News is out that a number of major online retailers have and are continuing to scam their customers, by tricking them into signing up for "loyalty" programs simply by providing an email address during checkout.  It is not obvious that you are actually joining a "loyalty" program that will cost around $9-$12 per month, and the retailer gives the "loyalty" program your credit card information without disclosing this to you.

The list of etailers involved in this is shocking.

Those that earned in excess of $10 Million each, includes:

Buy.com
Orbitz
Fandango
Priceline
Classmates.com
FTD
Shutterfly
1-800-Flowers.com
Columbia House
Confi-Check
Expedia/Hotels.com
Hotwire
InQ
Intelius
MovieTickets.com
Priceline
Redcats USA
Shutterfly
Travelocity
US Airways
VistaPrint

Companies providing the "loyalty" programs include:

WebLoyalty
Virtrue
Affinion

Representatives from Buy.com, Orbtiz and Fandango say they are doing their customers a favor.

"Consumers find this of value otherwise we wouldn't have it on the site," said Brian Hoyt, an Orbitz spokesman. "We're not in the business of misleading consumers."

Total lies of course, they are doing this for the money.

So, if you have done business with any of the above, check your credit card statement for "mystery" charges from this scam.

And think twice before you do business with them again!

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