I first noticed the unauthorized charges in September of 2003. My credit card bill had been charged $1 for each of the above-mentioned services. I immediately called AOL, as the acronym was located in the charge description, and all they could offer is a phone number to contact each individual company.
I did and after a discomforting phone conversation they agreed to end the membership I never signed up for, a conformation number was given. On 12/26 an "AOL Credit Report" change of $9 showed up on my Credit card statement. I will attempt to contact them Monday for reimbursement of the charge, but did not want to wait until then to express my disgust on this deliberate unethical business practice. And I am certain it's deliberate by the thousands of similar complaints I've read.
I have contacted my credit card holder and they have also confirmed large numbers of the exact same complaint. The only way I could be assured no additional unauthorized charges was to report my card lost or stolen, which is a 100% correct statement. It was stolen.
For me this is a matter of principle and not monetary loss, therefore I am committed to confrontation. In my spare time I will phone and email this complaint to every contact point I can find on Trilegiant and AOL. Customer service reps don't seem too sympathetic so I will be trying to contact sales reps and any other points of contact they use to generate revenue. If they are talking to me they can't be cheating others.