The Dangers of Some Facebook Ads
- BetterAskAdam.com
- Jan 7
- 3 min read
On today’s Rip Off Britain on BBC1 at 10:45 I and the team are looking at how unscrupulous Facebook adverts led a customer who thought he was paying £5 to be charged £250, and how he got his money back.
Rip Off Britain viewer, Graham has been drawn in by 2 adverts he saw on Facebook on 2 separate occasions, 2 days apart. The adverts were for big computer brands and said that they had a warehouse of old stock/old models of laptops that they need to get rid of, so to get the chance of getting your hands on a laptop, you have to register and pay £2 or £3.
He thought this would be good as he thought 2 laptops would come in handy for some of his grandchildren. He registered on both adverts and entered details of his credit card. He gave them details like his name, address and credit card details.
He didn’t receive any emails or confirmation, so just thought that at most he had lost £5, with one ad had taken £2 and the other took £3.
However, he soon noticed on his credit card statement that one company was taking a fairly regular £42 and the other was taking £45, again every so often.
Whereas he thought he had spent £5 he had in fact been charged £250 over a number of separate charges.
How Did This Happen?
What seems to be happening here is what is called a Recurring Card Payments or Continuous Payment Authority.It’s when a company takes the long number on your credit card and then continues to take money from it in the future.
The law says you can withdraw your consent and stop a future payment at any time.
To withdraw consent, simply tell whoever issued your card (the bank, building society or credit card company) that you don’t want the payment to be made. You can tell the card issuer by phone, email or letter.
Your card issuer has no right to insist that you ask the company taking the payment first. They have to stop the payments if you ask them to.[1]
How Did Graham Get his Money Back?
Graham got in touch with his credit card provider, who he said was very helpful, and blocked any more payments being taken from his account. They also advised him to write to both companies about refund. One company came back and said that he could have a refund of £42 because it was within 2 weeks of the payment going out. The other company hasn’t come back, so he is going to get back in touch with Tesco for them to try and do a chargeback.
Paying by credit card does give you a huge amount of consumer protection, so that if things go wrong, you can often get your moneyback. But it also means you should keep an eye on what is leaving your account, so you can spot any activity that doesn’t look right.
If you have a consumer story to share – do get in touch with Rip Off Britain, here’s how to do it:
Email: RipOffBritain@bbc.co.uk
Whatsapp: 0330 678 1321
Write to: BBC Bridge House, MediaCityUK, Salford, M50 2BH
Or contact me on @adamshawbiz on Twitter/X and Blueskysocial.
