Back in October, I was on craigslist.org and there was a job offer. It was for some sort of office assistant position. The pay scale was nice but reasonable and everything was laid out professionally and it looked legit. I applied for the position but for the position, they wanted to know my credit score. I didn't think anything of it because most jobs nowadays want to know what your credit is- in fact, the company that I work for right now checked my credit before I got the job. They wanted the credit report to come from a company of their choosing so they told me to "click here" and follow the link. It took me to an Experian page and it looked legit. I signed up for the $1 thing where I could get my report, took a screen shot and anything that seemed a bit too personal, I blacked out in the editing program and then sent them the final picture. Something didn't sit well with me though and I decided to go ahead and check them out. Turned out that this is some sort of craigslist fraud that happens. Every post I read about it said, "Don't click on the link!" So what did I do? I immediately called my credit reporting agency that's through my bank and let them know what was up and I also contacted an agency to report the potential theft. Then I thought about it. I said to myself, "What could a thief have possibly gained from this?" They didn't get my social security number. Then I said to myself, "The only way I can think of that they can benefit is if that entire site was a fraudulent site and they set it up to get my credit card info OR if they are just getting $1 from everyone they trick". Either way, it was apparent that the entire site was probably bogus. So naturally, I didn't go back on it nor did I go to call any of their bogus customer service numbers. My credit agency told me to be on the look out but they didn't see anything suspicious. I checked my account, didn't see anything weird. Checked back later, didn't see anything suspicious.
Fast forward to today; about 4 months later. I see a suspicious charge on my debit card. Now here is the thing. This is a special kind of debit card. I dictate how much is ever on the card and it's not connected to my personal account information. I noticed a very specific phrase that made me realize something was up... "Over Draft Fee". This card doesn't GET over draft fees. This card is an extension of my account. So I went to the bank to see what was up. They are telling me that there is a Reoccurring fee from Experian. I can't remember having any dealings with Experian. Finally it dons on me. That thing that happened back in October. But I told them...why would this be showing up all of a sudden. Turns out, they didn't charge me until like a month and a half later and I didn't notice it because it made an almost unnoticeable dent in my account. If I am a little over, I always assume it's just some late charge finally coming through-nothing major. So my bank said that since it was a legitimate charge, that I had to call Experian and explain to them what was going on before they could clear the over draft fee.
I call Experian. I explained the entire story to them: that I was defrauded and thought the website was a clone site and figured the criminals just didn't get what they needed to rip me off. I told them that I needed them to remove the charges and do you know what they proceeded to do next? Explain to me the benefits of an account like mine. They tried to convince me to stay with the company. I told them that I wasn't interested and do you know what they told me? They said, "There's nothing we can do. The charges are legitimate". I told that muddha skunt that I wasn't leaving until they cleared that shit and that he needed to put a manager on. He put me on hold and 2 min later this SOB came back and told me that he was reimbursing me ALL 3 Months worth of charges. You Damn right. Cause I don't play that shit!
Now. Typically when there is fraud, who benefits? The thief. In this case, who's the ONLY "person" who stood to benefit? Experian. I thought about it and I said to myself, I wouldn't be surprised if they hire people to do this shit. Cause what happens is either A. You don't notice the charges cause you got money like that and you only really notice big charges. B. You notice but not until after a while and they tell you there's nothing they can do and you just accept it as a loss. C. You call to cancel and you decide to just stay with them cause you need the credit protection anyway. You see what I'm saying? Because why else would someone be on craigslist making bogus job posts that get people to sign up with Experian and then people come to think it's a fraud and stay as far away from that "Experian Website" as they can, only to find out that it Actually IS the Real Experian Site! That's some BS.
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