ReactorCore
Victoria,#2
Tue, August 18, 2009
S short poke around on the site reveals a link to the "Terms & Conditions" of sale for this and many other companies like it. Let me guess: I'll bet you didn't even bother to read them, let alone look for them, right?
It's only one additional click to get that pop-up window that lays the whole mechanism of how it works, and odds are you'd drop that "offer" like a hot potato... but people don't bother to look, they just traipse along with visions of free Government cheese dancing in hteir heads, they let their guard down, and WHAM. Here's the terms language as found on the site you went to:
9. Grant Help Center 7 Day Free Trial
A. User agrees to be charged by Grant Funding Express after 7 days of ordering the FREE CD in the amount of $49.95 for access to the Grant Help Center. The first day of the trial is the date of order. No refunds will be given for failure to use the requested and/or provided services.
B. The user will continue to be billed for $49.95 each month there after unless the user contacts Grant Funding Express using our Contact Form or calls us at 1-888-662-8762. (see 10E)
C. If the user cancels their 7 day FREE trial to the Grant Help Center before the 7 trial days are up, the user will not be billed $49.95 or any charges thereafter.
E. To cancel the 7 Day FREE trial the user will need to contact us before midnight of the 7th day or they cancel cancel by visiting www.GrantHelpOrder.com
G. We reserve the right to make changes to pricing at anytime. Please revisit these term and conditions regularly.
10. Grant Mentoring Center 14 Day Free Trial
A. User agrees to be charged by Grant Mentoring Center after 14 days of ordering the FREE CD in the amount of $29.95 for access to the Grant Help Center. The first day of the trial is the date of order. No refunds will be given for failure to use the requested and/or provided services.
B. The user will continue to be billed for $29.95 each month there after unless the user contacts Grant Funding Express using our Contact Form or calls us at 1-866-960-0858.
C. If the user cancels their 14 day FREE trial to the Grant Mentoring Center before the 14 trial days are up, the user will not be billed $29.95 or any charges thereafter.
E. To cancel the 14 Day FREE trial the user will need to contact us before midnight of the 14th day or they cancel cancel by visiting www.GrantHelpOrder.com
G. We reserve the right to make changes to pricing at anytime. Please revisit these term and conditions regularly.
This is slippery stuff, not only because the average "get rich quick" person is in such a rush to get that something for nothing that they totally fail to exercise any more logical thought, but because whoever says "it's fraudulent because the info isn't there" or "I didn't authorize the transaction" is going to be wrong on both counts.
According to the language, you agree to the transaction as soon as you submit the form for that cheap CD. In addition, and as you can see, the information is, in fact, available right on the site, and it will be seen as the consumer's obligation to perform due diligence in researching the offer thoroughly before committing to anything.
The way that these particular shysters are going to be brought down is NOT cries of fraud, because the activity isn't truly fraudulent as such. It's going to be in hammering them on deceptive marketing practices. After all, they don't really encourage someone to look at those terms as such, and it could be argued that shunting the info behind "one more link" is a method of hiding conditions that would cause a person to run screaming the other way.
However, despite the shady way they get you to commit, it's still up to you to exercise that most basic of all critical thoughts when it comes to such offers; "If it sounds too good to be true, it is"