Nov 17, 2009 6:52 pm US/Eastern
U.S. Senate Going After Pop-Up Ad Web Scam
Sen. Jay Rockefeller Calls Deceptive Practice 'Un-American'
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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If you've seen this ad online and have clicked on it, odds are you're paying some Web sites you've probably never heard of.
CBS
If you're like 30 million other Americans chances are you've been scammed by a free rebate offer that popped up while you're doing some online shopping.
It's gotten the attention of lawmakers and as CBS 2 HD found out they want it to end.
Millions of consumers have been hit with recurring small monthly charges from a company they'd never heard of.
"I assumed it was from FTD," Chris Appoldt said.
"I had no idea who this company was," Raymond France added.
"I was upset with movietickets.com," Linda Lindquist said.
They're all talking about a tricky group of Web pop-ups that grab credit card numbers given to legitimate merchants by millions of shoppers every year.
"I think it's un-American," Sen. Jay Rockefeller said.
Rockefeller, D-WVa., is leading the charge, investigating these companies to shut them down. He said they've scammed at least $1.4 billion from unsuspecting shoppers.
"For a few bucks they agree to pass their customer's information on to mysterious companies," Rockefeller said.
And it's this little pop up that has drawn in nearly 30 million Americans. It asks for a little bit of information and click yes. But what you don't see is it will be charging you $12 a month, and that's how Congress says people have been victimized.
CBS 2 HD exposed the deceptive practices of one of them, Webloyalty, two years ago when there were nearly a thousand complaints logged with the Better Business Bureau, getting this response.
"We can't access any credit card information nor would we accept any credit card information if the person hadn't authorized us to do so," Webloyalty employee Beth Kitchener said.
Today, 88 online retailers made more than $1 million each handing over credit card info to these "cash back award" sites. Experts say it's the small monthly amount of around $10 that so easily gets by consumers.
"It feels like a pretty fundamental violation of trust. They're getting off on a technicality," said Matt Heimer, deputy editor for Smartmoney.com.
All three of the companies under investigation now say they've recently changed their sign-up practices.
The Senate report also found that almost no one receives any of the cash-back awards that entice them to sign up in the first place.
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