You know those messages that pop up after you buy stuff on Fandango or Orbitz from time to time saying “Get cash back on your next purchases?” Well, the companies that run those adds, (most notably) Webloyalty and Vertue, run those things in what may be the sketchiest way imaginable. Upon merely entering your email address, these companies will start to bill you monthly fees of between $9 and $12. Luckily for America, we have the United States Senate, which will be dealing with these companies in the form of the Senate Commerce Committee. Headed by Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the Committee is demanding that any companies engaging in this practice submit a big stack of documents on their business practices by June 17th.
It’s absolutely appalling that we have companies which behave in this way. Presumably, the majority of people reading this article would not have been affected by slimy corporations like Webloyalties because the majority of us do not use email accounts that are tied to credit cards. The people who have been hurt are presumably customers of, for example, Comcast who enter their @comcast.com email addresses, as those are directly tied to a payment system. But everyone under the law should be protected from contracts that are presented as things other than contracts. Hopefully this will lead to some sort of standard marking on online forms to indicate that a payment will be made. You know, like a space where one has to enter a credit card number.
