One in five Canadians report having been the victim of unauthorized charges on their credit cards as a result of accepting a marketing offer online or over the phone, a Visa survey found.
Canadians have made purchases they didn’t intend to make or signed up for offers unintentionally as the result of not reading the small print, or failing to uncheck pre-checked acceptance boxes, Visa said.
While 20% have fallen victim to such deceptive marketing practices, awareness that they exist is high. About 78% of respondents knew of the potential pitfalls, it said.
"Deceptive marketing practices come in many forms," said Gord Jamieson, head of payment system risk at Visa Canada. "While the majority of retailers are honest and legitimate, consumers need to be conscious that there may be fraudsters out there and they should think twice before accepting an offer that sounds too good to be true."
Visa says consumers should check their card statements carefully for unauthorized charges and if they occur try tackling the merchant directly. If that doesn’t work, contact Visa and the report the case to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
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