[TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] "Shopper Discount & Rewards"

NonGeographicalMan

Am I the only person to have noticed that Adaptive Affinity (the parent company of Rewards First and Credit Rating Matters) are now advertising a new credit rating score product presumably involving the same kind of monthly payment scam on television on ITV3 and other less mainstream tv channels. The brand name they are using for the television ad product is Credit Confidential and it is a very hard sell that they are protecting you from identity theft in quite a long and distinctive advert.

Over at www.creditconfidential.com we find its the usual Adaptive Affinity scam with an alleged 30 days free membership except that now you can't actually see your credit rating until you have paid a further £6.95, even while you are a "free member" during the first 30 days. So in fact there is no way to view your credit rating for free even if you can manage to pull off the near miracle of preventing Adaptive Affinity from billing your credit card at the end of the 30 days by cancelling during the so called free membership period.

Interestingly enough I have now had correspondence from the OFT in the post indicating that they are interested in investigating this company further as a result of complaints previously received from myself and other individuals. So hopefully even the sleepy OFT will be prodded in to taking action these scammers, especially now that the scam has extended to high profile advertising on tv all too ironically claiming that the company is there to protect you from identity theft.:eek::mad::mad::mad:

southend1112

I brought a ticket from thetrainline.co.uk and it had a cashback deal, I put my card details in because I know weather a scam or not they can't affect me much because I only had £3 left in thats cards account, so I put my details in and rang them up to see how long it would take, they said 4-6 weeks, but also gave me a offer to cancel and I still get my £15 money back because they promised it to me when I joined for free. So I came home today and got a letter from them with the £15 check addressed to me, I was quite surprised that I actually got it, rang them up earlier to cancel and its all cancelled no charges. it isn't a scam, I got my money

marleyboy

Sorry, good that you got perks from it, but it IS a scam.

NonGeographicalMan

southend1112 wrote: »

I know weather a scam or not they can't affect me much because I only had £3 left in thats cards account

But despite that you apparently don't know how to spell whether as opposed to weather. Also the fact that you use a bank account with no credit limit is no help to anyone who has paid on a bank account or credit card with plenty of credit limit.

I also don't believe that you got your £15 without also having to send a letter in the post to S D & R with your account number and copy of your joining email and so on. They don't just give you the £15 without making you jump through numerous hoops first in the the hope that you will fail.

Personally I would be inclined to believe that you are in fact another friend, relative or employee of the people who run this scam.:mad:

southend1112

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

But despite that you apparently don't know how to spell whether as opposed to weather. Also the fact that you use a bank account with no credit limit is no help to anyone who has paid on a bank account or credit card with plenty of credit limit.

I also don't believe that you got your £15 without also having to send a letter in the post to S D & R with your account number and copy of your joining email and so on. They don't just give you the £15 without making you jump through numerous hoops first in the the hope that you will fail.

Personally I would be inclined to believe that you are in fact another friend, relative or employee of the people who run this scam.:mad:

its a spelling mistake not a big deal? and to redeem the cash back I forwarded my confirmation email, 1 week later I got a letter in the post with the cash back, I have put the cheque in the bank now and they accepted it, so to me this isn't a scam? I am not someone who knows their company either.

marleyboy

Albeit your in a VERY small minority, as this SCAM has already been exposed, spectacularly in the US, where this SCAM was successfully dealt a fatal blow via the US justice system.

It may not be a scam to you, but a SCAM it most certainly is.

ADDITIONAL: It's not a spelling mistake, be that the words whether and weather are indeed spelled correctly, it is what is commonly known as a Grammatical error.

sweetchili

Hi,

After discovering than an unknown £10 was being taken out of my account monthly, silly of me not to notice for 9months though. I traced it back to shoppers discounts and rewards, i have sent them two emails and no response. Then after looking on here at peoples messages i came accross 'davedanger' message dated 16/4/08. Who explained the way he contacted them which i have just tried this minute with success. Thankyou Davedanger!

By phoning this number 08082341539 you will speak to someone at shopper discount who will ask reason for call or should i say they ask if your call is about discounts or to cancel membership so i guess they get this often! after explaining why i was phoning. He quite easily offered me a refund straight away of initially the last 3 months as that all his computer alows which takes 5 days. To claim further payments you need to send of a claims for they email to you. All i needed was my last name and post code, you may need your membership number which can be found on an email they have previously sent you.

They got me after booking tickets via ticket master.

Fingars Crossed ill be refunded.

sunnyhurst

I have been trying for sometime now to claim money removed from my account by rewards first. I admit that I did fill in one of their forms after clicking on a link for £10 back when purchasing train tickets in sept 2010, but after doing so, there was no onscreen confirmation that the application had been successful - it merely shut down. I had assumed that it didn't work, but was content to wait to see if I would receive the stated "welcome email" containing my password which it states I would need when writing to them to claim the cashback & cancel subscription.
I waited, regularly checking my emails (including the spam & deleted folders) as I had already pre-addressed an envelope containing all the other details required.

No email was received from rewards first. In Feb I received my bank statement & Imagine my surprise when I saw that 4 x £9.95 had been taken!! I immediately went onto the site & rang the "customer services" they stated that a welcome email had been sent & as I had signed up for the "service" the money was non-refundable. I requested the membership be cancelled & requested a copy of the supposed "welcome email"

I received an email from rewards first confirming my cancellation and another containing a copy of the welcoming email BUT & it's a big BUT welcoming email was addressed incorrectly & not in the format that I had provided to them (it's also strange that the cancellation email & all other subsequent emails have been addressed correctly) I did then take the opportunity to claim the £10 cashback (even though the menbership had been cancelled - I thought it worth a try) but that is the only thing I did do as I couldn't access the site before then without the password.

I was prepared to give rewards first the benefit of the doubt, that it was merely an error on their part that the welcome email had been addressed incorrectly (& certainly not in the way that I had provided it to them) making it undeliverable (yes, I did try to send one in the manner they did) but they still state that the email had been sent. I have since requested a read receipt sent from myself to prove that as I did actually receive the welcome email as I am sure that a responsible, ethical company would want to make sure that their valued customers receive the essential & vital first email!
After having to send the request for a read receipt several times & having been ignored on each occasion I can now only assume that this "error" is a deliberate ploy from rewards first & would account for the scores of people who say that they never receive the welcome email - How can they justify taking money for a service which they know won't be provided due to incorrectly addressed emails?

I would appreciate any assistance to reclaim my money in this matter

pj_in_the_forest

I purchased a cd from cd wow and it took over a year to spot £10 per month on Credit card ,they refunded me £30 but still out of pocket by £100

sbglondon

Just wanted to say big thanks to the other contributors in this thread. My wife got suckered into this outrageous scam and 10 months later we have only just cottonned on. Have emailed watchdog [EMAIL="watchdog@bbc.co.uk"]watchdog@bbc.co.uk[/EMAIL] as previous posters have suggested and also complained to thetrainline.com who seem to think that this is a perfectly acceptable way to do business. Is it hell!!!!

It is downright unacceptable that large companies associate themselves with an obvious scam like this and we should all vote with our feet (or our mice) and refuse to use companies that support this rip off.

To share your card details with a third party without seeking leave to do so must be very close to a criminal act. I run a web sales company and we would be hung out to dry by our card processors if we did such a thing

My advice - lets get Watchdog involved - they will rip Webloyalty to shreds and expose all those so called reputable companies that back this scam.

Angry - ANGRY!!!!....I am absolutely spitting feathers!!:mad: