Precautions to Take While Buying Club Memberships

Buying club memberships imply that you are agreeing to buy services or products automatically at regular intervals till you cancel your membership. It is also often found that people accept a free offer and are then charged for a service or product that they never ordered for.

This kind of fraud is very much common in telemarketing; the most common phone scams are buying club memberships, lottery frauds, sweepstakes frauds, credit card scams and loan frauds. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which works towards protecting America’s consumers, telemarketing fraud is considered to be a crime. A telemarketing scam is quite common nowadays and fraudulent telemarketers try to reach you in various possible ways.

Fraudulent telemarketers talk convincingly to cheat people of their money. These telemarketers take the help of the phone to rob people and so are counted as criminals. Remember buyers clubs offer several free deals on products and services, but do not take their words for it. You need to verify the information provided to you and act accordingly.

Handling Calls from Telemarketers

It is important to handle the situation wisely when a caller makes an offer; listen carefully and try to understand the terms. If you cannot understand something, ask the caller for an explanation straight away. Question the caller on the trial offer, as it may happen that your free time has finished and you are being charged for a membership; get in touch with the club and cancel the membership.

Do not go for products that are being offered to you at extremely cheap rates or for free; this is a way of trapping you into a buyers club membership. Buying club memberships can offer you certain welcome packages, go through the deal and if you do not agree with it contact the club right away to cancel the membership.

If you think that the club will not be able to charge you because you haven’t provided your bank account number, think twice; the club can get your credit card number and bank account number from a company with which you had done business.

Precautions You Need to Take While Buying Club Memberships

Prior to joining a club, ask for the details from the club in writing so that you get a good idea of how the club works. Also find out about the club by searching online, in case it is unfamiliar to you. If you do not find their website, ask them for the web address, so that you can get more information on the club.

Next time you get a call and it seems suspicious with all the flowery talk and wonderfulthings on offer, just do not hesitate to hang up; you might save yourself from being cheated. If you are able to recognize a telemarketing scam, do not lose time in reporting the fraud to the Federal Trade Commission. For more information on how to exercise caution while taking calls from telemarketers and buying club memberships visit http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/phonefraud/buying.shtml.