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Aug 7, 2021 · Any computer user who has authorized a recurrent service provider to charge them automatically through a credit card or bank account is a potential target for this scam.
- Jack Guttentag
Mar 2, 2023 · Ontario has a fraud problem. Here's one way the province is trying to tackle it. Last year, Canadians reported losing about $416 million to fraud, a 55 per cent jump from the previous record-high ...
Feb 27, 2024 · 27 Feb 2024. 7 min read. Press Team. In recent months, complaints about unwanted recurring payments have dominated scam reports shared with Which? through the consumer champion’s scam sharer tool. Scammers seem to have been ramping up their efforts. When Which? surveyed more than 2,000 consumers in November 2023 about when they most recently ...
- Surprise! You Just Renewed Your Annual Subscription
- Auto-Renewals Catch Millions of Consumers Off-Guard
- Beware of “Negative options.”
- How New Automatic Renewal Laws Can Help Consumers
- Fact: Companies Count on Consumers Not Knowing The Rules.
- How to Protect Yourself from Unwanted Automatic Renewals
- Prevention Is Best: Set Up Self Reminders
I was in a good mood on a Sunday afternoon because my football team had just won their game. But my mood quickly changed when I received an email that said my credit card had been charged $249 for an annual subscription renewal. To my surprise, one of my digital subscriptions had been automatically renewed, without any warning, for another year. It...
Survey responses suggest that millions of Americans have gotten charged for subscriptions they did not want to renew. The attorney general of Washington state estimates that as many as 3.5 million consumers in that state alone “may have been unintentionally enrolled in a subscription plan or service when they thought they made a one-time purchase” ...
Many subscription services use what is referred to as a “negative option” to hook you. Here is the way the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) explains it: Negative options have been around for a long time. Remember those monthly record and book clubs? They automatically sent you the next monthly selection and billed you for it unless you mailed them a ...
There is a federal statute, the Restore Online Shoppers Confidence Act (ROSCA) which has a section related to negative options. But the problem has gotten so bad that many states have started enacting their own Automatic Renewal Laws (ARL) that go beyond the federal consumer protection rules. A state legislator in Colorado sponsored and succeeded i...
While those enforcement actions are growing and getting attention, companies count on their customers being unaware of these newer consumer protections. The company I was dealing with uses a negative option. It’s buried deep inside a long “Terms of Use” agreement – the kind that most of us just scroll to the end of and click “accept” rather than re...
An important first step is to familiarize yourself with the rules in your state. Do an online search for “automatic subscription renewals in (your state).” If you find yourself in a similar situation, you can politely point the provider to the state law it is violating. Even if you live in one of the states that have not enacted a stronger ARL, you...
But the best thing to do is not to let yourself get into the situation in the first place. When you first sign up, be sure you understand all of the terms. You’ll want to know when and how the subscription plan renews and how much it will cost you. Keep detailed notes, including screen captures of the offer and terms and all related emails. That es...
- Male
- Consumer Rescue
- Special Features Columnist
Feb 27, 2024 · 2. Fake ads on search engines. Paying Google and other search engines to appear at the top of search results continues to be a lucrative trick for scammers. We found dozens of advertisers that were impersonating parking apps such as JustPark, PayByPhone and RingGo. They do this by using stolen logos and hiding their subscription costs.
Mar 15, 2024 · They may provide a customer service phone number to call, which is actually fake. BBB Scam Tracker has received several recent reports about scammers impersonating different businesses through ...
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Scams that target Canadian consumers — Tips to avoid being scammed. Scammers will always come up with new ways to steal your money. But no matter the type of scam, there are some proven ways to make sure you don’t become a victim: Protect your identity at all times. Only give out personal information when you know and can absolutely trust ...
