WebLoyalty (aka Reservation Rewards) Scam
Sometimes, you missed those really small ambiguous charges on your
This is an example where media information can be essential as various internet pages/posts/blogs helped me clarify the situation. The most informative one I found was a page on Adam Rosi-Kessel’s Fair & Balanced Weblog. Equally impressive was the information I found contained in the comments. This is a true testament to the conversational benefits of Blogs.
From the comments, I was able to determine that it was a previous purchase I executed on
I called my credit card company who directed me to first dispute the charges. Armed with all the information I had, it was not hard to get the supervisor on duty, Tim, to refund all the 5 months of charges and cancel this supposed membership. I will monitor my next statement to ensure that the charges are reversed and stopped.
What do you think? Is this incident properly labeled as a
I definitely won’t fall prey again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!
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2 Responses to “WebLoyalty (aka Reservation Rewards) Scam”
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Martin Keller Says:
September 14th, 2006 at 12:27 pmSCAMS Onrebate.com / TigerDirect.com
Read below for things you can do to stop these scams
Post your complaints where their money comes from:
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/mb/SYXThis shows that TigerDirect and Onrebate.com are SAME:
http://jerryfeil.com/tigerdirect.htmYOUR PERSONAL information is for SALE:
http://glaserlists.com/Lists/OnRebate%20Enhanced.htm
http://directmag.com/mag/marketing_listline_29/PLENTY about Onrebate.com:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/results.asp?q1=ALL&q4=&q6=&q3=&q2=&q7=&searchtype=0&submit2=Search!&q5=OnRebate
http://www.resellerratings.com/forum/showthread.php?t=117159&page=2
http://digg.com/tech_news/TigerDirect_and_OnRebate_Scam
http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=431408
http://forums.slickdeals.net/archive/index.php?t-189363.html
http://www.bl3nder.com/music/rhapsody/reduced.php?entry=NBSPMNTBRPBLKSPTMR
http://forums.windrivers.com/archive/index.php/t-60292.html
http://digg.com/technology/Tiger_Direct_uses_False_Advertising_to_get_salesFTC ruling against tigerdirect in 1999 for their deceptive practices, not honoring warranties, bait and switch tactics etc?
http://www.ftc.gov/os/1999/11/tigerdirectcmp.htm
http://www.ftc.gov/os/1999/11/tigerdirect.do.htmWhere to complaint:
File a Complaint with the Florida Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Office
http://www.myfloridalegal.com/ConsumerComplaint.pdf
File a Complaint with the Miami-Dade County’s Consumer Services Department
http://www.miamidade.gov/csd/complaint.asp
File a Complaint with the Palm Beach County’s Consumer Affairs Division
http://www.pbcgov.com/pubsafety/consumer/html/home.asp
File a Complaint with your state’s Attorney General’s Office
File a dispute with your credit card company (if the purchase was made by credit card)
Typically, you have 60 days to file a dispute with your credit card company. The credit card company will then initiate a dispute between you and the merchant’s bank.
If all else fails, file a dispute at your local Small Claims Court.
Ask Microsoft not to allow TigerDirect to sell Microsoft products:
Bill Benton
Sales Manager
Microsoft
Bill.Benton@microsoft.com
Fax: 425-936-7329The brains and pockets keeping your money:
Systemax, Inc., ONREBATE.com AND TigerDirect’s parent company
Systemax, Inc.
