I cannot use the company names so I will refer to them as F1 (Fraud) & F2.

I charged $1,183.00 to my Citi charge card to invest in F1 and $5,375.00 to my Capital One card to F2. When I first signed up with F1 they did not tell me that I needed to pay for advertising. I was told in order to do this business and make money I had to have advertising, so I invested in it and was promised to be put on all the search engines on the first page which never happened. I was told that I would make a return in my money in less than a month in which I was suppose to receive a check by the 15th, which never happened. I would call every month to tell them I never received a check and I kept on hearing that I needed to invest more money to upgrade my advertising program. I finally got fed up and asked for my money to be returned. Without any response from them I disputed the charges with my credit cards as a fraudulent investment. Citi card denied my dispute because the charge originated in a foreign country, which was news to me since they are in Arizona. Capital One kept requesting more information and sometime information that I had already sent them. Every time I called them, I was told that it is being investigated. Once F1 & F2 knew I disputed the charge, they offered me some of my money back, F1 $400 & F2 $2,500. I was afraid not to accept it because I knew Citi card was not going to reimburse me so I felt that Capital One was going to do the same and I thought some of my money returned was better than none. So I accepted their offer and I had to sign a Settlement of Mutual Release and had to stop the disputes. I called Capital One that same day and told them to close the dispute because F2 returned my money. I even Faxed a letter to Capital One as instructed by them saying to close the dispute. The very next day, Capital One credited my account for $5,375.00. I had to call them to correct this. My next billing statement from Capital One showed a debit of $5,375.00 twice (once by their error). This put my account $9,000.00 over the limit in which I have to pay over limit fees and they want me to pay the $9,000 to bring my account in good standing. I do not have $9,000 to pay them and I do not owe them that amount. Capital One put me into collections and closed my account. I have spent so many days & hours on the phone with Capital One to their Fraud Dept & Investigations. Today they told me that it will be in investigations and it will take at least a month to correct any errors. Now, I am receiving harassing calls from F2 because Capital One debited their account for $5,375.00 and they sent me $2,500 and they are not happy that they are out of $7,875.00. They told me that I had to send them back their $2,500, in which I did (another big mistake). Now they are telling me that I still owe them $2,875.00. They told me that I fraudulently signed the release settlement and they are turning me over to their legal department. I have been so harassed by F2 that it has made me literally sick to the point that I had to see my doctor. I do not know where to turn since I signed that release settlement. I have been told that I cannot do anything and that I do not have any legal rights. What about my rights as a consumer? And, why should these fraudulent companies get away with this? There are numerous complaints from all over the world about them posted on ripoffreport.com. What grounds do I have to stand on?

Sorry to say this but you screwed this up from day 1. Did you really believe you would get a return on your money in less than a month? If something sounds too good to be true it usually is.

Next you waited too long to try and recover. Next you accepted a settlement. The only reason they would offer a settlement is if they know they don't have a case. Finally, you returned the settlement money.

You ask why these companies get away with it, its because people like you fall for the scams. These people hide behind the fine print which you didn't read carefully.

What I can't believe is after all this you let yourself be initimidated by the company to return the settlement.

The first thing you need to do is straighten things out with Capital One. Then you can talk to the FTC and your local DA or Attornay General about what your options are.

Yes, I did believe that I would get a return in my money because I know someone that did and referred me to this business opportunity. My contract with them states no refund unless after the first year if no profit is made, they would return my investment. But, after hearing different stories every time I would talk to them, I was afraid to wait until the end of that fisrt year. I started telling them that I wanted my money back 4 months into my agreement and they kept suggesting ways how to update my website, in which I did. I gave them that chance to prove themselves and I told them after 6months I want a refund. I gusess they did not believe me. The reason I returned the settlement is because the Agreement of Mutual Release states that if I did not follow through and stop the dispute, which I did but Capital One did not act promptly, and that I would accept only the $2,500. Capital One credited my account for $5,375. (which was the full payment). I only thought it was right to return their money to them and the Mutural Release I signed would be legal action against me. At that time I did not know Capital One was going to turn around and debit my account twice (one in their error). I am very disappointed in Capital One in the way they handled my dispute and within the last couple days I get at lease 3-4 calls from them demanding payment of $9,000 to bring my account current. I was told by their investigation department not to do anything until this is further investigated which will take 3-5 weeks. In the meantime, I feel like I am being harassed by Capital One. My account is now closed with them and I explain this to the person that calls me every day and states that they are only seeing my statement as over the limit and they do not know that my account is even closed. I asked them if they can make a note of it being investigated in order to stop the calls demanding payment and I was told that they cannot do that until the end of the investigation. I am now not answering any of their calls. It has been very stressful as much as it has been with the stupid company I invested in. The person that referred me to this business is very very sorry and I really feel bad for them because it is not their fault. And yes, many people like me fall for these home based businesses and I do my research on them and at the time, this company was rated very highly with the Better Business Bureau, and I am not too happy with them and I left them know about this also. I keep beating myself up for making this move and I did learn a lot from it. I guess it happens to the best.