NOTICE FROM FEDERAL COURT. PLEASE READ. You may be eligible to receive a benefit from a class-action settlement if you purchased and paid for a credit score or credit monitoring from ConsumerInfo.com or an Experian Entity between June 17, 1998 and December 27, 2006. A federal court has directed that this notice be sent to inform you of a proposed class-action settlement. Records show that you entered into an agreement over the Internet with ConsumerInfo.com or an Experian Entity to purchase any Credit Check or Credit Check Monitoring (which were formerly known as CreditCheck® Monitoring Service), Credit Manager (including Yahoo! Credit Manager), Triple Alert, or Triple Advantage credit-monitoring product, or you paid for a credit score sold on a website that also sold one of these credit-monitoring products, between June 17, 1998 and December 27, 2006. If so, you may be eligible to receive a benefit under the proposed settlement. The settlement will resolve a lawsuit over whether Defendants violated the federal Credit Repair Organizations Act or are liable for claims where the stated basis is about improvement of a consumer's credit record, history, or rating. Under the settlement, Defendants deny that they are liable, but have agreed not to make certain statements on particular websites and to provide all Settlement Class Members with the opportunity to obtain their choice of a settlement benefit: either (i) a credit score or (ii) 60 days of credit monitoring, as described below and on the settlement website. To see if you are a Class Member and to obtain full notice of the proposed Settlement, the required procedures, the Effective Date, the deadlines, your obligations, and your options, you must visit URL REMOVED BY MODERATOR. This email is only a brief summary of the full notice that is posted on the website. If you are an eligible Settlement Class Member, you have rights, obligations, and options under the proposed settlement. You have until May 15, 2007 to make your decision. Your legal rights are affected whether you act or not. 1. Submit A Registration Form Online Or By Mail This is the only way to get a settlement benefit of either a credit score or 60 days of credit monitoring. You will choose your benefit, and you must keep all of your registration information updated. If you choose credit monitoring, and you don't cancel your credit-monitoring membership after using your code to obtain the credit monitoring benefit but prior to the expiration of the 60 day, settlement benefit period, you will be billed at the then-applicable rate, which is currently $9.95, for each month that you continue your membership. Beginning on the Effective Date of the settlement, you will be able to register online or by mail. If you register online, your registration must be completed no later than sixty (60) days after the Effective Date, and submitted online by midnight Pacific Time. If you register by mail, your registration must be mailed and postmarked on or before sixty (60) days after the Effective Date. For more information on these deadlines, the Effective Date of the settlement, the registration procedures, and the settlement benefit, you must visit URL REMOVED BY MODERATOR. Do not contact the Court. 2. Exclude Yourself This is the only option that allows you to ever be part of any other lawsuit about the claims in this case. You will not be eligible for a settlement benefit. Your request for exclusion must be mailed and postmarked on or before May 15, 2007. Any request for exclusion must be mailed to the Browning Settlement Administrator. Do not contact the Court. 3. Object Write to the Browning Settlement Administrator in order to tell the Court about why you don't like the settlement. Your objection must be mailed and postmarked on or before May 15, 2007. Do not contact the Court. 4. Go to a Hearing Write to the Browning Settlement Administrator to ask to speak in Court about the fairness of the settlement. Your request to speak at the hearing must be mailed and postmarked on or before May 15, 2007. The final fairness hearing is set for July 31, 2007, at which time the Court will consider whether to finally approve the settlement and a request by the lawyers representing all Class Members for no more than $2,550,000 in attorney's fees and costs. 5. Do Nothing You will automatically be included in the Settlement Class and give up your right to be part of any other lawsuit about the claims in this case, but you will not be eligible to receive a settlement benefit unless you submit a registration form. To get complete information about the proposed settlement, the required procedures, the Effective Date, the deadlines, your obligations, and your options, you must visit URL REMOVED BY MODERATOR. Do not contact the Court. Please do not reply to this message. We are unable to respond to inquiries sent in reply to this email. To contact us, please access the official settlement website at URL REMOVED BY MODERATOR.
So to "benefit" from this settlement, you have to sign up for their service, and make sure you cancel in time, or you get charged? Or you get a one time score. Looks like a great deal for the attorneys. They get $2.55M. Maybe a great deal for the defendent. They wipe out any liability to anyone who fails to be excluded, and maybe they even get a bunch of "customers". Are you a member of the "class"? "Records show that you entered into an agreement over the Internet with ConsumerInfo.com or an Experian Entity to purchase any Credit Check or Credit Check Monitoring (which were formerly known as CreditCheck® Monitoring Service), Credit Manager (including Yahoo! Credit Manager), Triple Alert, or Triple Advantage credit-monitoring product, or you paid for a credit score sold on a website that also sold one of these credit-monitoring products, between June 17, 1998 and December 27, 2006. " Is it legitimate? Have you ruled out phishing, since the information you would use to take advantage of the settlement is the same identity information an id thief would phish for?
