Hi - I have something I think should be shared on a site like this. It is not exactly a scam, but I would say that these people have figured out a way to make unauthorized charges to your credit card. They apparently do this to a lot of people, but due to the nature of their business, most people don't tell anyone about it. They just pay these unauthorized charges without saying anything to anyone. This actually happened to me a few months back, and I promised myself that I would tell everyone I could, which is my way of getting even with Lavalife for doing this to me:
Approx 1 1/2 years ago, I paid for a membership on Lavalife. I paid for this on my TD Visa, thinking that if something went wrong, Visa could take of it, since they used to advertise that sort of thing.
Anyway, everything was ok, I used up my time, and that was that. About 1 year later, I noticed an item on my Visa statement that I didn't remember ordering, etc. It was a charge for about $70 on my Visa ! I called Lavalife about it and they said : well, we have your credit card on file, so we charged a membership to it. I asked them for my money back since I did not make this second order and it was, an auauthorized charge. They replied (someone from their "
risk assessment" dept replied) that they would not refund me this money, even though I didn't make the order.
I called Visa, and they told me they couldn't do anything about it.
Apparently, Lavalife rips people off whenever you pay by credit card with them. How they do it is like this: when you order their service and you go to pay, you have to check a terms of service box. In the text for this agreement, is a statement that they can charge you again and again and again on the anniversary date of the purchase and recharge your credit card each time !!!
I would have thought they would be honest enough to refund a customer's money for an unauthorized purchase, but it looks like they are ripping off people just because they have found a way to get around the law. Please don't fall for this. I would advise not even doing business with them.
There are many free personal sites out there that don't even charge. If you want one, go here:
http://www.plentyoffish.comor here:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/