Identity Hock
Complaint 18816 Details

A few weeks ago I wanted to know my credit score so I found one of those online credit score sites I did the registration and made sure that when I registered I read and knew that I could cancel the account within 7 days so my card would not be charged. I got my report that night and immediately cancelled the account. This was all within an hour. I noticed today on my bank statement there was a charge for 29.95 from a company I did not recognize. It is a good thing I happened to be looking through my account today, the day they chose to withdraw funds. I spoke with my bank and they said if the company did not refund me they would assist me in taking further action and they provided me with a phone number to contact them with. I immediately called and spoke with an agent who told me that the company had my information and authorization, I asked a few questions. 1. What kind of service did I supposedly sign up for? they informed me it was identity protection. 2. Then I proceeded to ask how they got my information and the girl mentioned how I agreed to this as it was piggy backed onto the credit report I got. I began to get upset knowing full well I cancelled that immediately. She offered to let me speak to her supervisor so I explained and she went into more details. In my gut I was sure I was out the money and let my anger begin to show through even more. I told her that I considered it a scam to attach something like this to another transaction and asked if they protected against things like they had just pulled on me. They say they protect identity yet they are hiding behind other offers and then sneak up and start charging your account. So if your not paying attention to your bank account you could be out more money.
A friend at work was stuck in a similar situation where it said to cancel within 7 days yet he could not log back into the account to cancel the agreement. He has been taken for a lot more than me and they only stopped taking his money on a monthly basis when his account no longer had the funds to pay them. They had the nerve to ask him to renew his payment information. Which he did not.
Anyways back to what happened. As I was increasingly getting angry with the
Supervisor I told her that I did not even know what this service was so why would I sign up for it willingly and that I had cancelled my original account with the credit report and she assured me that she would eliminate my account with her and when I said and replace my funds to my bank she said yes it will be there in 2-3 business days. As this all happened today I have yet to know if the money will be replaced but I kept all the information and plan on continuing until I am re-imburssed.
I know my amount seems small and insignificant but it makes me wonder how many other people are caught in scams just like this by companies that piggy back onto other agreements and then start withdrawing money from accounts.
I tend to get aggrivated at these kinds of things and stood up for myself while speaking to the representatives from this company but how many other people would be intimidated by this and simply cancel the account without demanding full re-imbursement.
I strongly believe companies like this do not provide any legitimate service. I think they piggy back as they put it onto other online registrations and simply start pilfering funds from those accounts until someone like me calls them on it and they refund quickly hoping it stays quiet.
Right now I consider myself lucky. I caught it. But, being a bit of a self made computer geek Im more computer aware. Whereas the majority of people who get caught in these things are not.