WATCH OUT FOR FREE STUFF - AOL no longer sharing info

      Fees surprise unwary Web shoppers
      By: Tom Spring
      PC World (U.S.)  (05 Jul 2004) 
      Surprised - that's how Las Vegas resident Heidi Speidel felt when she found a puzzling US$100 charge on her credit card for a service called Simple Escapes. She told American Express Co. she suspected her credit card number had been hijacked, and then discovered her ISP, America Online Inc. (AOL), had helpfully supplied her billing information. 
      Speidel says she did not subscribe to Simple Escapes, a membership service that provides entertainment discounts and travel services. It is operated by MemberWorks Inc., a Stamford, Conn. direct marketing firm. 
      Speidel never typed in her credit card number for Simple Escapes. Instead, MemberWorks asserts, she authorized the company to retrieve her credit card number from AOL, which had it on file. 
      In a written statement, MemberWorks says Speidel was offered a S$25 Kmart gift card to join Simple Escapes, and had clicked "yes" to accept the offer on a page that included terms, conditions, and an explanation that, after a 30-day trial period, a "fee would be charged to her credit card on file with AOL." 
      The company says in its statement that Speidel was sent a "thank you" page that confirmed her enrollment. In addition, MemberWorks says, it sent Speidel two e-mail messages that outlined the program's terms and charges, and described its cancellation procedure. 
      Speidel canceled, MemberWorks says, and received a full US$100 refund under its "no-questions-asked refund policy for unauthorized charge complaints." 
      "I'd never heard of this company and never wanted their services," Speidel says. It took about a month to sort out the matter: "The whole mess was a nightmare," she adds. 
      Sharing data 
      Speidel is among hundreds of online users who are finding they have credit card charges that stem from offers of cash back and gift cards. Many say they didn't realize they accepted a trial membership when they took a "free" gift card from MemberWorks, Trilegiant, or other membership services firms. What's more, it doesn't matter that they didn't send billing information to these companies directly; their credit card number is often shared by other businesses with which they had a different transaction. 
      For example, airline ticket-buyers at Orbitz could get "US$10 cash back" at the end of their transaction by accepting trial membership in Connections, a MemberWorks program. Billing data came from records Orbitz Inc. had on file. 
      Orbitz recently reinstated MemberWorks promotions after pulling them for several weeks. Customers had complained, says Kendra Thornton, an Orbitz spokesperson, but they might not have read the enrollment form closely. Now, MemberWorks program offers are described more clearly, Thornton says. 
      By Jan. 31, AOL ceased sharing members' credit card info with its marketing partners due to "a change in customer policy," says Nicholas Graham, an AOL spokesperson. 
      To the courts 
      The Florida attorney general sued MemberWorks last October, alleging it violated state deceptive trade practices laws by charging customers' credit cards without authorization and by engaging in "unfair, fraudulent, and deceptive business practices," according to its complaint. A fifth of the nearly 1,000 incidents prompting the suit involve online transactions; the rest are from telemarketing sales, according to the Florida AG's office. 
     
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Those outside of the Lower Mainland will be able to listen on the internet at
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Local phone calls to (604) 280-0600 - Long distance calls to 1-866-778-0600. 
Old shows are archived at the site.
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