Loyalty reward scam

[RonA]

The wife was going through her store credit card statement (major high street dept store) & she noticed a debit of £15 which she didn’t recognise. This was eventually traced to a loyalty scheme associated with but not part of the department store organisation.
After much head scratching as to how she had got mixed up with this “loyalty scheme”, she realised while making an online purchase with the department store she had been offered a £15 discount off her next purchase. Thinking this was a loyalty bonus offered by the department store she readily agreed. But here’s the catch, your signing upto paying £15 a month membership fee to the loyalty scheme, which you don’t realise you’re joining.
On checking the loyalty scheme website (based in Switzerland) you can cancel for free 30 days after signing up but here’s the really clever part of the scam, the joining up confirmation & subsequent emails arrive in your spam or trash box (how they achieve this somebody else may be able to explain) so unless you regularly check either you don’t see them.
Fortunately the wife noticed after 1 month of this rip off but only after paying one months membership. On checking the internet it appears some people haven’t noticed they’ve being paying into the loyalty scheme “membership” for several years.
You have been warned, check your credit card statements thoroughly, spam trash box or be very sorry.
PM me if you want the names involved.
RonA

 

[gaz1]

it does get interesting when you read into it

https://www.scambusters.org/loyaltyrewards.html

 

[RonA]

it does get interesting when you read into it

https://www.scambusters.org/loyaltyrewards.html

What stinks about the whole episode is that a well known Department store & previously respected (well in my eyes) business is involved in all this chicanery. Although from what I read the store involved is dropping the scheme because of the bad publicity being generated.
RonA

 

[Dieselman 63]

Yes, I had one of these which I very nearly fell into when buying tickets online with thetrainline. I bought them all in bulk for my UK trip remotely from NZ (isn't the internet great?) and then got a thing saying 'you qualify for a discount' but yeah, it's that same wild goose chase.

 

[slimjim]

If someone has had payments taken for years and they didn't notice, then tough - they don't deserve any sympathy whatsoever...

I don't see it that way,

It's easy to be scammed, and very easy to miss small payments,

Not everyone is able to understand and deal with these things, and alas we humans get worse at it as we get older.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

No such thing as a free lunch. Read the small print check or uncheck boxes.
Name and shame. Has it got a J and an L in the name.

My bank statements are regularly checked for irregularities

 

[RonA]

No such thing as a free lunch. Read the small print check or uncheck boxes.
Name and shame. Has it got a J and an L in the name.

My bank statements are regularly checked for irregularities

Sadly no, just a big D, Ill let you guess where it fits in it’s name (clue it’s near the front) Still don’t how they manage to get their Emails into the spam or trash boxes, that’s the real beauty of this scam.
RonA

 

[rtbcomp]

I nearly got caught by Hermes. It was something like get xx% off your next parcel, but reading it you had had to pay £15 per month to qualify for the reduced price. I suppose it would be worth it if you're sending parcels on a regular basis.

...Still don’t how they manage to get their Emails into the spam or trash boxes, that’s the real beauty of this scam.
RonA

Are there any non alpha characters in the subject line?

 

[wristpin]

I nearly got caught by Hermes. It was something like get xx% off your next parcel, but reading it you had had to pay £15 per month to qualify for the reduced price. I suppose it would be worth it if you're sending parcels on a regular basis.

Ha!, just used them for the first time this evening and saw the same thing.

 

[slimjim]

A small payment takes up exactly the same amount of space on your statement as a large one.

Surely just about everyone outside of a secure unit (and most inside them actually) can tell the difference between a payment being made and nothing?

A one off as in the case of the op, yeah, sure - an offer on a reputable company website with hidden terms.

But, it got spotted after one payment, not 57 of them.

My mum is getting on, there's plenty she doesn't understand but I'm sure she'd spot an erroneous payment straight off (then she'd phone me to ask what to do about it).

I feel sorry for people (older ones at least) who get done by the "roofers" and the "drivelayers" and that sort of thing, but really.

My father in law gave away £250,000 until we obtained the power to stop him, he got onto some kind of mug list, and they mugged him good and proper,

His weakness was gambling and investing,

Lotteries and investing in gold and expensive watches and jewelry which were either scams or tat,

And he never knew the Internet,

He was an intelligent man as well, ran his own business before he retired.

 

[slimjim]

That's an entirely different situation though, I bet he knew exactly what he was paying out and it was his "I want more and I'll take a chance" attitude that was royally exploited.

I'd wager () that if a regular smallish payment popped up in his statement he'd notice and investigate...

In his 70's maybe, but by the time he was 80, he had lost that ability,

He paid to enter non existent lotteries, or buy expensive jewelry with claimed fantastic returns, or to claim money that he had won,

It's not an entirely different situation, we can't judge judge others the same as ourselves,

My wife paid mobile phone insurance for years, for a phone she had replaced years ago,

It happens, and it's down to other people or companies taking advantage, some of them large companies, like utility companies upping your monthly direct debit until your hundreds in credit, then the next year upping it again, imagine how much of other people's money they have in their accounts, some of them reluctant to return it when you change suppliers, and for them it's interest free, even if you get it back,

I certainly don't blame anyone for being scammed, or hold myself higher than anyone or claim I couldn't be scammed,

We have a saying in the Boyd family, it's called Boyd hypocracy, as soon as you claim better of yourself, someone or something will come around and prove otherwise.

 

[roofman]

A small payment takes up exactly the same amount of space on your statement as a large one.

Surely just about everyone outside of a secure unit (and most inside them actually) can tell the difference between a payment being made and nothing?

A one off as in the case of the op, yeah, sure - an offer on a reputable company website with hidden terms.

But, it got spotted after one payment, not 57 of them.

My mum is getting on, there's plenty she doesn't understand but I'm sure she'd spot an erroneous payment straight off (then she'd phone me to ask what to do about it).

I feel sorry for people (older ones at least) who get done by the "roofers" and the "drivelayers" and that sort of thing, but really.

Dont forget the micky mouse gardeners

 

[slimjim]

It is a different situation...

If someone who is capable of online shopping can't keep track of money in vs money out (or simply don't care) to such an extent that they 'miss' payments "for years" then quite honestly they don't deserve the money.

In the op case - she got caught out by a (assumedly sneakily worded) offer, noticed the first time the payment was taken and sorted it out. Cost her £15 but likely taught her to not ignore that tiny "terms and conditions" link in future.

Every bit of financial advice ever starts with "check your statements" - y'know, so you don't end up in 2018 insuring a nokia 3310 you bought in 1997...

(Phone insurance is a scam by itself, but that's a different topic.)

Anyway, I'd better leave this discussion now otherwise I might say something that someone will take offence to.

That's an odd thing you say, "don't deserve the money" it's their money not someone else's, they have earned it, paid tax on it, they absolutely deserve it, the ones who don't deserve it are the scammers.

 

[Wallace]

The Amazon Prime free one month trial does the email reminder to trash/spam trick so you get charged.

 

[ajlelectronics]

It is your ISP or email service that does the filtering, not the originator. True, the originator can make it more likely to be filtered by including "spammy" content but that is all they can do.

 

[Wallace]

It is your ISP or email service that does the filtering, not the originator. True, the originator can make it more likely to be filtered by including "spammy" content but that is all they can do.

Yes, and they are using the possibility of the filters preventing the mail getting through to their financial advantage.

 

[Jetex]

All these big shops and businesses are at it now days, underhand tactics and money making scams offering no real value to the customers. My advise is to avoid all loyalty schemes and such like. If they want my business then just give me a good price and service with no strings attached.