Reservation Rewards

I hate posting about stuff like this, because I feel like it makes me look like a fool. Maybe I am, but, better for me to look like an idiot if perhaps you learn something from it.

A year and four months ago, roughly, Matt wanted to pre-order a game, Hellgate London. I didn't think it was really necessary, but he was all gung ho about it, because all of his friends were pumped about it. So finally, I told him to go ahead, though it was pretty close to the release date. The rest of the details are a little hazy, but as a "thank you" ebgames sent him a coupon for 20% off of a game purchase, which he didn't use, because it had some stipulation we thought was stupid.

Well, fast forward to today. Long story short, I logged onto the bank we're in the process of switching out of, and there was something automatically debit-ing our account. Well, that's odd, because I had switched everything *I* had access to the new bank. Now, I'd seen this charge before, it's for $10. Here's why I didn't think much of it:

- Pending transactions, sometimes have weird names. Matt occasionally stops at these gas stations that show up with really odd names.
- Matt buys woot shirts occasionally, and they are $10, and around the time I noticed this charge, I figured it was a woot shirt.

But today, I realized that it was something odd. It took quite a bit of detective work, but we eventually figured it out. HE was getting the emails from the place periodically, I wasn't. So therefore, it had to have been something HE signed up for, which made it easier. As you can guess, it turned out to be that pre-order from EBGames, which is a bit sickening and infuriating.

The company is, unfortunately, completely legal, somehow. The websites they're partnered with are all sites, ones that you won't think twice about accepting a "thank you" from. So with a couple clicks - they already have your information because you just bought something from the first, reputable site - and you're signed up for their "program", likely without noticing. Unapologetic about it, they rely on you NOT figuring out for some amount of time what's happened.

So, that being said, here's what you need to know:
When you buy something online, you must read the fine print, even from reputable sources, such as EBGames, Proflowers, etc. The company IS obligated to let you know what they're affiliated with, so look for keywords such as "Reservation Rewards" or "Webloyalty" I would strongly recommend that you purchase your item elsewhere, but if you MUST, be very very careful. Don't accept any "thank yous" or coupons from the website you bought from, and scan your debit/credit statements looking for anything with "reservationrewards" or "webloyalty" in the name.

I'm not terribly upset about all this, because I would rather learn this lesson in a relatively cheap fashion and not after some huge identity theft crisis. But I'm just yarged enough to pass it on to you, in hopes that you will be spared this. Really the worst part of it is that Hellgate London wasn't even a good game. BUT, now that we know, we won't be dealing with any websites that are affiliated with this scammer...I encourage you not to be, either, and shop from other retailers. I'm going to be looking into compiling a list of websites that knowingly affiliate with webloyalty, and plan on boycotting them.

(P.S. Here is some reading material ... it's pretty scary, and proves that not only idiots get scammed :) )