Entering your email address for a $10 cash-back offer on Fandango will sign you up for a $10 a month subscription to something called “Reservation Rewards” from a company called Webloyalty. Boy, NYT reporters sure are gullible lately. Anyhow:

I could picture my husband buying tickets online. I could imagine one of those annoying direct-marketing offers popping up. I could even picture him clicking on it. But I couldn’t see him entering a credit card to subscribe.

It turned out he didn’t have to. Tempted by a $10 cash-back award offer (“Good for your next Fandango purchase!”), he had typed in his e-mail address.

Unfortunately, he skipped over the fine print: “By entering my e-mail address as my electronic signature and clicking yes, I authorize Fandango to securely transfer my name, address and credit or debit card information to Reservation Rewards for billing and benefit processing.”

“Cancel it,” I said to the representative.

“I’ll also refund the $10 charge,” she said.

The next day, it got worse. That was when my husband received an e-mail message telling him that he had been a Reservation Rewards member since November 2005.

He phoned from his office to read the message: “We have issued a refund of $160.”

There’s currently a class action lawsuit against Webloyalty, according to the article. Our advice?

Read everything you input personal information into. Oh, yeah, and check your credit card statements every month . In fact, why not check your statement for “Reservation Rewards” right now.

It looks like this:
WLI*RESERVATIONREWARDS.CO. If you don’t want it, call and get your refund. Then tell us about it in the comments or at tips [at] consumerist [dot] com.—MEGHANN MARCO

Who Charged This? You, That’s Who. [NYT] (Thanks, James!)

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