These "companies" usually charge a one-time amount supposedly for the product itself then keep charging repeatedly for a subscription of the so-called product that the customer actually never ordered. When reviewing these, sometimes I'd see they got charged multiple times over the course of many months and hadn't noticed until the day they called me. I always thought two things: First, how the hell could they not notice a repeated dubious charge of $49.95 and second, how stupid they were to have probably visited some scam web site offering some bogus digestive aid or erectile dysfunction pills which they often tout as a FREE TRIAL or shit like that.
Well now this shit happened to me. Both the repeatedly un-noticed charges and the origin likely from some phishing spam or the like.
Some "company" has been charging my Barclay VISA card $49.95 not once, not twice but THREE times before I noticed. The one number of the three that I called said it was for a diet aid. Now I do recall nonchalantly googling around for a substitute for the Phen, but I didn't actually visit any of the many fly-by-night, shady-looking "pharmacy" web sites that Google happily provided for me (evil Google enabler of crooks)...or did I? I could have been Drunk Browsing...an act arguably just as dangerous as drunk driving. I won't deny that I've woken up several times with a hangover after a blacked-out night of drinking only to find my wallet sitting beside my desktop keyboard. Oh my.
Well, even if Mr Hyde did foolishly order anything, I'm going to deny it and dispute the charges with Barclay in the morning, of course. I'll change my card out too to avoid any future charges. Unfortunately there's a legit pending charge that I'll have to tag as OK so it can transfer to the new card number.
I wonder if the rep I call will think exactly as I did years ago that I must be some big clueless idiot letting this shit happen. Well now I know better. It can happen to even observant and intelligent card holders too.
Especially those that know how to use credit cards online while shit-faced. Ugh.