Victim Location 60630
Total money lost $69
Type of a scam Yellow Pages/Directories
An alleged representative from Merchant Monday called my business line based on views on their Instagram advertisement. Their service was to get more clicks through their advertising on instagram. They said their plans usually required a commitment and I said I could not commit to a plan.
They offered a trial period for which I would be charged once. I agreed to that and got charged. When I called to try to cancel after that time, they left me a message saying that I did not give them a chance to roll out the ads. So I got charged for another cycle.
At the beginning of this month I emailed them to let them know that I wanted to cancel my account with them and they couldn’t even find my email and business name that I initially provided them with. Then after finding it they claimed that I could not cancel the service as I was locked in to a 6-month period (which I did not agree to). They had some other email supposedly attached to my account and I told them that I did not receive their confirmation/TOS email as they had the wrong email.
They proceed to claim that they knew I read the email and agreed to the terms because they have "state of the art" systems to help them track IP addresses, they claim that they know this other email is attached to my Facebook account (it’s not), and that they know the social security number attached to my computer (that doesn’t even make sense)?
I think using such threatening language to try and scare a "customer" is a big sign of a scam. Legitimate businesses usually work really hard to be much kinder to people they want to keep as customers. Either way, they said that I can pay a $150.00 termination fee or get a different packaged (so they can get more of my money??). I told them that if what it takes to leave me alone is charge that fee, then to do it. I want nothing more to do with them.
I will be contacting my bank if the charges go through to take measure to protect that account.
Victim Location 18518
Total money lost $98
Type of a scam Counterfeit Product
They targeted Veterans who own businesses on Veterans day through Facebook offering to enhance their marketing with customized Instagram posts for 6 months $49/month for 1000 views in a specific mile radius designated by the business. They indicated they would customize using pictures supplied by the business but when but I requested to see the ad it was not provided. I made attempts by phone and by email. Despite my requests for assistance they were only interested in charging my card.