I DON’T/DIDN’T BUY THAT
Original DHEAYankee Traci passed along a piece that appeared on the local news in Philly. The advice just doesn’t seem to make sense:
Melody McCrea loves to shop online but hates being barraged with pop-up ads.
“I just always x out,†explained McCrea.
But the federal trade commission says that doesn’t necessarily get you out safely.
“We often see pop-up ads as a common form of negative option marketing,†said Gregory Ash of the Federal Trade Commission.
With negative option marketing, companies take your silence as acceptance and bill you until you opt-out or cancel.
Ash says pop-ups are the newest form of attack by unscrupulous marketers.
“Even hitting that x signs you up to the service,†added Ash.
According to the FTC, these sneaky pops ups appear after you’ve bought something online. The store is partnered with the marketer and gives them your credit card number.
Consumers don’t know they’re enrolled until they notice the charge and that’s what happened to melody.
“I noticed toward the end of the month, every month since January, I’ve been getting charged this $14.95,†explained McCrea.
The company told Melody she accepted a free gift card after buying a present online and that automatically enrolled her in a buyers club.
Melody says she never accepted any offer, and probably just x-ed out of a pop-up.
“You think oh, that’s never going to happen to me. If I’m x-ing out, how can they possibly trace it to my email or my credit card,†said McCrea.
So, how can you get out of a pop-up safely?
“Hit alt f4, and that will close out the window,†said Ash.
You can also hit control- alt- delete just once.
That’s what melody is doing now.
“I’m going to be more aware when I look at credit card statements, look at all the charges,†said McCrea,
Not all pop-ups are sent by unscrupulous marketers. However experts say it’s hard, if not impossible, to know which ones are, so it’s important to avoid clicking anywhere in the ad and to use your key board to close them.
Alt+F4 closes the program. So how is that any different than closing a window?
5 Responses to “I DON’T/DIDN’T BUY THAT”
 Comment by Cindy B. August 3rd, 2006 at 8:57 am |
I think sometimes the “X” to “close” the box is actually part of the text in the box, instead of the normal Windows or Mac “X”. People will click on the “X” provided by the pop-up advertiser rather than the one provided by their browser to close it, thus effectively clicking on the ad. I still don’t know how that constitutes signing up for something, though. |
 Comment by sam August 3rd, 2006 at 11:00 am |
Well, she doesn’t read her credit card statement until she has to. I bet she Googled “free ringtones” so she could fancy up her new phone on the cheap. But she didn’t read the fine print when she accepted her free ringtones. Rather than admit to all that, I’m guessing she’s made up this story. Or not. |
 Comment by Nancy August 3rd, 2006 at 8:28 pm |
My grandson found a place online where he could download a free ring tone for his cell phone. When the phone bill came in, it was huge. They were sending him text messages and every time he opened one, he was charged $10. My daughter almost had a heart attack. She called Sprint and they told her it was a scam, but they couldn’t do anything about it. It was on their bill. It seems like something could be done about scamming kids and it seems like Sprint or whatever their new name is, wouldn’t be a part of it. |
 Comment by Gem August 3rd, 2006 at 8:53 pm |
Firefox doesn’t catch all the popups I get — those through snopes.com for instance, are always bugging me. I don’t know if I have it configured wrong or what. |
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Comment by sam August 3rd, 2006 at 10:26 pm |
You also have to turn off some of these features when your son likes to go to Cartoon Network and play games, or the little game window won’t open properly. |