes that they use.
Just a few thoughts on the matter.