If you are considering membership in a buying club, ordering tickets or services through a Website, even one you trust, booking travel or accommodations or go through AOL to do the same, or use Ebay to participate in auctions, watch carefully where your clicks take you. Be aware of the policies and methods that site follows to process your transactions. Trilegiant appears to offer “rewards”, small rebates or so-called memberships as part of your deal. As an adjunct to your experience they piggyback or use the site as bait to get your personal information.

If you are as busy as many people seem to be these days, you probably throw away junk mail you don’t recognize or don’t want, but this is one of the methods Trilegiant’s affiliate identities uses to claim your “membership” or participation in a trial offer, whether or not you return it. Others are snagged by the insidious tentacles of this scam because the details are buried in the usual disclaimers and policy statements of the site with which they’ve done business. Then, when the so-called “trial” expires, the consumer is charged monthly or even yearly charges to their credit/bank card. You may not notice such small monthly dings in your account, thinking your spouse or kids bought something. Some are hit with the “service” charges that range from $59.95 to $89.95 or more (in my case) for something you may not be aware you had! By now, you may realize your account security or identity has been compromised.

This might sound a little alarmist to you and with good reason. Think about how long it took many of us to trust our credit card numbers or personal information to transactions on the Internet. Hell, I didn’t even trust the bank site, choosing to do business IN the bank. Unscrupulous companies like this will force users to shun Web transactions and cost sites we liked and trusted heretofore and cost Web dealers a lot of money in lost subscriptions and business. When you see the list of affiliate ID’s Trilegiant uses and think about how they’re scamming people with nearly invisible services, you’ll begin to understand how much money is being taken from consumers who may have no idea it’s being taken! I will put this list at the end and let you decide. Examine the sites you use and scrutinize your bank transactions/statements to keep yourselves secure. If, as I have, you find this kind of scam going on, contact your bank and tell them what you’ve found. Explain to them that Trilegiant, the parent company of the sites on the list (but not limited to them), should be put on their Fraud Watch List. This company is being and has been investigated widely for fraudulent activity by several states and numerous banks since 2004 and THEYRE STILL AT IT! By the way, don’t beat yourself up too much over it because they do it so deftly and use established Web identities, trusted over time, that they operate nearly invisibly. That’s what Trilegiant is counting on. Again, here’s the list:

Additional DBA's, Addresses, and Telephone Numbers

Ron Withrow

ronw1@hotmail.com

November 21,2007

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