Grace Charboneau thought there was something wrong with an official looking postcard she found in her mailbox. The card said it was a parcel tracking notice and was attempting to deliver $50 worth of jewelry. But Grace didn't believe it. The 84-year-old widow thought the notice looked fishy, especially when she read that she was supposed to call a 1-800 phone number and use her credit card to pay $6.95 to a Florida company.
"Who's going to send me $50 worth of jewelry? So I thought, this had got to be a scam," said Charboneau.
The Clearwater, Florida Better Business Bureau only has a few complaints against Consumer Clearing House in Naples and so far has not received any sort of response.
One complaint claims that once they paid for the item, they continued to get monthly charges on their credit card. Sheryl Bilbrey with the San Diego Better Business Bureau said consumers often overlook small charges on their credit card statements.
"Companies who are not operating necessarily legitimately, use some very creative tactics to get consumers to sign up for their goods and services," she said.
Those charges add up.
"Don't ignore them because they are small. If you are paying that small amount for 36 months, it becomes significant," said Bilbrey.
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"I don't know, It's kind of scary," said Grace Charboneau. Now she wants to warn others not to fall for schemes that involve long-term payments.
"There's too many people out there that would rather take money away from other people that have worked hard to get it," she said.
