Oh my goodness! So basically, if you were to have signed in to PayPal through the website that the email gave you, it would have charged you $98.00 to do so, just to sign in to your own PayPal?
Crazy!
Something that has just happened to me, not doll related, but I was on Facebook one day. You know how they advertise on there for different products, well there was an ad for this skin cream called L'Amour (not sure if Cindy Crawford is affiliated or not but her picture was all over it). The product claimed it would make a person look 20 again, you know the drill.
Stupid me clicked on it, read all the "testimonials", and thought to myself... why not, it is only $5.99 (they claim a one time charge of $5.99 for shipping and product is free and then if you want more product you would have to order it yourself). Well, first thing that was suspicious, a few days later when I signed into my checking account, there were 3 separate charges from 3 separate companies (never heard of any of them); one charge for $1.99 and two other charges for $5.99. So right away... they charge way too much money, over double what they said they would. Still, I figured whatever, not worth calling my bank and arguing over such a small amount of money. So left it go and about a week later I got 2 products, one a very small container of this L'Amour cream, and another L'Amour eye serum which they said is free gift (not so free in my mind). Another weird thing, there was no receipt, return address, no information on how to contact these people, no phone number listed on my bank account statement, just the company names which were all different and not at all the same as the L'Amour name of the product.
So last week, I sign into my online banking, and wondering why I don't have as much money in there as I should. So go down to look, and there is a $97.00 charge from some "skin concepts" or something like that. Again, no phone number to reach them or anything. And, I've received absolutely nothing in the mail (not that it matters as NO WAY I am paying $97 for a tiny little container of skin cream unless it comes with free plastic surgery in which after I look like a Victoria's Secret swimsuit model.
Needless to say, I was just a little bit upset
. I called my bank, and only thing I could do was file a dispute (meaning as of now that money is GONE and I don't know for sure if I will ever get it back). My bank told me, not fraud, because I authorized these people to use my check card information. I said yes, but only for $5.99. So isn't it fraud when they take WAY MORE than I authorize. So if they decide next to take $1,000, that is not fraud but only a dispute??? The lady on the phone said yep, and that this happens to a lot of people. I told her I wanted to de-authorize, stop payment, or whatever it is called, from ANY other transactions coming from this scam company. She said would do no good, because they go by hundreds of different names and will just resend the charge to my account under a different company name and it would go through. I asked her... well... what in heck am I supposed to do then??? She said only thing to do, close my entire check card out and cancel it, and get a brand new account. A pain in the butt, as I have so many things already set coming out automatically every month and I'm going to have to figure it all out and then go and change it all once I get my new card. In the meantime as I am waiting I'm already getting messages saying that "such and such" did not go through but nothing I can do until I get my new account information. Just a mess.
BIG lesson learned on my part though. Never again will I purchase ANYTHING where in so and so company claims free products, only pay shipping, and so forth. And sharing with you all to WARN all of you ladies here too. Don't fall for it! If it seems too good to be true, or even if it seems just like a good deal, it most likely IS too good to be true, and not a good deal but a SCAM. And has caused me all kinds of headache, and right around Christmas too (unable to do any Christmas shopping right now because I have money in the bank but NO check card to be able to purchase). On top of that, I'm probably out $97.00 and all I have to show for it is a 30 mL container of face cream that does not work and a tube of "ageless eye serum" 15 mL.
Be careful out there everyone!
