Posts Tagged ‘ Priceline ’

Watch what you Click: Black Friday Shopping Scam

November 24th, 2009. By AbiK

Retailers are on to me. And others of my ilk who avoid shopping malls on Black Friday like H1N1. While you used to have to drive bumper-to-bumper and play kamikaze-style musical chairs to snag a parking space—all for the reward of standing in long checkout lines and eating something “a la king” with a side of onion rings—now you can just tap your keyboard and click away (“Shipping address same as billing address?” Why, it sure is!) and still get the same deals as those loonies who actually drive to get them. Completely hassle-free! Or is it?

Unfortunately, some of the more popular sites that folks find themselves on—such as Orbitz, Priceline.com, Buy.com, 1-800 Flowers.com, Continental Airlines, Fandango, and Classmates.com—have had this little pop-up window every now and then that has you thinking you’re that lucky customer today! You (yes YOU!) can reap your reward—a coupon or that special cash-back deal—if you just click and enter your email address right there! 

And it looks so sincere—after all, it appears to be a nice little “thank you for your purchase” from the company’s website you’re on, right? Well, it’s not.

The pop-up ad is actually from a third-party—and most likely from one of 3 companies: Affinion, Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Affinia, Buy.com, Internet Shopping, Orbitz, Priceline, scam, Vertrue, Webloyalty
Posted in Emerging Issues, Internet/E-commerce | No Comments »