Privacy Matters 1-2-3
Reviews and Complaints

I read a letter dated 5/7/2021, from this company today, stating "if you take no action, your credit card will be charged $47.95 each month to automatically renew your membership." Neither my wife or I recall enrolling. When I called customer service, They claimed that my wife, Beverly Winslow, authorized payment for membership in 2008, online. They have my old email address, current address, and my Citibank account shows a debit this month, in this amount. My wife has not used the Internet in over 10 years, due to physical and mental limitations. We have no record of a membership, username or password. Company claims that we received this annual letter, stating automatic renewal. My wife handled correspondence in the past for us, and does not recall this letter. Since I read other complaints, online, about this company, related to unexpected enrollment through classmates.com, I asked about our circumstance. It was the same thing, claiming that my wife enrolled through the classmates website. I do not believe or accept this, since she has never enrolled in a subscription service online. I wonder if she tried a free search to find a classmate, and got scammed. I'm furious to learn that we have paid > $7000, since 2008, due to my lack of oversight, of payments, and this company's unethical practices. These appear to include indirect enrollment through a different website, and unconfirmed assent for annual renewal, with automatic payment. Others have experienced the same thing, I'm reading. I have no way to access their website, with no login or password. I cannot update my current email, for any communication with them. My email: [protected]@swmc.org. I spoke to a service manager, who offered to cancel our membership, and offered a six-month refund, but no more.

I never bought a membership to this site. I got a renewal notice from privacymatters123 02/11/2020. I called 1-888-239-0316 to find out what this was. The guy I got on the phone told me it was a credit checking service and that I had had this service since march 2009 through classmates site. I havent ever been interested a credit score and would not have bought this membership. I did not know my membership id#. So he gave it to me.[protected]. I dont know how they got access to my bank account, butt I want all of my money back and I think this should be illegal.

Boy, did I ever get ripped off, too! Am not gonna let this one go. I have never heard of Privacy Matters and do not check my credit scores online. For ten months they have been deducting 29.95 from my debit VISA. I reported them to my local police department and my bank. Even my bank hasn't gotten back to me. Also, Budget Savers did the same thing. I've never heard of these people and never ever signed up for their services. No authorization whatsoever was given to take money out of my account! They are both scams and something should be done for all of us who have been duped by them! I'm sooo mad!

My oversight but this company has been charging my credit card each month since January of 2010 at $16.95. After calling and having their operators confirmed that I've never signed up for any of their services, they would only issue a credit for one month. They refused to let me speak to or provide me with any names of management for me to contact. They told me they would submit my total refund request and I would hear back from them. Complete frauds, she was about to hang up when I asked how would them contact me since they didn't have any legitimate contact details.
Slippery slimy organization and I don't plan to stop complaining everywhere I can.

They charged my card 29.95. Which in turn put me on overdraft and there were additional charges through my bank. I had to cancel my card and get a refund. Then they provided the bank with "proof" that I ordered their service. These people will truly go to extreme lengths! When my bank looked into the claim they had not provided any shipping info or proof of email. It said I had called in to place the order! This company is a crock of bull. Stay on your bank and inform them they are fraud. They will submit a claim back to the bank saying you ordered it. LYERS! You bank may in turn give them the money and take it back from you. Luckily this is what my bank did...but when I called them back they agreed when looking further into it this company is malicious and a fraud!

They have been charging me 19.95 a month since January and won't credit me the charges. I finaly got it cancled. Said it was thru a survey on classmates.com which I no longer go on because they are getting sued for just this kind of thing. I want my money back from these people as I have NEVER heard of privacymatters123 nor did I EVER sign up and give them my card information. From the other complaints I am seeing we need a class action lawsuit to retreve our money.

My mom bought a fitness program off the television called Flirty, Fit, and Fabulous that was only $18.9o with my credit card. We think that they are somehow affiliated with MVQ Privacy Matters because i then recieved a charge on my credit card of $29.95 as well as another $1.00 from MVQ*BestBnfts last month and this month. i did not sign up for anything regarding them. WORD OF ADVICE: becareful with what you buy or sign up for online, over the phone, and/or on t.v. Scams are happening.

you should contact your bank immediately, talk to them and see if you can get your money back, at least for the present month, the months past are of no help. after this is done, close the account due to fraud to prevent additional fradulent charges, and open a new one. stay wise.

help on what to do given by-- http://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/NqDkBoRjXACFegjMCzUH7Q
thank you tj.

I was just looking over my bank account information and noticed two charges for 29.95. I agreed to a ONE-TIME charge of $1.00 (for a credit report, for a job), which was also removed from my account, along with one charge for $2.00 and an additional $1.00.

All together, that makes for about $63.00 that I did not agree to.

