Complaint Rating:

Company information:
Privacy Matters
United States
privacymatters.com

In early December 2008 I purchased a reverse phone number lookup report from www.intelius.com and without my knowledge I was auto enrolled with a credit monitoring service provided by Privacy Matters 123. This is a fact I did not realize until yesterday.

I noticed a charge on my checking account for $19.95 from AP9 HealthPlan. I called my bank to have the charge removed (it was currently pending). I was told they could do that but it may be easier to contact the company charging me. I explained I didn't know who they where or how to contact them. My bank was able to provide the phone number for this company, so I called them. The number is: 877.993.6264. I first spoke with Kendra employee ID# 153528. I explained the current pending charge and that I knew nothing about it and without any further explanation she told me the charge would be refunded and my 'membership' canceled. I received a confirmation email confirming this. The email stated my 'membership' had been canceled.

After I thought about it, I realized since it was a 'membership' I was probably being charged monthly. I looked over my bank records for the last 4 months and sure enough they had been charging me every month for 19.95. The charges began 2 weeks after I purchased the phone report from Intelius.com.

After seeing this I called Privacy Matters 123 back and demanded a refund for the 3 months worth of charges to the 'membership' I never had. I spoke with Ty employee # 154626. She told me she wold not be able to refund the previous charges and that refunding the current month was the best they could do.

I complained and she told me I had to confirm my purchase by entering my email twice, insinuating I knew I was enrolling for this service. I told her; NO! I entered my email twice to confirm my phone report purchase, NOT a credit monitoring service. I then told her about all the consumer credit websites with complaints about being ripped off in this manner by the company she worked for and that if she wasn't going to refund my money I would organize everyone making complaints and file a class action lawsuit! With out skipping a beat she said; wait sir, I will process your refund for all charges.

It totaled about $60, but when I think about all the people they have ripped off; I think we should band together and find a lawyer that will fight for us. Not for the money, because I doubt everyone would see a full refund, but it would shut this company down and keep them from ripping off other people.

Other useful info:

*although the pending charges where showing up as AP9 HealthPlan, when the charge went through it would actually display as Secure Home CLU.

* Privacy Matters 123 did confirm that the 'membership' was purchased through Intelius.com, so anyone using Intelius beware that you will most likely end up a victim.