

Scamville? Not Exactly. - arjunlall
http://mattmaroon.com/2009/11/04/scamville-not-exactly/

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astrodust
Interesting that one of the "non-scam" examples described in this article is
Free Credit Reports, a company that has run afoul of the FTC for hitting
people with a $14.95 a month charge after their so-called free report. Doesn't
sound like a scam at all...

~~~
roc
Interesting bit of history.

In the US there are four major consumer credit bureaus
(Experian,Equifax,TransUnion,Innovis). The Fair and Accurate Credit
Transactions Act of 2003 included a proposed rule change to require credit
bureaus to offer a free credit report, once per year, to anyone who asked.

Experian fought this proposal tooth and nail. They lost.

So they rolled out freecreditreport.com, with it's scammy operations and
unavoidable advertisement.

I guess if you can't beat 'em, then carpet-bomb the market with ads to confuse
people, seed Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt into the whole idea of 'free' credit
reports and make a few bucks on the side. (The other bureaus quickly followed
suit with their own operations)

On the plus side, these scam-tactics are specifically addressed (somewhat) in
the Credit Card Act of 2009.

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gcheong
"The other one allows me to block offers I don’t like, and I do this whenever
we get complaints about specific ones. That’s not easy because often the
customer doesn’t even remember the name of the offer that sucked them in, but
I do my best to hunt them down and make sure they’re never seen on our games
again. "

Shouldn't it be possible to flag offers as potential scams using something
like a spam filter? I'm guessing you have access to the text and can find find
print like "$10 monthly charge will be applied" or whatever. You don't have to
block it on the first showing but just flag it for follow-up.

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trevelyan
Glad to see Matt writing more. I've always enjoyed his posts.