11 Harbor Park Dr.
Port Washington, NY 11050
Phone: 516-608-7000
Fax: 516-608-7111
http://www.systemax.comOfficer/Director Detail Name & Address Title
LEEDS, RICHARD
11 HARBOR PARK DIRVE
PORT WASHINGTON NY 11050 CDLEEDS, ROBERT
11 HARBOR PARK DIRVE
PORT WASHINGTON NY 11050 DLEEDS, BRUCE
11 HARBOR PARK DIRVE
PORT WASHINGTON NY 11050 DDUNNE, JOE
7795 WEST FLAGLER STREET
MIAMI FL 33144 PGOLDSCHEIN, STEVEN
11 HARBOR PARK DRIVE
PORT WASHINGTON NY 11050 VSPEILLER, MICHAEL
11 HARBOR PARK DRIVE
PORT WASHINGTON NY 11050 TOfficer/Director Detail Name & Address Title
FIORENTINO, GILBERT
7795 WEST FLAGLER ST STE 35
MIAMI FL 33144 CEOFIORENTINO, CARL
7795 WEST FLAGLER ST STE 35
MIAMI FL 33144 PThe type of business TigerDirect.com participates in…
====================================Webloyalty Accused of Online Fraud
September 12, 2006 8:25AM“In our mind, this company was run just like a securities fraud boiler room, and just like those companies they earned millions of dollars off the backs of consumers,” said lawyer Stuart A. Davidson, whose San Diego law firm, Lerach Coughlin, filed the lawsuit. He added that “tens or hundreds of thousands” of consumers have been victims of the alleged scheme.
Customers of several popular online retailers, including Fandango.com, Priceline.com, and Staples.com, were victims of an alleged Internet scheme in which their credit cards were charged a monthly fee for a “discount club” membership they had never requested, according to a class action lawsuit filed Monday in US District Court in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit accuses Webloyalty.com, an online marketing services company based in Norwalk, Conn., of engaging in a “coupon click fraud” scam in which credit card information was automatically transferred to Webloyalty by its dozens of online business partners — such as Movietickets.com, Petco.com, and FTD.com — without consumers’ knowledge or consent.
“These are huge retailers, and they are complicit in the scheme,” said Boca Raton, Fla., lawyer Stuart A. Davidson, whose San Diego law firm, Lerach Coughlin, filed the lawsuit. “They are reaping a percentage of the money that Webloyalty is stealing from the nation’s consumers.”
Webloyalty, which is accused of violating consumers’ privacy rights and engaging in deceptive business practices that have netted the company huge fees, denied any wrongdoing.
“The allegations are completely without merit and the lawsuit misrepresents the manner in which we conduct business,” said Rick Fernandes, Webloyalty’s chief executive. “It’s chock full of inaccuracies and we intend to win the case and collect our attorney fees in the process.”
Fernandes declined to detail those alleged misrepresentations or inaccuracies, saying, “I’d rather not talk about that at this time.”
Los Angeles-based Fandango, a codefendant in the case, did not return a call for comment.
The alleged scheme worked this way, according to the suit: After consumers made online purchases from various web retailers, a pop-up window appeared on their computer screens promising a $10 coupon on their next purchase. If consumers entered their e-mail addresses to redeem that coupon, their personal information, including credit or debit card number, was automatically transferred to Webloyalty.
Webloyalty then automatically billed the consumer’s credit or debit card a $9 or $10 monthly fee for a membership in its “Reservations Rewards” discount club. If consumers did not cancel the membership by contacting Webloyalty within 30 days, they were charged a recurring monthly fee.
E-mails notifying consumers of the cancellation policy were typically disregarded by consumers as spam, or automatically screened out as spam by e-mail systems, according to the suit.
Furthermore, the Reservations Rewards program offered no benefit to consumers, according to the suit; instead, Webloyalty kept the monthly fees and paid its web retailer clients a “per-customer” fee for each consumer who “signed up” for the club.
“In our mind, this company was run just like a securities fraud boiler room, and just like those companies they earned millions of dollars off the backs of consumers,” said Davidson, who added that “tens or hundreds of thousands” of consumers have been victims of the alleged scheme.
Webloyalty’s roughly 75 e-commerce business partners also include or have included LaneBryantcatalog.com, LillianVernon.com, AmericanGreetings.com, TigerDirect.com, EBGames.com, classmates.com, AllPosters.com, JoAnn.com, uBid.com, and 123inkjets.com.
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Dennis Walter Says:
December 12th, 2007 at 9:21 amYeah, I also got scammed by TigerDirects association with Web Loyalty. They got me by my signing up for the $10 off on the next purchase.
After many phone calls, I got Webloyalty to credit my account. Now to see if they actually do it.
