So last winter around Jan/Feb I'm bored and broke (well, in need of a tight budget) and click on some links in facebook talking about free govt money. They sold it great talking about get your own bailout, etc.
I'm gullible, but not that stupid, so I did my research, googling for sites that might have legit info. What got me was the "review site" that provides some supposed testimonial of a guy who's checked out all the sites and tells you the best ones and why. Because it sounds so reasonable and scrupulous, it sounds ok. The best ones only cost like 2 bucks to ship you some material.
So I sign up for only one that I know of. I give them my cc to charge it a couple bucks and send me some stuff.
I got some stuff in the mail down the road but that's not the point. Buried in the terms and conditions of the site is something that signs you up for a recurring payment to use their website. I never even logged into the website. Apparently hidden somewhere was me signing up for another site.
I found one that I was charged and called them up and got a nice lady who cancelled me no problem. They maybe only got me for 40 bucks, funny, it was on a different card. She did credit me back though. Maybe I was drunk and signed up for two things with two cards. Obviously I'm not organized as I didn't even go over my CC statements in the coming months.
The other one appeared on my CC flagged as a suspicious charge. By now I haven't been using that card except to pay it down so I call the fraud center and they give me the merchant phone number, I call all last week and get a "all circuits busy" message.
So today I call my card's fraud center and the gal helps me figure it out, and finds a different number to call on previous billings. So we do a 3-way call and I cancel it. They were getting me for 70 bucks a month, for a total of 280 that is now gone. I don't even have an email record of signing up for this one. They say the login info must be in the mail. I don't have it.
For a brief moment I wish that I was the scum of the earth and had this racket going. Seriously, I make web sites for a living. If my innards were nothing but green slime I'd be doing this all along.
Yes it is all my fault, yes I am stupid. I am the people that get preyed on by this stuff. But no more, I have budget in place and a plan, I only use one CC a month for gas, groceries and rewards, and I pay it all down. And I am done looking for cool things on the internet. The fraud lady tells me that even she was tricked into one of these scams.
If I am interested in something like this again, I'll go find the thing shared in a torrent and just steal the info. Because taking from each other is the only truth to our survival.
So kids, don't fall for grant sites. Knowing is half the battle!
I'm gullible, but not that stupid, so I did my research, googling for sites that might have legit info. What got me was the "review site" that provides some supposed testimonial of a guy who's checked out all the sites and tells you the best ones and why. Because it sounds so reasonable and scrupulous, it sounds ok. The best ones only cost like 2 bucks to ship you some material.
So I sign up for only one that I know of. I give them my cc to charge it a couple bucks and send me some stuff.
I got some stuff in the mail down the road but that's not the point. Buried in the terms and conditions of the site is something that signs you up for a recurring payment to use their website. I never even logged into the website. Apparently hidden somewhere was me signing up for another site.
I found one that I was charged and called them up and got a nice lady who cancelled me no problem. They maybe only got me for 40 bucks, funny, it was on a different card. She did credit me back though. Maybe I was drunk and signed up for two things with two cards. Obviously I'm not organized as I didn't even go over my CC statements in the coming months.
The other one appeared on my CC flagged as a suspicious charge. By now I haven't been using that card except to pay it down so I call the fraud center and they give me the merchant phone number, I call all last week and get a "all circuits busy" message.
So today I call my card's fraud center and the gal helps me figure it out, and finds a different number to call on previous billings. So we do a 3-way call and I cancel it. They were getting me for 70 bucks a month, for a total of 280 that is now gone. I don't even have an email record of signing up for this one. They say the login info must be in the mail. I don't have it.
For a brief moment I wish that I was the scum of the earth and had this racket going. Seriously, I make web sites for a living. If my innards were nothing but green slime I'd be doing this all along.
Yes it is all my fault, yes I am stupid. I am the people that get preyed on by this stuff. But no more, I have budget in place and a plan, I only use one CC a month for gas, groceries and rewards, and I pay it all down. And I am done looking for cool things on the internet. The fraud lady tells me that even she was tricked into one of these scams.
If I am interested in something like this again, I'll go find the thing shared in a torrent and just steal the info. Because taking from each other is the only truth to our survival.
So kids, don't fall for grant sites. Knowing is half the battle!