CARDHOLDERS BEWARE!

Although this is primarily a site where the ‘card holders’ are bridge players, this admonition is directed at all individuals who use credit cards.   I am embarrassed to admit I was the target of a scam and wanted to share my experience with you.   My accountant was going over my credit card statement and spotted three repeated monthly charges of $14.95 to innocuous sounding businesses and quite frankly, when the monthly statement arrives, I scan it for unusually high charges and then usually turn it over to Bobby for payment.    At one time we were doing a lot of traveling so the bills were exceptionally high and I paid little attention to the smaller items — that is —  until my accountant asked me what these three separate monthly charges represented ($14.95 times three) in 2008 and changed to ($17.95 times three) in 2009.   I suppose in 2010 it would be raised to $20.95.   I had no clue so I asked him for the telephone numbers beside the names of each company which I could not identify or recall dealing with.    Sometimes a major company does not use the same billing name under which it is known.   In any event, I was dumbfounded after discovering the ruse.

When I spoke to the representative of the first company, she told me I had signed up for some service through a printing company and these were the charges for my receiving discounts.  (Apparently the first company must have been tied in with the other two as she immediately knew to what I was referring).  I was clueless about what precipitated the charges as I had signed up for nothing.   I am not a “gopher” kind of individual and I am very cautious about getting involved with such “sign up schemes.”    Without an argument she told me she would “stop the service” (how kind!) and discontinue the charges (which I never authorized in the first place) and turned me over to her superior.   As soon as I expressed my outrage, she put me on hold and within a couple of moments was rattling off some figures– telling me she was giving me a credit of almost $1200 which would appear on my next statement.  From the tone of her voice, I surmised that I was not the first person who had fallen prey to this triple whammy.    Not taking her word as gospel, I alerted my credit card company, related the story and they are going to contact me when the credit comes through.

It is no doubt just another kind of rip off with everyone trying to make a fast buck in this economy  — and had it not been for an astute accountant, I would never have picked it up.    Being busy 24/7 is no excuse for my carelessness in scrutinizing each charge and felt it would be a public service to share my humiliating experience.   Luckily, mine will have a happy ending as the credit is really ‘found money’ that was temporarily sitting in someone else’s pocket.  Don’t you be the next potential unsuspecting victim!     Take the time to check out EVERY CHARGE!