Was thinking phishing myself. Notice they did not use my screen name in the header. Most legitimate businesses would use the name of the person that they are writing to or trying to get into contact with. I won't reply to that letter. I have been a member of Freecreditreport.com now for over a year now.
For something worth at most a few dollars, it is hardly worth the risk. To be sure, you would have to contact the court. Class actions over questionable advertising claims with little provable damages (Web site claims?) hardly benefit anyone but the attorneys. This shows up: http://www.lawcash.com/settlement/lawsuit-plus.asp?plus=track&ID=3430 Did you even ever use the named companies?
hubby got this email My husband got this email in his inbox yesterday. The whole thing sounds fishy so I'm sure we'll just let it go. When he called to cancel the service he got hassled by the customer service person with the retention script. It took twelve minutes just to cancel the service. I'll keep looking around the web to see what else I can figure out about this. prissypoo
Actually, the potential liability is high for even a 'cheap' product. For instance, a PA CPL claim based on the CROA violations, and violations of the FTC ACT, would hit $100.00 MIN / consumer / charge. So even if the consumer paid a few bucks for the score alone, and not the monitoring, Exp would be on the hook for $100. This is why they're eager to settle these cases, especially when the FTC and state AGs have already hammered them for the 'free credit report' ads (and domain) being deceptive to confuse people with the FACTA FACR.
I got this and was taken advantage of in this time period by FreeCreditReport.com... I am going to research this thouroughly because between the dates that are listed I did goto FreeCreditReport.com and found that they had indeed scammed me on the Triple Advantage thing. Once you signup for freecreditreport.com, your credit/debit card is billed $12/month without them ever telling you that it is going to be billed. I got hit for 4 months before I realized, and only realized because it caused my account to overdraft twice, costing me another $120 or so... This looks like a possibility that browningsettlement.com is a scam also, that maybe they are the lawyers FOR FreeCreditReport.com and others. I am going to research it further, keep a lookout for more info. -Jason
FreeCreditReport.com pays big bucks to the lawyers. That makes the lawyers more in bed with them than they are with you. You might see if there is an FTC or state AG settlement with them, that would provide a way for you to seek reimbursement directly. They might be trying to do an end run around such payouts of actual cash.
The above class action appears to be a nit-picking settlement over web site disclosures. If you are actually out cash, it looks like the FTC stipulated settlement should allow you to be refunded. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/02/cic.htm "For Release: February 21, 2007 Consumerinfo.com Settles FTC Charges FTC Alleges Ads For â??Freeâ? Credit Report Violate Federal Court Order Consumerinfo.com, doing business as Experian Consumer Direct, will pay $300,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that ads for its â??free credit reportâ? offer failed to disclose adequately that consumers who signed up would be automatically enrolled in a credit- monitoring program and charged $79.95. The FTC alleged that the failure to clearly disclose the enrollment and charges violated a previous settlement. In August 2005, Consumerinfo.com, paid $950,000 to settle FTC charges that it deceptively marketed â??free credit reports.â? According to the FTC, Consumerinfo offered consumers a free copy of their credit report and added that they would provide â??30 FREE days of Credit Check Monitoring.â? The FTC alleged that Consumerinfoâ??s advertising and Web sites failed to explain adequately that after the free trial period for the credit-monitoring service expired, consumers automatically would be charged a $79.95 annual membership, unless they notified the defendant within 30 days to cancel the service. Consumerinfo billed the credit cards that it had told consumers were â??required only to establish your accountâ? and, in some cases, automatically renewed memberships by re-billing consumers without notice. In addition to the $950,000 payment, the settlement required Consumerinfo to pay redress to deceived consumers, barred deceptive and misleading claims about â??freeâ? offers, and required clear and conspicuous disclosure of terms and conditions of any â??freeâ?offer. The FTC alleges that Consumerinfo.com ran ads after the settlement that violated the disclosure requirement. The settlement requires Consumerinfo to give up $300,000 in ill-gotten gains, and bars it from misrepresenting any affiliation with the annual credit report available to consumers under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The stipulated judgment and order named Consumerinfo.com, Inc., doing business as Experian Consumer Direct, Qspace, Inc., and Iplace, Inc. The Commission vote to accept the supplemental stipulated judgment and order was 5-0. It was filed in United States District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. NOTE: Stipulated judgments and orders for permanent injunction and monetary relief are for settlement purposes only and do not constitute an admission by the defendant of a law violation. Stipulated judgments have the force of law when signed by the judge. Copies of the legal documents associated with this case are available from the FTCâ??s ..."
