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, Vertrue or Webloyalty. All three marketing companies were the subject of a Senate hearing last week that delved into online loyalty programs, which is what those pop-up’s are actually meant to suck you into. Type in your email and start auto-payments to your credit card.

What? You didn’t agree to that? Well, maybe not, but that’s what’s been happening. Online consumers who’ve clicked the ads & entered their email addresses upon checking out (credit card info already submitted) have found themselves “enrolled” in the loyalty program and subsequently being charged for it.

As reported on cnet.com (11/17/09), consumers are easily sucked in:

Many of those who complained say they don’t fear the ad because they aren’t being asked to turn over credit-card information, according to the Senate Report. But buried in the ad’s fine print is notification that by entering their e-mail address, the shopper is agreeing to join a loyalty program and allowing the store to authorize marketers to charge their card each month, between $9 and $12.

Did you catch that? “…allowing the store to authorize marketers to charge their card each month,…”! The “store”? That’s right—they’ve been in cahoots with these marketing companies, and as was revealed at the Senate hearing, some of these trusted etailers have been making a pretty penny on these loyalty programs. Read on…

Also from cnet, “Lawmakers saved their harshest rebuke for Web retailers that accepted big money—a combined sum of $792 million—to share their customers’ credit-card information with the marketers.” Of that, the article goes on to highlight that the government report states that Classmates.com has made $70 million from partnering with Affinion, Vertrue and Webloyalty. And you thought they just wanted to make sure you wouldn’t miss that class reunion.

While some etailers have ceased dealing with these marketing companies, and Vertrue and Webloyalty have reportedly begun to change some of their practices, online loyalty programs are still out there—and you need to be on the lookout for them as you gear up to click away this weekend.

Tags: Affinia, Buy.com, Internet Shopping, Orbitz, Priceline, scam, Vertrue, Webloyalty

This was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 2:25 pm and is filed under Emerging Issues, Internet/E-commerce . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.