chase and trilegiant fraud

February 12, 2009 at 1:47 am | sam | internets

Beware of fraudulent, unauthorized charges from Trilegiant on your Chase (or other) credit cards!

It may show up as any of the following:

TLG*EVRYDAYVAL

TLG*GREATFN

TLG*…

Total bullshit. This is a negative option billing scam, gone crazy. Trilegiant is one of those companies that mails you those $10 checks that say, in fine print, “By signing this check, you are joining our crappy membership program that you would never join if you knew what you were signing and agreeing to the ridiculous annual fees.” Chase is somehow in cahoots with Trilegiant, because both companies paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to several states in order to settle deceptive marketing charges. Somehow, that didn’t stop them from trying to screw people out of their money!

I’m not dumb enough to sign one of those fake checks. I was scammed another way. I stayed at Days Inn and signed up for their rewards program, which turned out to be TravelersAdvantage—a Trilegiant scammy front company. After I read the membership stuff they mailed me, I was suspicious of the program. So I canceled. I even wrote down the cancellation code because I was so wary of them. That was on August 8, 2007.

Then today, a year and a half later, I saw a fucking $160 charge on my credit card that I didn’t authorize. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, because the charge showed up as from a different Trilegiant company. So TravelersAdvantage had my credit card info; after I canceled, TravelersAdvantage gave my credit-card info to a different one of their front companies.

Chase doesn’t let me dispute the charge online, saying “5101 – Third Party vendor Transactions – Not Eligible.” Total scam.

I’ll update as soon as I resolve this bullshit.

UPDATE: I called the number on my credit card bill for the strange charge. “EVRYDAYVAL” is actually something called “Everyday Privileges Gold,” and they send junkmail packets of coupons every month. Somehow, they think that’s worth $160. The service rep was friendly, and canceled my membership and (allegedly) refunded the fee. He claimed that I cashed a $9.25 scam check on December 11, 2007. I did not. I even checked my bank records. Someone maybe got the check from my trash and cashed it (although I always tear them up or shed them)? Or maybe Everyday Privileges Gold likes to sign people up regardless of whether they cashed a check or not!

I also called Tilegiant (also called Affinion Group) and removed my name from their mailing list (hopefully). The rep there was also very nice. I feel bad for the call-center people who have to deal with upset and confused people calling them all the time. But then that must tip them off that they’re working for scammers!

Anyway, here are some contact numbers:

Trilegiant
100 Connecticut Avenue
Norwalk, CT 06850

Telephone: (203) 956-1000
Email: kbuonagura@trilegiant.com.

Members can also use the following toll free numbers:
AutoVantage 1-877-259-2696
Buyers Advantage 1-800-553-4948
Complete Home 1-800-232-4663
PC SafetyPlus 1-877-630-1183
Great Fun 1-800-214-6422
HealthSaver 1-800-7-HEALTH (1-800-743-2584)
Hot-Line 1-800-323-1137
Just for Me 1-877-848-8888
National Card Registry 1-800-323-1137
Netmarket.com 1-888-696-2753
PrivacyGuard 1-877-202-8828
Shoppers Advantage 1-800-526-4848
TravelersAdvantage 1-877-259-2691
Travel ER 1-800-E-Assist (1-800-327-7478)

I also called Chase to see why they let these scammers charge my card without authorization! They were no help. The rep said that I’d have to call the “third party” billers. I explained the situation to him, then asked if he could put a flag or a hold on that charge until it was canceled. He then started lecturing me and raising his voice. He told me to write a letter to some departement in Delaware if I had more complaints. That was kinda crappy.

So I called the Chase fraud department and had them issue me a new card and account number.

The funniest thing is that the multiple times I’ve called Chase about this problem, they try to sell me fraud protection. (For $9.99 a month, that is.)

11 Comments »

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  1. Stuff like that makes me CRAZY!!!! You should definitely call. Chase has always been helpful on the phone. I just wonder about all the people that never look at their bills–they just pay them. It really sucks.

    Comment by Jamie — February 12, 2009 #

  2. thanks, jamie. i think it all worked out OK. but it took several hours to figure out what was going on and to correct it!

    Comment by sam — February 12, 2009 #

  3. You might want to consider writing to the attorneys general of the California and Delaware, as well as to the USAG. They ought to know about the deceptive marketing practices. I’ve read more than one case on “negative option billing.” Sorry you had to go through that, Sam.

