Consumer Warning!

A lot of the websites where you buy something show offers for stuff when (and after) you check out. Here's what's happening at a few of them. After completing a purchase, a person clicks on the 10% off next purchase coupon. They enter their email address and they click to pursue the offer. Before they know it they are being billed $10 dollars a month for a service they don't recall signing up for.

A US Senate report finds several online companies engaging in deception. Looks like a kinda boring story at first, third party app companies, bla bla. But wait. These next two points want to be in all caps and it is very difficult to suppress that right now so I will separate them out BUT LOOK -

After you buy something online, when you click on a post transaction offer, the company you just bought from can hand over your credit card number to a third party, and after that you don't have to enter much to be charged. Consumers do not expect this.

The companies that hand over your information get money from the deceptive third party bla blas. This is how they thank you for making a purchase.

It's true, it's shameful and it has happened to me. While the third parties - in this case Affinion, Vertrue, and WebLoyalty aren't tip-of-the-mind for most of us, the shame is on those few of their 450 clients that participate in profits from these deceptions.

Washington State's Attorney General, Robert McKenna, declared

"I cannot overstate the consumer injury that is occurring because of these marketing methods. Based upon our office’s investigations, we estimate that well over $50 million has been deceptively obtained from Washington consumers over the course of the last four years by a relatively small handful of businesses conducting the type of marketing at issue in this Committee’s investigation."

At least we're bringing it back home. Classmates.com made $70 million last year from this. Read report here.