Senate Concerned About Buy.com's Aggressive Webloyalty Checkout Hardsell

Before you can finish your purchase at Buy.com, you have to go through an entire page trying to upsell you to the much-maligned Webloyalty program and click the tiny “no thanks” button at the bottom. You can find it located under the large YES! button.

Some users will scroll through the page and just see the part asking them to enter in their last 4 digits of their credit card and email address and think that they have to do that to finish the purchase. The explanatory text above only mentions the “reward” program.buydotcom.jpg

It seems designed to draw the skim reader into signing up for the useless program, with users thinking that they have to put the requested info in to complete the purchase, when really it’s an electronic signature that enrolls them in the Webloyalty program, authorizing it to begin billing their credit cards monthly. Here is what the page looks like on Buy.com:

A Senate commitee investigating unfair online practices says this one raises “serious concerns” for them.

Web scam or aggressive marketing at Buy.com? You decide [Consumer Reports]

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