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justcurious55 · Mar 18, 2009, 10:31 AM

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

OK, so I've fallen for two of those free trials that turn out not to be so free after all. You know, the one's for one free month where they charge you the week you sign up. Does anyone know of any websites you can go to to report stuff like this and/or check up on offers before signing up for them. I don't think I'll be signing up for anymore myself period but I want to spread the word so other people might avoid dealing with this crap.

NeedKarma · Mar 18, 2009, 10:50 AM

There are so many internet scams that it's almost impossible to track them. The basic idea to remember is this: if you do not have a previous business relationship with the person sending you the email then assume it's a scam. Even then it's too easy to spoof someone's email address that you should be wary of anything that looks too good to be true.

Here's a good test: if the email seems to come from [email protected] and the site to sign up is www.scammerssite.ru/rogers.com ten that is a sure scam as the domains (the bit after the @ symbol) do not match up).

Don't buy anything by email, only buy on the web if you started the transaction i.e. you went to their website.

justcurious55 · Mar 18, 2009, 10:59 AM

The first one I fell for was through freecreditreport.com I signed up for them through MyPoints. I signed up because I trusted MyPoints to check what they were sending their clients and had never had any problems before. They charged me about a week after I started my one month "free" trial. And now the latest was really stupid on my part. I signed up after clicking a Facebook add. The website looked legit and the name sounded familiar so I signed up for another one month free trial. Then somehow because I didn't cancel right after signing up they think that's OK for them to charge me a monthly rate and are refusing to refund me. So now I have to go through the trouble of calling my bank, cancelling my card, and all that jazz. So I'm talking about reporting the ones that might be a little trickier for someone gullible like me to catch.

And maybe also reporting the good ones. Like the netflix trial I signed up for. There's states its only a 2 week trial. I signed up nearly two weeks ago, same as the eMusic, and haven't been charged for them yet. Although I was planning to keep that one anyway after the trial ended :)

NeedKarma · Mar 18, 2009, 11:01 AM

I'm certain Facebook would like to know about a fraudulent advertiser so you can try that route. I use Firefox with Adblock Plus and I rarely ever see web ads. I NEVER buy anything based on a web ad. The web is a very bad place to do impulse purchasing, doing your due diligence in researching the vendor is key.