I called my bank immediately and they explained that it may be faster to call the merchant and get a refund that way, so I did. Mia, the all-too-familiar-with-this-issue customer service rep, was rude, and argued with me. At first I asked who they were, because I had never heard of the company. She explained that they are a identity theft protection company. Holding back the, "Oh, so you protect identities, but steal from people?!" comment, I said, "I did not authorize this charge, " to which she replied, "Either you or someone in your household did." I said, "Interesting. Well, pass me to who I need to talk to because I am NOT paying for this, as I didn't agree to it." She immediately responded with, "Okay, the refund will be applied to your bank account and should post within the next three to five business days." I asked for a confirmation number, which she gave me. I know that Bank of America will investigate the charge and act accordingly if need be, but I don't feel that I should have to wait two months to be refunded money that I never agreed to spend. This is absolutely ridiculous.

Just reviewed my current Mastercard statement to find a charge of $19.95 from "PRIVACYM [protected]", which is completely fraudulent. After reading all of the various complaints online, I believe that my info was accessed through peoplefinder.com, though I NEVER signed up with this supposed credit protection/identity theft membership program. No actual human could be reached at their #, though I trust Citibank to reverse the charge and block any future unauthorized charges from PRIVACYM/Privacy Matters 1-2-3. Call your Bank/CC Co. asap should you be in the same situation!

January 25, 2010

Admin. Contact
Adaptive Marketing, LLC, a subsidiary of Vertrue, Inc.
9500 West Dodge Road, Suite 100
Omaha, NE [protected]

Re: Member#’s - [protected] & [protected]

To Whom It May Concern;

This is to inform you that sometime in late 2006 or early 2007 I requested an annual credit report online. The cost of this report was supposed to be a one time administrative cost of $1.00. However, that was not the case, because your company proceeded to charge my account monthly at a rate of $1.00 + 29.95. Additionally, the charges started increasing effective June 30, 2008, $1.00 + 32.92, and subsequently $1.00 + 32.95.

I contacted your organization, Privacy Matters, on August 22, 2008 at 11:30am and spoke with your representative, who identified herself as Sandra Valencia. I informed her that I had not authorized the charges that were occurring on my account monthly, and asked her to please process a cancellation and submit a request for an immediate refund of all monies, except the initial $1.00. She provided me with the following confirmation number, 26499.

I have an extremely busy schedule, so I was remiss in checking to ensure that the request had actually been processed. I have recently found out that not only was the request not processed, but I was never given a refund. What actually occurred is that your organization stopped the larger monthly debit to my account, but continued to take $1.00 a monthly from my account. I have only tracked my account back to June 26, 2007, because my earlier bank records are packed away, and I have not had a chance to search for them.

What is amazing to me is that your organization would do something so underhanded as to continue to charge my account after I asked you to stop. I have attached a copy of a spreadsheet created from my bank records. You will notice that some of your debits to my account caused NSF (non sufficient funds) charges.

This is to advise you that I have filed a fraud complaint against your organization with the Federal Trade Commission, reported the fraud to my bank (and an investigation is underway), canceled the account that your organization continued to debit, filed a report against your organization on /link removed/ Better Business Bureau, and Dunn & Bradstreet. These filings and postings will continue until this matter is settled, and I am given a full refund.

Based on my records from June 26, 2007 through January 11, 2010, your organization has taken $437.32 from my account. Additionally, during this same period, your organization caused my account to be charged $513.00 in overdraft charges. This totals to $950.32.

Now, let me make this perfectly clear. It is my intention to be the biggest pain in the ### that your organization has ever had the experience of dealing with unless I get every single dime of my money back. Since my schedule is no longer as hectic as it was previously, I have nothing but time to spend on making sure that I not only get every dime back, but to also make sure that you don’t do this to anyone else.

I have every intention of suing your ###-bucket organization if I am not given a full refund within the next 15 days from the date of this letter.

The two membership numbers indicated above are on the account record that you charged. I determined that these were membership numbers based on my original 2007 conversation with your representative Sandra Valencia.

Additionally, I noticed that every few months your organization changes the name of the company debiting my account, i.e., Privacy Matters, Your Savings, and Clubsave. I want all companies associated with your organization to cease and desist from making any further attempts at debiting any of my accounts, and as stated above I am demanding an immediate full refund, including my bank charges, totaling $950.32.

If by chance Adaptive Marketing’s representatives are going to contend that this organization is only an agent for Privacy Matters, Your Savings and Clubsave, then it would be in your best interest to contact whomever you deem necessary to rectify this matter in my favor as soon as possible.

By the way I do realize, through my personal investigation of this matter that your organization is owned by an umbrella organization by the name of Vertrue, Inc., and a class action suit has been filed against your organization for the very same thing that I am now accusing you.

Trust me this is not a thread, but a promise, being a pain in the ### to your organization is now my top priority until I get my money back.

