Posted by Skymouse on October 02, 2000 at 18:26
In Reply to: To Skymouse posted by Doug UK on October 02, 2000 at 16:26
Hi Doug, it's not a daft question at all :)
The site you mentioned, http://wetting-panties.easyshag.com, uses CCBill for credit card processing. In common with probably the majority of legitimate sites that you'll see advertised here, there are a couple of payment plans. The $19.95 one involves a payment once every month (starting from the day of joining the site), until such a time as you cancel your membership. Cancellation is something you can do at any time online at the site itself, and billing then stops immediately. I can also do the cancel at my end, if for whatever reason a member cannot get online to the site ... if need be, I can even be telephoned (the number is on the site) and asked to make a cancellation.
The $49.95 is a one-off payment which covers three months in one single payment, as an alternative to the above plan. After the three months is up, the membership expires.
Unfortunately, yes there have been a number of scams on the Internet over the last few years. Most, however, have not been with difficult-to-cancel billing (as a last resort in these slippery cases, the customer can tell the credit card company not to honour the transaction any more). Far worse has been the cases where money was extorted in expected, unannounced ways (e.g. have extra payments and not making them clear to the user, etc.). Laws and regulations have thankfully improved matters now, but it still pays to keep one's eyes open, and read the small print :o)