Consumer Fraud

04/06/15

JMC 414

Consumer Fraud, ch. 9

Since chapter 9 focuses on consumer fraud and ways to deal with being a victim of this matter, we shared personal experiences of our own during class.

The one instance I can think of where I was subjected to consumer fraud was when I was around 16-years-old.

Since I had an after-school job, I had a debit card where I kept some of my money from paychecks so I could order things online. Well, one morning while I was at home I saw a commercial for a 10-minute palates workout DVD that was supposed to tone your abs in about 7 weeks.

Of course I decided the best decision would be to order this for $19.95 + shipping & handling, so I did. The DVD came and I started using it every day (which, obviously being a 10-minute a day "workout" did not actually tone my abs.)

A little over a month after I received the DVD and was charged the $19.95 + shipping & handling to my account, I received another statement from the bank telling me my account had been overdrawn. I checked into it and saw that the company whom I had ordered the DVD from continued to charge me another amount the following month, but this time the charge was double. They charged me one more time after that before I was able to get it cancelled.

Apparently, when ordering the DVD you automatically sign up as a member and are charged monthly fees. However, the infomercial did not make this clear and neither did the website during the time of purchase.

I never received my money back, but I did learn not to trust any sale without reading the fine print first.

If I had known what I know now, I would have reported them to the Better Business Bureau as well as fought harder to get my money back.