Well, if it wasn't clearly stated in the small print and YOU didn't give the credit card details on to this company, then surrely that's breaching the Data Protection Act, right?

At work, we can't legally give ANY details without the customers express written consent (as in, written and signed on a piece of paper - not e-mailed or faxed etc.)

I'd get some advice on that Machie.  I don't think that sounds fair.  But thanks for the heads up :)

Sorry for another post, but had somebody come in today with £50 going to these people - he didn't even sign up for it, just looked at the page.

Hopefully I won't get debited, or there will be hell to pay - Machie, have you sorted it out yet?  This guy has to keep cancelling his card and they won't answer him.  Any tips?

When booking a flight with www.easyjet.com, the website asks you if you want to save £10.00 on your booking. If you click "yes", it re-directs you to the Shopper Discounts and Rewards website. They ask you for your email address, and while you think it is some type of newsletter you are signing for, what you are really doing is signing on for a direct debit of £8.00 a month, from the same credit card that you used to pay your flight. You don't have to give them any details, only your email address. I am sure they get the information from Easyjet. It took me 3 months to actually realise that they were charging me this monthly amount on my credit card. When you phone them to cancel, they are ready for it, they even have a cancellation automated service (I bet they get quite a high rate of cancellation). After cancelling, I tried to talk to an operator, who read me a 10 minutes speech about how it was my fault and I should have read the small print. When you phone them, they are ready for it, I bet they get lots of phone calls from people as upset as I was. I finally got them to refund 2 payments they took from my credit card, so I suppose they are not doing anything completely illegal, but in my opinion it is definitely immoral. I haven't got any service for this money they took from me, and I wasn't even aware that I signed for this service in the first place. People, be aware! and about Easyjet, who I considered a reputable company, the only thing I can say is that I am very disappointed with them for associating with this type of company, and I will avoid flying with easyjet in the future, as they lost my trust on them as a customer.

By the way, this company changes its name constantly. shopdisc.co.uk, shopperdisc.co.uk or shopperdiscounts.co.uk may have appeared on your statement. Check them out in the internet. There are a few interesting reviews from USA.

Noticed it yesterday when I booked my easyjet flights, no warnings or anything and even looks like a 'continue' button when you finish.  I'm sure there are grounds for sueing Easyjet for making it look like something it's not.

Unfortunately, Easyjet are the only airline flying to and from where we need to go...

I know how you feel PO, what you need to do is keep emailing them and they will eventually give you a full refund like they did me.

Thanks guys. I nearly got caught too when my trusty train ticket booking site 'thetrainline.com' had a continue button at the end of the booking that came up with the Shopper Discounts and Awards page and a frindly female voice invited me to sign up. Being perpetually on my guard when on line these days and also  suspicious by nature I googled them.
Bingo! All the chat room references listed also had the word scam in the first line! Intrigued to see if I could find the £8.00 a month charge anywhere in the small print I have just spent 20 minutes searching on the Shopper Discounts and Rewards page and its links and failed to find thatvital piece of information. It is a clear case of misleading advertising amounts to phishing. I am going to report them to the advertising standards authority, report them for phishing to Norton and make a complaint to thetrainline.com.

Hi,

I've have recently also become a victim to these parasites  SHOPPERDISCOUNTS.CO.UK. As far as I can tell my details we forwarded on by Allposters. I was just need some ideas for who I could contact, so I can nail these b*****ds.

As you can see I'm very angry about this and I would like to expose these leeches and give them what they deserve.

If anyone would like to discuss this with me or have any ideas please do not hesitate to contact me, my e-mail address is cdboniface@aol.com

Thought I'd pop this.

A friend of mine met me at McDs today, all pleased that he'd got a cheque for £15 from Expedia through a discount scheme.

Sceptical, I took a look.  Sure enough, the letter heading was 'Shopper Discounts and Rewards'.

Hopefully told him in enough time to warn his bank and cancel the account.

Loads of forum posts on various places about the company.

I got caught through the EasyJet website, Its now gone up to £10.00.  I have complained to Trading Standards and going to try and get my money back

I too have become a victim of the Shopper discount scam.
I noticed a £10 charge on my statement last month & assumed it was from something i'd purchased on line. But in seeing it again this month I googled it and found several websites of people commenting on the same problem. Mine was from a purchase i made through photobox.co.uk. I have just called up shopper discount and spoken to someone who when challenged can only read from the script in front of her! She has cancelled my membership and is refunding the £20 i have been charged. I told her about all the comments online about them. She insisted it is not a scam but legitimate. How can this be when i have not personally given them my card details. Why are they now being so quick to refund if it is just down to all of us not reading the small print properly?! Are they starting to worry? How can this sort of thing be allowed to happen ? I will now totally scrutinise everything i do online!

Machie wrote:
> If it was just a few people complaining then it wouldnt be a big
> deal. But as you can see theres 10,000s and even people
> signing up on Freeola just to share their experience.

It still appears so.  Never did find out about that man who asked me about it when I was at the building society.  He's been hit twice.

Might be worth asking the bank to cancel your card and reissue you with a new one.  I know that they charge using the card number rather than the account number, so getting a new card is probably the only way you can stop further payments being deducted (if they continue to charge you after your complaint)

I wouldn't class this as a scam from what you've written in the original post - you say it may have been in the small print, have you now checked to see if it was?

I wished I had found out about this one before - they just charged me £10 (after the 3 month free trial). Apparently it's in the terms and conditions on their website - so I can only blame myself. However, it's annoying that they automatically can get my card details from the vendor (Interflora in this case). So you don't realise that they will actually charge you. Anyway, £10 poorer - but I won't click on this again. It's true - there is no such thing as a free lunch...

Pets wrote:
> How do I go about cancelling this automatic monthly withdrawal
> from my credit card account.

Not entirely sure to be honest. I am assuming you are talking about this thread? :S

Best thing to do is to talk to your bank. They will be able to help.

Pets wrote:
> How do I go about cancelling this automatic monthly withdrawal
> from my credit card account.

As you are more than likely to have paid using your card number (rather than your bank account details), the best option is to cancel your card with the bank - if the card is not valid and they can only take money out with that card number, it won't happen for them.

Still, keep an eye ouut on the debits ytou want going from that card.

I tend to cancel my card every year or so.  That way if there are any people with my details, they cannot use them and it stops insurance companies taking out a debits when you want to move to another insurer :) But the banks can get funny though if you do it all too often.

I have just been on the phone, pressed 3, and spoke to a helpful young man.
My money (£10) will be refunded to me in 10 working days, in other words, in two weeks time.
I will see if this actually happens and if not, then I will take the next step, reporting them to Trading Standards (althought I have not found them too helpful in the past).
Good luck to you all!

This lot emailed me just after an Amazon purchase, so I can't tell which retailer was responsible. The offer was to take some surveys in exchange for discounts. Absolutely nothing about membership, nor did I give them my card number!

They have promised to refund - we'll see what happens. They told me "I joined through ebookers", which I find hard to beleive since I've not used ebookers for several years.

Dragonlance wrote:
> However, the majority have, because of their misfortune, chosen
> to 'join' Freeola and post a 'complaint' - maybe this is the way
> forward for increased traffic to Freeola Forums - work it out :-)

Good plan.  I'll set up a company to scam people*.  And you start a thread complaining about them.

^{Naturally I'll be keeping all the money}