Controversial Marketing-Beware!

This practice is so outrageous, the Waves of Tech is re-posting this as a consumer alert.  The following excerpt was written by cnet.com.  Please read the article in its entirety through the link below.

“Thousands of Web shoppers have complained that “mystery charges” are showing up on their credit card statements and have accused those who operate so-called Web loyalty programs of duping them into signing up.”

“Apparently, many consumers are unaware that for years now, e-tailers such as Buy.com, Orbitz, Fandango, and hundreds of others have given Web loyalty programs, also known as post-transaction marketers, access to their customers’ credit cards. Some online shoppers don’t realize that when they enter their e-mail addresses into these ads, they are opting into the programs and authorizing the charges.”

Marketing Scam Screeshots

Reference:  Cnet

Update 2 Dec. 2009

As an update to the original post, three marketing firms, Affinion, Webloyalty, and Vertrue have generated $1.4 billion in revenue from this outrageous practice.  Basically mystery charges to your credit card by tricking you to consent.   As the holiday season approaches, it important to protect yourself from being lured into providing your email address for these “Coupons” which allows the vendor authorization to charge your credit card every month, and in return, you get nothing!  A U.S. Senate Commerce committee is currently investigating these practices.  An example of revenue generated is classmates.com which has received $70 million from these marketing firms using this trickery. (Listen to Waves of Tech Episode 7 for discussion of this topic.)

Protection:

1.  Ensure you read all print when processing an online transaction
2.  Watch your credit card statements for unusual transactions
3.  Below is a list of companies using these despicable marketing companies.  Your decision, but we recommend not using these sites or do business with them until their practices change in using third party loyalty programs.

1-800-Flowers.com
Adteractiv
Airtran Airways
Allegiant Air
Allposters.com
American Greetings
Auto Parts
Avon
Barnes & Noble
Bizrate.com
Bookspan
Boston Apparel Group
Buy.com
BuySeasons/Celebrate Express
Classmates.com
Columbia House
Confi-Check
Expedia/Hotels.com
Fandango
FTD
Hotwire
InQ
Intelius
MovieTickets.com
Orbitz
PetMeds
Priceline
Redcats USA
Shutterfly
Travelocity
US Airways
BuySeasons/Celebrate Express
Campusfood.com
Cendant Intercompany Agreements
Channel Advisor
Cheap Tickets
Choice Hotels
CollectionsEtc.com
Continental Airlines
Currents USA (123 Prints)
Custom Direct
Digital River
Dr. Leonard’s
Drugstore
eHarmony
eTix
eToys
Fareportal
FragranceNet
From You Flowers
FTD Florists Online
Gamestop/EBgames
Gevalia
Haband
Half.com
Hanover Direct
Hertz
HiSpeed Media
Infinity Resources
J.C. Whitney
Joann.com
Lillian Vernon
Live Nation
Marketworks
Miles Kimball
Musicnotes
MyLife.com
MyPoints
Pizza Hut
Potpourri
Restaurants.com
Riverdeep
Shoebuy
Simplexity
Spirit Airlines
Suresource/Americart
Thompson Group
Tiger Direct
TimeLife
True.com
True Credit (True Link)
Upsellit.com
US Search
Victoria’s Secret
Vitacost
WayPort
West
Yahoo

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