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Wli*reservationrewards.com - Reservation Rewards Webloyalty unauthroized charges on credit card when I upgraded my Classmates.com membership Shelton Connecticut
I logged into my bank acct this morning and there was an odd $10 charge to this company Wli*reservationrewards.com 800-7327031 Ct .
I had never heard of this company and certainly did NOT purchase anything or enroll in anything to do with them.
I called the 800 number and asked where and when they received my information to make this charge since I had never heard of this company/website and never authorized a charge to them. They told me that when I upgraded my Classmates.com membership to a Gold Membership, on 9/20/07 that this was charged.
The woman on the phone seemed to have been very use to angry phone calls. I told her that I had pasted the link into Google and what I found was astounding. It appears that 100, probably 1000's of people have had the SAME exact charges under the same circumstances. They buy or enroll in something and then this company is given their information and they are charged without their authorization. The actual website is wlireservationrewards.com and apparently this FRAUD has been going on for years since the complaints on the sites go back to 2002.
They used to be called Webloyalty (which is the Wli) in Wli*reservationrewards.co 800-7327031 Ct and they were sued for this in MA and in NY. They have since changed the name, but not the game, to wlireservationrewards.com
****When you make a purchase online (especially at any of the sites listed below as culprits) check you bank acct or credit cards monthly!
Just a few of these have been pasted. There are tons. WHY aren't consumers being protected?? When you go to a site that you believe to be a secure site this SHOULD NOT HAPPEN!
This isn't JUST Classmates.com though. This happens to people when they use all kinds of sites. Below are a list of SOME of these sites who release your banking/credit card information to unauthorized parties
Expedia, Movietickets.com, Smartbargains.com, Fandango.com, allposters.com, Marketworks, Choicehotels.com, Priceline.com, Babyuniverse.com, various Yahoo Stores, 1-800-flowers.com , aande.com , americangreetings.com, brookstone.com, buy.com, buycomp.com, ccnow.com, chadwicks.com, cheaperthandirt.com, columbiahouse.com, cooking.com, danskin.com, deepdiscountdvd.com, drugstore.com, dvdplanet.com, e-bids.com, ebags.com, ebgames.com, flowers.com, fragracenet.com, fredericks.com, half.com, hotwire.com, jcwhitney.com, joann.com, kingsizedirect.com, lbcatalog.com, musicspace.com, posters.com, reservations.com, restaurant.com, tickets.com, travelhero.com, ubid.com, vistaprint.com, walterdrake.com, world.com, yahoo.com, Petco.com, lanebryantcatalog, unitedonline, thelearningcompany, broderbund.
Disturbing isnt it?
I attempted to contact Classmates.com
There was no phone number, no address, nothing except for email support, which is NOT what I needed.
In an age where Privacy is a HUGE concern I am surprised that this has continued. The only assumption that I can come to is that this site or sites has some kind of political ties. I say this because in this day and age, for this many consumers to be victimized is appalling and UNAMERICAN!
I think that people should be made aware of this issue. I do the majority of my Christmas shopping and gift shopping on line and even have an online business and have NEVER had this happen until now.
Kimbill123
montclair, New Jersey
U.S.A.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
A|ex
Tyrone,Georgia,
U.S.A.
not many know about the charges
#5Consumer Comment
Sun, December 02, 2007
it took me about a year to find out that the $10/month payment was bogus. i thought it was something my wife subscribed to until i finally asked her about it.
with that many online shoppers, i fear that many haven't noticed the extra charges on their accounts. it's only a matter of time before they are all exposed.
and yes they will eventually refund the money. by doing so, they delay the inevitable (government intervention).
-a|ex
Kimbill123
Montclair,New Jersey,
U.S.A.
It's the PRINCIPLE!
#5Author of original report
Sat, December 01, 2007
Alex, I don't think that anyone who has posted complaints about this company on this site, CARE about $9-$10, it's the fact that they have gotten your PERSONAL information WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE OR CONSENT. I highly doubt that all of the lawsuits that have been filed against this company are for the $9 or $10 increments that they charged BUT the fact that OUR PRIVACY RIGHTS AS CONSUMERS, was violated and that is unacceptable no matter what they do or if they refund the money. They didn't double their profits from $55 million to $110 million in 2 years by "refunding" people's money.
A|ex
Tyrone,Georgia,
U.S.A.
they will refund your money
#5Consumer Comment
Sat, December 01, 2007
just ask for a full refund.
they refunded over a years worth from my debt card.
this is called negative options marketing. it is a legal loophole that allows the retailer to share financial information. it works by misleading popups during signout or a free offers. failure to cancel the conditions of the free offer implies consent that you agree to a monthly membership. the financial information is retrieved from the original online merchant even though you never directly acknowledged it. the FTC has ruled in favor of negative options marketing because there are legit companies that use this for the customer's convenience and saves costs (for both consumer and merchant).
unfortunately, it can also be used to rippoff customers as webloyalty has. the class action suits were about not receiving any value for the membership and not about their negative options scam. customer's never received anything for the monthly enrollment (whether or not they even knew they had a membership).
webloyalties emails were designed to get caught by ISP spam filters. they claim they were compliant with the FTC guidelines by attempting to notify the customers of their negative options agreement. but customers never received the emails.
-a|ex
Stewart
Venice,California,
U.S.A.
THERE IS A CASE FILED IN CONNECTICUTT AS WELL
#5Consumer Comment
Sat, December 01, 2007
Lerach Coughlin Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Webloyalty.com Alleging Massive Consumer Fraud
Marketing company charged bogus membership fees to visitors of popular websites
BOCA RATON, Fla. and NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. A class action lawsuit was filed today against Webloyalty.com, Inc., an online marketing services company that boasts partnerships with popular websites fandango.com, staples.com and classmates.com among others, alleging it charged unwitting consumers monthly fees for memberships after they used its partners' sites to make purchases, according to plaintiffs' lawyers.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts by Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP, the nation's most successful shareholder and consumer class action law firm, Lee & Amtzis, P.L., and Phillips & Garcia, LLP, seeks an injunction on the claims, compensation for consumers and other remedies.
The attorneys allege that Webloyalty.com, based in Norwalk, CT, has reaped and continues to reap tens of millions of dollars off consumers by illegally obtaining the personal, private information, including credit card information, of visitors to its partners' websites. Webloyalty.com automatically charges consumers monthly fees for a membership in one of its services without the consent of the consumer. As a result of the conduct alleged in the lawsuit, Webloyalty has grown from a company generating revenues of $55 million in 2003 to a company generating revenues of $110 million in 2005.
Individuals who purchase products through the Internet should be extremely wary about doing so in the future given that there are companies out there whose solitary goal is to cheat the American public, said Stuart A. Davidson, a Boca Raton-based attorney with Lerach Coughlin. Incredibly, even reputable companies are involved with, and are aiding, Webloyalty in its illegal pursuit of our hard-earned money.
The lawsuit also alleges that Fandango and Webloyalty have violated consumers' federally protected privacy rights by disclosing and using their private credit card information, and are engaging in deliberately deceptive business practices, illegally netting the company substantial sums of money from the consuming public.
The impact of these claims on consumers is enormous, according to experts. A study by comScore Networks, Inc., a company that measures Internet usage, found that [t]otal Internet spending for the full year 2005, including travel, reached $143.2 billion
GOOD LUCK!
STEW