[PLUG-TALK] Encore Marketing - Internet fraud

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Wed Mar 24 05:22:15 UTC 2010


My wife is very smart, and properly suspicious of potential
fraudsters by mail and face to face.  Internet, not so much.

She ordered some clothes over the internet for Christmas presents
from The Tog Shop and Appleseeds.  She did not check them out
properly (always google a place before you order from it, adding
key words like fraud or ripoff).  These scamsters feature prominently
on The Ripoff Report website and other venues.  The clothing turned
out to be poorly made crap, and she sent it back.  

However, unbeknownst to her, both companies gave her name to Encore
Marketing of Lanham MD, which included her in their $14.95/month 
buyers club.  Twice.  Starting with a $1.95 charge the first month,
to see if the victim is paying attention.  She just noticed the
charges on her credit card statement.  She called Chase to shut
them down.

The plot gets thicker.  Apparently, these same scamsters got to
/my/ credit card last Friday, and billed me for flowers from
Pro Flowers (whom I've never dealt with) and the same club. 
My card issuer caught it, stopped the charges, put a hold on
the card, and are issuing a new one.   Quite inconvenient,
since my wife and I close on a house tomorrow and need to pay
for some repairs.

There may be a "happy ending", though.  My lawyer sister-in-law
heads the department that writes legislation for the State of
Maryland.  While she is not a legislator, and certainly can't
initiate legislation, she knows plenty of legislators who do.
I suspect the crooks may find themselves subject to a 200%
retroactive state tax.  After all, prisons are expensive to
maintain.  

For those of you without connections to Maryland legislators, I
suggest you check your credit card bills, and those of your less
clueful friends and relatives who might order clothes over the
internet.  It may take a while to put these jackals in prison.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs



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