[Bobo1234]

I recently checked my bank statement (something I should probably do more often I'll admit) and discovered a payment for £40 to "CPDNETHELP.COM". I went to the web address and it said it was secure payments site and had a form to check for charges made through them, but when I filled in the relevant details, it said there was no record of my ever having made any payments with that card (the only one linked to this bank account), but my bank is showing them as having charged me £40 THREE TIMES (once a month, this is the first time I've noticed it). I have no idea what this is, I never would have subscribed to something costing that much each month unless it was actually necessary (like a utilities bill, but that isn't done by subscription with my suppliers).
Please help me- I want to cancel the subscription but the company obviously think for whatever reason I'm not paying them even though I am according to my bank and I can't afford this (and even if I could I'm not spending £40 each month on nothing that's ridiculous, I don't even get any product or service from the company!), plus the company's website says

Denying a purchase that you have made is illegal and will result in an investigation which can lead to heavy fines or other legal action toward you. Your credit rating can be affected by false claims of fraud. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us to clarify the matter

which sounds scary- what would actually happen if I told my bank this was rubbish and cancelled the payment?

[tooosh]

https://www.google.co.uk/search?sour...w=1618&bih=919

I'm sure you'll be able to come to a conclusion on your own.

[Agenda Suicide]

Nothing.

Phone them and discuss it. If it's a scam they may be able to help you out.

Does your bank have a 24 hour emergency line? If not phone them first thing.

[meow444]

Sounds like you are. Go to your bank as soon as possible and talk to them about it. Your card should be insured against this kind of thing (even debit cards). They will help you. If they don't initially, be assertive and they will.

[Rascacielos]

Sounds like a scam to me (and if you type cpdnethelp into Google you'll find a whole load of people complaining about it).

A company isn't going to post that spiel about denying a purchase you have made being illegal unless they want to frighten you into not going to your bank to double check, which no reasonable company is going to do.

Cancel the payment ASAP and see if you can get your money back, although I doubt you will unfortunately.

[Bobo1234]

Crap, I followed the google link, should really have tried googling it before posting this, there doesn't seem to be anything legitimate about the site (looking at the search results). I'll call my bank in the morning and see what they can do to help, thank you for the replies!

[bobamam]

Is it a credit card? Banks are usually good at paying the money back and dealing with the matter internally. Let us know how it works out.

[PhoenixFortune]

No website is going to post a warning like that if they are legit. It's there to stop you wanting to contact your bank, which means the payments are definitely being taken illegally. Have you contacted your bank yet?

[Bobo1234]

Ok here comes a possible tl;dr response of the steps I have taken: I called the company, because frankly I was scared by the legal notice, even if it turns out to be meaningless legally. I gave them every email address I have, they said they had no record of any of them, and that the first and last 4 digits on my debit card brought up a list of multiple accounts, so I should send them a screenshot of my bank statement and bank details, plus my debit card number, to them via email. I was wary, so instead of doing this, I called my bank, who said it might be fraud, but as I had one other legitimate direct debit set up with a similar company, they may have passed on my payment details to a third party so that they could charge me too (APPARENTLY THIS IS LEGAL? WTF??? THEY CAN HIDE IT IN THE SMALL PRINT ACCORDING TO MY BANK'S FRAUD DEPARTMENT, SO WATCH OUT).
So, I called THAT company, who confirmed they had NOT passed on my details to anyone else and it's not company policy to do so. So, back to my bank, who said that they would then be satisfied to set me up with a fraud case account with them, pass on details to the police if necessary, and refund me the full amount of the three payments by 6pm this evening (so in total £120). They asked a range of questions like had I been mugged, how could someone have accessed my card, etc, to which I had no answer as I have no idea how someone could have got ahold of it, anyway they've now cancelled my debit card, ordered me a new one, and are sending me a whole lot of paperwork to fill in and sign confirming I'd like the money back and that I believe what I've said to be true.
But I'm still vaguely paranoid that I've somehow signed up for this site and it's driving me crazy, and I can't help being ****-scared of that stupid legal notice on the website and that they're going to send me a letter demanding thousands of pounds in fines which I won't be able to pay and I'll end up with a crap credit rating and/or go to jail for a false fraud accusation but WHY DON'T THEY HAVE MY EMAIL ADDRESS? Argh I wanted this to be simple, to find out I'd signed up to some stupid site whilst drunk or something and be able to just cancel the payments and move on, and now I'm scared my own shadow is going to start demanding money for the company because I don't actually have a claim or something.

[Shani]

The legal notice is a bunch of codswollop. It is not illegal to question the legitimacy of a payment going out of your bank account.

[Bobo1234]

(Original post by Shani)
The legal notice is a bunch of codswollop. It is not illegal to question the legitimacy of a payment going out of your bank account.

