BE AWARE: After all the shenagans on Wall Street and beyond,
you’d think we’d be beyond surprise when it comes to schemes to
separate us poor unsuspecting consumers from our money. Having said
that, allow us to pass along a warning to readers about a situation
we encountered.

It started with a charge of ,19.95 on our CNB checking account
and the only information was that the charge was to “Privacy
Matters.”

We saw the charge but didn’t understand exactly what it was,
figuring we might remember the amount eventually. We filed it in
our brain under “for future reference.”

We didn’t put two and two together until a few weeks had passed,
and we saw an ad on television for one of those companies which
provide “free” credit reports from the three consumer agencies.
“Privacy Matters” was somehow mentioned in connection with the
company and we had an “Aha!” moment.

A quick check online showed a tie-in between the company and
those supposedly “free” credit reports.

Next, we checked with our bank and learned that there was not
one but two ,19.95 charges from the company! The bank was prepared
to expunge the charges if we got no satisfaction from the company
itself.

The bank also was helpful in supplying us with a phone number –
something those obnoxious TV commercials fail to do.

To its credit, a phone call to Privacy Matters quickly led to
them agreeing to remove the charges from our account within two
business days – which they did.

Our question, though, is how could they have “slammed” us with
these monthly “membership” fee when we had never signed up for any
such service? It was reminiscent of the “old days” when you’d be
slammed from one phone service to another without proper consent.
How could they have possibly gotten the information from our bank
card?

That’s the interesting part. Seems there is a link from Classmates.com to this company.
Apparently, you needed only type in your e-mail address twice to
indicate you are interested in this “membership” – with its monthly
fee. Not hard to figure out how a consumer might think the service
is “free” since that word is in its name!

On, and by the way, the federal government does in fact provide
your credit reports free – You don’t need to buy them.