    Comment by jordan — February 13, 2009 #

  4. good idea. there’s probably another class-action lawsuit going on that i could hop on, too. :)

    Comment by sam — February 14, 2009 #

  5. Ha! Check this out: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/07/trilegiant_class.html

    Comment by jordan — February 16, 2009 #

  6. i’m glad that they’re getting reamed.

    Comment by sam — February 16, 2009 #

  7. I’m another one of the perhaps millions of people being ripped off by Trilegiant. I signed up for a free credit report from Privacy Guard thinking it would be legit since they are affiliated with MY BANK! (US Bank) WRONG! Unfortuneately my dumb ass (excuse my language please) did not read all the TINY fine print included with the application for my “free” credit report. So apparently, I am now paying for some sort of credit monitoring offered by Privacy Guard that I must have unintentionally agreed to by only trying send out an application for my free credit report. Bullshit. I’ve learned my lesson now. Apparently it’s necessary to read all the damn fine print on anything your card numbers, or social security number may go on to. I thought my friggen bank could be trusted. I’m going to try to sort this mess out tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes….

    Comment by Michael — July 22, 2009 #

  8. Ok. I might have some advice to give you here. I took a job with Trilegiant not knowing what I was getting into. There is a week of training videos and then a week of incubation as they allow you as an employee to take a few calls. Honestly, I didn’t realize what I was doing until the third week, which was when I started to feel like shit. I originally only took the job to help out my family and to help pay for my schooling. Only after the third week did I realize that, yes, I was helping my family, but I was hurting others. I had never felt worse in my life. I might have a reason though as to why you got that charge of $160. Let me explain the shit they do. A call comes in and you answer it in the first 5 seconds (if you don’t, quality control hammers you). You start with the base sell. This base sell can be ANYTHING. Travelers advantage, shoppers advantage, Identity theft protection, great fun HERTZ great fun, wyndham rewards, livewell, haband, and quite a few more off the top of my head. EVERYTHING is scripted. Rebuttals, questions you may have about the service, everything. We are allowed 2 rebuttals max. If you want us off your phone, tell us there has been a death in your family and that leads to an automatic sales close, no questions asked. Im posting this here, so at least I can get some comfort in knowing people may have read this and did not fall victim because I believe it is a scam as well after all the calls I got complaining that they could not cancel. I hope this helps and if you have any question feel free to ask me what I’ve learned from being an insider, I would love to help anyone who falls victim.

    Comment by Tom Walker — March 17, 2010 #

  9. Hey Tom Walker, thanks for posting that, it should help folks.

    My story: I do my mom’s finances because she can’t. I don’t look too closely at her credit card statements, just a casual skim. She orders crap from old lady catalogs like fingerhut and… WTF is Haband?!? Anyway, she starts questioning a charge that shows up all the time, 12.99 a month. I log into her credit card acct at US Bank and yep, 12.99 since last October from tlg something or other.

    I call the 877 number and talk to a real nice guy name Kevin, tells me all about the great value we’ve been getting. I tell him to cancel and he tries to send me more coupons and keep the account open. I tell him close it.

    He finally does, real nice like. I wondered to him how we got signed up for it. He said that after a phone order at… WTF is Haband? My mom, who doesn’t speak good English, must have said ok to switch to a telemarketer and then got sold this bull crap.

    I’m gonna keep my eye on the credit card statements to make sure it doesn’t show up again, but after googling “Everyday Privilege Gold”, well, I should have done that while on the phone with him.

    Glad his is showing up on the search engines. And to the owner of this blog, thanks for not closing the comments after a year plus.

    Comment by Rob J — March 19, 2010 #

  10. Concerned:

    I called Great Fun and spoke with Keith on Saturday 25 APR 2010.
    I cancelled my Great Fun account conf Z10114692380.
    This is the second time I have had to do this because a pending charge from Great Fun appeared on my online bank account.
    This pending charge appeared without my authorization.
    I cancelled my Great Fun in FEB 2010 because charges appeared on my statement also.
    I find your business practices to be unacceptable.
    Your activities will be reported and should be investigated as fraudulent at all levels of government and business practice.

    Comment by Martin — April 25, 2010 #

  11. I worked for that scamming company for six months and the money was great, but it was not worth it. That’s not the type of person I am and I could not continue to take part in that type of work. I like to treat others how I want to be treated.

    Comment by Lamarsha — May 28, 2010 #

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