Disgruntled & Highly Pissed-off,

Unwitting & Unwilling Customer

C: Dunn & Bradstreet
Federal Trade Commission
Chase Bank
Better Business Bureau, Nebraska
[redacted].com
Jerry Brown, Attorney General, California
John Bruning, Attorney General, Nebraska
Jerry Lewis, U.S. Congressman, 41st District, California
Hon. Diane Feinstein, U.S. Senator, California
Hon. Barbara Box, U.S. Senator, California

Attorneys representing consumers in class action suit against Adaptive Marketing / Vertrue, Inc.:

Jerome Noll, Esq. _ Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, Carton & Eberz, P.C.
William Federman, Esq. _ Federman & Sherwood

I was checking my online credit card charges for my credit card and noticed a charge which I had not authorized. I called the number listed besides the charge. I got a teleprompter asking for either the credit card number used, the account number, or my telephone number. I entered my telephone number in, and was told there was no record of an account with that phone number. There was a number also listed by the company name on the credit card charge, so I entered that in and it was the account number. I immediately got their customer service rep on the line, I told her I had never heard of them before, and that I wanted to be refunded and have whatever kind of account this was canceled. I was transferred to a "supervisor" who told me I had set this account up through my telephone company in November. I told her I certainly had not, and that I would be filing charges against them as this was fraud. This "supervisor" then started arguing that I had set up this account, at which time I had to tell her to quit arguing, that I knew what I had and had not done, and this was fraud and I would be contacting the credit card company and would pursue charges against them. At this point this "supervisor" hung up on me. When I contacted the credit card fraud devision, the rep looked back over the last 3 months and seen that I have been charged each month, and canceled my card number and will be investigating to have this prosecuted. I also took the further step to call my phone company who shows no record of a 3rd party biller to my account with them. So not only is this company fraudulent thieves, their liars as well. What's ironic in all of this is that apparently this company is suppose to "protect against identity theft" and their thieves themselves!

I joined Classmates which was fine however I didnt agree to join PVM123 they accessed my bank account twice in the amount of 39.90. How is it that they can get away with it. Ive contacted my bank and my Attorney General. Shame on Classmates and PVM123

I had recently signed up at classmates.com for 9.95 and then had a charge to my VISA of $19.95 from a company called MVQ Privacy Matters, we need to bombard the connecticut attorney generals office with complaints, theres too many complaints on this site about them not to. There is some info in other complaints that the main company is Vertrue out of CT., haven't done enough research into that yet...been to busy canceling my card and re-arranging finances.

My boyfreind signed up with classmates.com two weeks ago and then yesterday a charged of $19.95 was posted to our account from Privacy Matters 123. Well, I immediately had him call our financial institution to have his credit/debit card cancelled. We did this because when you call privacy matters they ask for an authorization number, telephone number, or credit card number. First off, why would I have an authroization number if I didnt sign up with this fraudlent customer. Secondly, I told him don't even punch in your credit card number as more charges may be added to our account. So, our bank had us file a dispute form to investigate the incident (I hope this peice of ### company gets sued) and to try and get our money back (wish us luck).

I've also seen many complaints posted on this site about Classmates too. RIP OFF ARTISTS! We are also going to complain to the better business bureua and to the attorney general.

MY ADVICE... DONT sign up for these websites as they have 3rd party vendors who take your accounts and sign you up without your permission and take all your money. Be eyeful as to check your account every day twice a day. Use this complaint board as a research engine before you give out your credit card number. I knew this from the past but didnt think such a well know website as classmates would be so decieving. I for one will always use this board as a resource before giving out my personal and credit card information.

Thanks for listening.

Tried to get "free credit report" instead was billed not just the $1, but was signed up to a membership to the tune of $29.95 a month. In one day I was charged charged two times $1, then was charged $2 for something called twenty four protection and was also charged two times $29.95 "monthly fee" ! Called to cancel and was told I could only be refunded for present month, not past month. I agreed because what else could I do? Then was billed again this month $2 again for that twenty four whatever, and $29.95 for this membership I never asked for. Called to ask why I was being billed and was told I could be refunded this month and my account would be cancelled. This is a scam! I never received a report, and all I got was a headache! Did I mention they also caused us to overdraft and we were charged by the bank for these two initial charges of $29.95? DO NOT ASK FOR FREE anything, it is never free!

Nyn Vasquez

On 9/10/09 I tried to get a free credit score from experian... I wanted to get my free credit report and learn my credit score at the same time because I needed to pay off some old bills and wanted to look for a new apartment - I wanted to make sure nothing crazy popped up.

Well... instead I was duped into paying $1.00 as a service charge which WOULD BE REFUNDED in order to get my FREE credit score.

Since then they DID charge me the $1.00 - TWICE! In addition, I have been charged $29.95 several times for unauthorized charges!

It is annoying that by trying to do the right thing in checking on my credit, I have fraudulently been duped into giving away my credit info!

This is scary, especially since there is obviously NO DIRECT LINE to talking to a human.

Ugh!

I'm tired of people trying to taker advantage of me...stop charging me for somethign I didn't ask for - i don't even know exactly what this service is you think you are providing...but I don't want any -- and send me the money back that you took...19.95 - you can figure it out - you figured out how to take it!