Credit Card Fraud

[susandennis]

The trust people who pay Mom's bills, always ping me when her Visa bill comes in. I hop onto her account and check the charges. And let them know it is ok to pay. Usually there is never a question. Today there was a question.

Pluto Data Ltd collected $29.99 on March 10.

I sent Mom a note asking if she remembered that one and then I stuck it into Google. Wham Bam, Thank You, Ma'm. You've got scam! And a whole lotta other folks do, too.

So I called the credit card company and got not my favorite customer service rep. She seemed quite familar with Pluto Data... Once she fast talked her way through what I should do and answered my questions I was able to parrot back to her:

You are saying that my two choices are:

1. Cancel the card and, thereby, put my Mom without a credit card for 5-15 business days (and I didn't even go into all the hassle with the scheduled recurring charges) OR
2. Contest the charge and understand that this means we likely will never see the $29.99 again.

She said yeah. And I said I'd like to contest the charges. And we were done.

Now I'm off to get Mom and backup credit card so that we can cancel this one now or if/when Pluto hits again.

Comments

[katbyte.livejournal.com]

Exactly the same thing happened to me about 2 months ago, but I think it was a different company that put a charge close to that on my Visa. I called the company and they took it right off. I also contested a charge from a wireless service that was cancelled and got my money back, so maybe you don't have to cancel the card.

[dizzdvl.livejournal.com]

They should be able to put a block on Pluto for future occurances. Ask them if they can put a stop on anything from Pluto for anything over a $0.01. That should stop everything. But if Pluto is a bunch of buttwipes they might try to send it in under a different name.

freaky!

[henare.livejournal.com]

if you contest the charge why would you never see the money again? they should process a temporary credit until they resolve the issue (you may have to write a short note to do this--your rights aren't preserved by phone calls afaik). i'd fully expect pluto to not respond to any chargeback, and so you'd be in good shape to get the $30 back.

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

15 business days is a very long time to get a new credit card. The last time this happened to me, it took only a few days. The scheduled recurring charges are definitely a huge hassle though.

[seattlejo.livejournal.com]

Wow, when I went through this my bank gave me the money back in 72 hours..

[frl.livejournal.com]

I would call back and either talk to the rep you get on the phone (hopefully and likely a different rep than who you just talked to) and explain the situation again, and have them look at the history of the call with that last rep. If you get no different resolution from her, please ask to speak to his or her supervisor and get that charge reversed and either a block on Pluto or demand a new card overnighted. Credit card companies can and do produce cards in a day and can (and do!) FedEx them to their customers (I know, I have seen this personally happen). Do not stop until something more than what they have offered you has occured. The rep that you spoke to is simply trying to protect her company and the money that she knows her company is going to lose over this thing. As you have found out, it is a big scam, and these people have gotten litereally thousands of dollars. There are a lot of people who have been charged for several *years* who "didn't know" they were (*cough, bullshit, *cough - don't people ever look at their cc statements?!?). Anyway....good luck!

[jawnbc]

Do they not know the potential wrath of the one they call susandennis?

The fools!

[jimcarson.livejournal.com]

"Credit card company play with fire."

Next think you know, they'll be dissing In-N-Out burger.