Free Magazine Scam/Charges?

[pimp tyranny]

so i've been receiving OPM for a while now, maybe six months. well today i get on my banking account to transfer some money, and i see a random $55 charge on my checking with nothing in the description to tell me where it came from. i know i didn't spend that, because the last things i put on my card were gas, fuel injector cleaner, and a USPS postage. there is, however, a 1800 number, which i call. it tells me i've been charged this for OPM, not why, just that i have. it then, instead of offering to completely refund the money, says i have the option of receiving 3 more months for the price of $1 along with a full refund. i consent, thinking tomorrow i'm going to call and cancel that shit and if i'm still pissed off, bitch someone out.

anyway, it then made another offer for like computer gaming mag and national geographic which i declined. the thing was, this charge came right before i cashed my check today, so i was $2.67 away from an empty bank account and extraneous fees. so, has anyone had trouble with these free mags, as in, getting mags you don't even remember subscribing to? i've also received a couple Computer Gaming mags in the past month or so, and i don't remember subscribing to that either. the thing that bothers me is, i don't check my bank account summary all that often, so these things could've gone by unnoticed if they'd happened before.

i mean, how did they get my debit card?

 

[Cambot]

No, but I've been charged $50 by gas stations for using my card at the pump. The charge gets refunded (minus your purchase) after about three days. They do it to secure the funds before you pump, apperently. Back when I didn't have any money, that put a strain on my debit card when trying to make other purchases.

Sorry, this doesn't really help you, but I'd call them and complain. That sucks.

 

[zman73]

[quote name='Cambot']No, but I've been charged $50 by gas stations for using my card at the pump. The charge gets refunded (minus your purchase) after about three days. They do it to secure the funds before you pump, apperently. Back when I didn't have any money, that put a strain on my debit card when trying to make other purchases.

Sorry, this doesn't really help you, but I'd call them and complain. That sucks.[/QUOTE]


You generally do not get "charged" the 50 dollars but that amount is authorized on your card, like you said, they reserve the funds before you pump

... on topic... it is hard to see how they would charge you... I never have given CC or bank info over free magazines...

 

[botticus]

I also started getting CGW last month, which was rather random, since the last time I bothered going through free magazine offers was 6-12 months ago.

As yet, I haven't seen any charges for anything I'm receiving. I know I did get my credit card charged by Maxim when I did one of those free offers, but I just had to go through a 15 minute process of automated hard-selling/cancelling to get those charges reversed.

 

[E-Z-B]

I still don't get how they got your debit card number.

Always use a credit card, and NEVER a debit card. It's much easier to get charges reversed.

And only get free mags from the free mag thread. There's never any strings attached to those links.

 

[puternerd]

Pimp- if you didn't give them your account #or debit card # then you are getting ripped off and by calling them you might have lost your chance to get it reversed, because they now can claim you authorized it.

For everyone- common sense, if you never ok'd the charge/debit immediatly call your bank/card issuer and let them know. Most major banks will reverse charges on a debit now just like a credit card. As for checking/savings it can be more difficult but if they know about fraudulant charges they can stop additional ones.

"Pending" debits/charges are usually just money holds or authorization attemps from places you have shopped at. More and more gas stations are doing large holds because of the increased problem of stolen cards and people who "bounce" the charge because of no money. I have a gas station near me that does a $200 hold and it lasts 3 days usually, needless to say I don't go there anymore.

 

[Scahom1]

I've been receiving random copies of CGW for the past couple months now too. I'm 90% sure I got them from an old "free magazines" thread, but now I'm starting to worry thanks to this thread.

 

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

LOL I think I did one of the 'send this card in and get a free issue and mark the invoice cancel' deals a while back.

Well, from sending for that one free issue, I think I received both OPM and PSM for the better part of 2 years.

I kept sending back the invoices, marking CANCEL on them, but to no avail.

After a while, they started sending me a collection notice or three. I kept writing them notes saying I wrote CANCEL on the original invoice that came with my first issue.

Eventually, they stopped the issues, but I think I got both mags for about 2 years for free while they figured out I DID write CANCEL.

I think I did one of the free magazine deals too a while back, choosing OPM for a year and some other one. I got OPM as planned for a year, but I never received even ONE issue of the other one.

 

[Francis]

I had something kind of similar happen a while back, with the Sporting News.

I signed up for it through the free mags thread and after a month I got a weird phone call asking me how I was enjoying the magazine, I got a little bit paranoid and played along saying it was fine. The guy on the other end goes on about how he can add CGW or EGM or even Penthouse and Playboy for free, free mind you then says he'll only charge 10 dollars a week for 60 months in shipping and handling fees. By this time I'm wondering what I got into so I just straight up tell them I don't want to do business with them and don't want the Sporting News either, so they said "Thanks" and hung up on me.

After that I just stay away from the free mags thread, I mean it's worked for me before but screw it. Also they didn't cancel the subscription for me, I emailed the Sporting News and requested to cancel but they told me I couldn't because the subscription was in another name etc, but they did put it on hold til I sorted it out with the company that subscribed for me.

That's where I left it.