A business headache
Yesterday I was balancing the checkbook against the bank statement. I found a withdrawal that I didn’t recognize for $49.95. It is a monthly charge put in place for a service from a telemarketer. They tricked whoever answered the phone into agreeing to something. (I know that no one here knowingly agreed to this). Here is the scary part. This company is working through the Discover Network Merchant Services company so that they made a direct withdrawal from my bank account. The withdrawal says “CHNICAL UMG*MRECHANT TE” there is no phone number or any other way of knowing who accessed the farms bank account. This had happened once before with Discover last month too. That time I saw a direct deduction from my bank account for $39.95 but there was a phone number with it and I complained and had the charge reversed. It turns out that that time a similar fraudulent deduction was hidden in my Discover Merchant Services monthly statement and I would never have found it except that the 3rd time they were stealing the $39.95 they didn’t do it on my discover statement but instead went direct to my bank account.
So when Patty came in she put on her CSI hat and began investigating. Discover Network Merchant Services is allowing these companies to use their processing dept to steal from us. These companies did not ever provide us with anything that I saw or know about. They only quietly deducted money monthly. Discover Network Merchant Services made my bank account and routing number available to third party thieves. It is just lucky for us that they didn’t clean out my account. (Apparently they fly under the radar).
When I called Discover Network Merchant Services to complain they said that it was in my merchant agreement that they could share my information with third parties. We do quite a bit of business with Discover Network Merchant Services so I am loath to quit taking Discover card for payments, but I am really mad about this. I encourage anyone who takes Discover Card to examine their statements from Discover Network Merchant Services to see if they are paying for scams. The two companies that I ran into were called Merchant Discount Health Plan, and Merchant Technical Solutions. Merchant Technical Solutions is apparently “sold” by UMG (United Marketing Group) out of Schaumberg Illinois. I did not receive any benefit or information from either one of these companies. Now I am spending Saturday blogging and writing the Better Business Bureau and Chambers of Commerce to spread the word. It is a shame that we can’t interest the government in preventing these fraudulent ripoffs.
John that’s awful. I’ll put a note and link to your post on Torch Lake Views. I think it would be useful to do a service piece for the local papers, too.
I’m pretty sure telemarketers tried the same thing at the market. They try to get someone to say “Yes” to some innocuous question, but after the “Yes” is recorded the question is re-dubbed. I’ll warn Donna to check her accounts.
You might not want to stop accepting Discover altogether, but you could ask people when they pull out the card if they would mind using a different one . . . and you could definitely stop using it for any purchases of your own. I’ll bet your bank has some ideas for enhancing security.
John have you tried the federal trade commission? maybe there is something they can do to help you.
Hi Barbara, Thanks for your comment. I have not yet made formal complaints to the various enforcement agencies. This time of year I am trying to get my books/taxes done and I am way behind. I hope to get an employee to put together all the facts and make a stink about it.
Thank you so much for sharing this infomation, I work at a bank and just had a client call asking what this $49.95 charge was from UMG*Merchanttec, I did a google search and found not only your situation but many more. Thank you for sharing and I agree get online banking and check your accounts weekly. The earlier you contact your bank the more likely they will be able to help you.
This happened to me too! I too, filed complaints with the BBB and the Federal Trade Commission! Mine was the health plan through Peoples Health Express and Discover Network Merchant Sevices. I also got my money back by disputing it with my bank. They need to be stopped!
Thanks for the comment Stacy. It’s crazy that this activity isn’t treated as criminal.
John,
I noticed this today on our bank statement. After looking back I found where it was hidden in our Discover fees from the bank. You are correct, this is very distressing. Fortunately, we have only been taken for 3 months and I got one of those back. Mine was the Discover Merchant Healthcare Plan, so tell everyone you know!!!!
I was very glad to find your blog. I noticed the first charge to my business checking account about 2 months ago. I saw it coupled with the rest of my credit card monthly charges and didn’t think to much about it the first time. Then after the 2nd time… I thought… what is this and now 3 times I am mad! We will be calling Discover tomorrow to cancel all dealings with them and then will be calling anyone and everyone to stop this from happening any more and to try to get our 149.85 back…. This really distresses me as this is the 2nd time something similar to this has happened. The first was a yellow pages company verifying our address.. I had to call BBB to get our money back from that one, but eventually did it. It distresses me that businesses are being attacked by these fraudulent and sneaky companies. Tomorrow I will go to my bank and dispute these charges as well…. Anyway… I am venting… and I feel better already! Will take this to the next step and see where it goes. I will file a complaint with the BBB even if this gets taken care of and have filed on the Ripoff report site. If I can help prevent anyone else from this headache I will try!
Wow – I’m a merchant who accepts Discover and this exact thing just happened to me. Amazed this has been going on for YEARS?! I’m canceling our Discover merchant account today. Found MANY stories out here on the internet, this describes it the best.
For the record, mine showed up as $39.95 MDHP HEALTHPLAN today (6/15/2011) in my bank account, and as Merchant Discount Health Plan on my Discover merchant statement since May of 2010! I’m not easily impressed by stuff like this, happens all the time. But this one is brilliant. How does Discover let this happen?
Kieth,
Yes it sure seems like this practice is fraud, is stealing, and it would have been illegal not many years ago. The good news is that the very companies which used my Discover account to make withdrawals from my bank account are now being sued in a class action law suit. I hope we hurt them bad.
John King
Same happened to me. I found the company phone number through my bank. They issued me 6 months of credit, ($299.70) saying my contract (??) began in Sept.
Today (03/22/2012) I found they had been hitting my account since Sept, 2010.
I called and received the remainder of the charges – $599.70
Their phone number is 888 – 673 -1308
Good Luck…
THIS IS HAPPENING AT THE BUSINESS I WORK FOR. WE DON’T EVEN ACCEPT DISCOVER ANYLONGER AND HAD CANCELLED ALL SERVIES WITH THEM. YET THIS IS STILL BEING TAKEN OUT OF OUR ACCOUNT. I AM IN THE PROCESS OF DISPUTING THE CHARGES NOW.
This problem is been happening to me for the past 3 years. I don’t know what to do? need help plez!! 🙂 where can i get help ?
This site certainly has all of the information and facts
I needed concerning this subject and didn’t know who to ask.