No but they say it's illegal to stop a payment to them that I've agreed to make, which I don't remember ever doing so it should be fine, but I still feel somewhat driven to paranoia.

[Annie72]

(Original post by Bobo1234)
No but they say it's illegal to stop a payment to them that I've agreed to make, which I don't remember ever doing so it should be fine, but I still feel somewhat driven to paranoia.

It's not illegal for you to stop a payment to them...but it IS illegal for them to extract money out of you without your knowledge.I'd go to the bank and get the payment stopped.BTW how did they get hold of your details anyway?.

[Shani]

(Original post by Bobo1234)
No but they say it's illegal to stop a payment to them that I've agreed to make, which I don't remember ever doing so it should be fine, but I still feel somewhat driven to paranoia.

(Original post by Annie72)
It's not illegal for you to stop a payment to them...but it IS illegal for them to extract money out of you without your knowledge.I'd go to the bank and get the payment stopped.BTW how did they get hold of your details anyway?.

This

They're using scare tactics. Ignore what they say, stop the payments and get your money back.

[the bear]

megascam !!

http://www.scambook.com/browse/index...CpdNetHelp.com

[cl_steele]

ring your banks dedicated fraud line theyll be better able to assist you.

[Bobo1234]

(Original post by Annie72)
It's not illegal for you to stop a payment to them...but it IS illegal for them to extract money out of you without your knowledge.I'd go to the bank and get the payment stopped.BTW how did they get hold of your details anyway?.

I have no idea, I usually make sure my debit card is always on me so I literally don't know how they could have got my details.

(Original post by Shani)
This

They're using scare tactics. Ignore what they say, stop the payments and get your money back.

I tried stopping the payments with the company and they said they had no record of an account setup with any of my emails addresses, plus their website transaction search engine said there was no record of any transactions tied to the only debit card attached to my account, and without either of those things, I can't stop the payments with them online and they say they can't stop the payments. These two things (the lack of email record and transaction history) are about the only thing which calm me down somewhat as if I had legitimately signed up to the website, surely one (or both) of those things would have worked?

[Bobo1234]

(Original post by bobamam)
Is it a credit card? Banks are usually good at paying the money back and dealing with the matter internally. Let us know how it works out.

It's a debit card, I don't have a credit card. Also, update, I have now received a "fraud refund" for the full amount from my bank, so that's made me a little happier.

[Shani]

(Original post by Bobo1234)
I have no idea, I usually make sure my debit card is always on me so I literally don't know how they could have got my details.



I tried stopping the payments with the company and they said they had no record of an account setup with any of my emails addresses, plus their website transaction search engine said there was no record of any transactions tied to the only debit card attached to my account, and without either of those things, I can't stop the payments with them online and they say they can't stop the payments. These two things (the lack of email record and transaction history) are about the only thing which calm me down somewhat as if I had legitimately signed up to the website, surely one (or both) of those things would have worked?

Yeah, I meant ignore them (have nothing more to do with them), and stop the payments from your bank and get a refund from your bank, not from them - of course they're being awkward with no records - they're a scam!

[Bobo1234]

Ok so I tried inputting the dates in the description (not the actual transaction date on the bank statement) into the transaction search on the website and got a hit for just one of the payments, it's for an "adult site" shall we say and the ip address attached to the account is apparently located in coventry (according to google) and I've never even been there, let alone used the internet there, so... The transaction search gave me the full login details for the site I've apparently (or somebody with the same card number, or SOMETHING, I don't know) signed up to, and it has a picture of a bald guy who definitely is NOT me and an email address which is definitely NOT mine, so now I'm just confused as to whether the company ****ed up and charged the wrong person or whether the bald man from coventry somehow got my card details and is using them to sign up to adult sites...This is a mess.

[Shani]

(Original post by Bobo1234)
Ok so I tried inputting the dates in the description (not the actual transaction date on the bank statement) into the transaction search on the website and got a hit for just one of the payments, it's for an "adult site" shall we say and the ip address attached to the account is apparently located in coventry (according to google) and I've never even been there, let alone used the internet there, so... The transaction search gave me the full login details for the site I've apparently (or somebody with the same card number, or SOMETHING, I don't know) signed up to, and it has a picture of a bald guy who definitely is NOT me and an email address which is definitely NOT mine, so now I'm just confused as to whether the company ****ed up and charged the wrong person or whether the bald man from coventry somehow got my card details and is using them to sign up to adult sites...This is a mess.

Seriously, stop stressing. Your bank has refunded you. You've been the victim of fraud. You'll give yourself a stroke if you keep trying to figure it out and you genuinely know nothing about it. That site is listed as a scam all over the internet, and you've been scammed - but you've got your money back and your bank has been alerted. Just be more careful in future.