Friday, March 28, 2008 2:03 PM
sandi
Bucksbill.com overcharging victims of fraudware
This is an update to my article written on 5 March wherein I warned that Bucksbill.com overcharging for fraudware such as "MalwareAlarm and Registry Defragmentation".
It is worth pointing out that several readers have commented that they, too, have been overcharged by Bucksbill:
Tonya says "The same thing happened to me with malware. I agreed to the 39.99 and 79.99 was charged to my credit card"
Gonzalo says "I also got charged 79.99. If you have a phone number or email address I can try please send it to me."
Bhagwan D. Varma says "I am also a victim of this trap. Why we all should not approach the "Bettter Business Bureau" of Pasadena, CA, and seek their intervention."
According to Quantcast, the bucksbill.com domain receives 69,419 U.S. monthly unique visitors per month - that's a scary number of potential victims. I'll be interested to see if some sort of class action or other lawsuit is triggered by the overchargings.
It is important to note that victims of overcharging and unauthorised charges can dispute the charge with their bank or building society and request that the charge be reversed.
The Federal Trade Commission has published an advisory for victims of credit card fraud or overcharging that can be seen here:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/fcb.shtm
I note that a purchase must be for more than $50 to fall within the ambit of the Fair Credit Billing Act... I wonder what the situation is if the *purchase* was for less than $50, but the amount actually charged was for more.
Filed under: Vulnerabilities, Security, safety and privacy on the Internet, viruses and exploits