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Suit Says AOL Users Were Charged For Phantom Purchases
Newsbytes
February 26, 2002
The attorneys suing America Online on behalf of AOL customers, who claim to have been charged for purchases that they did not approve, today said that the unauthorized charges are not a fluke, but stem from an endemic problem with the Internet giant's pop-up advertisements.
"When members log onto AOL, they are usually presented with pop-up ads trying to sell them something," a partner with Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP said. While most clients simply clicked either the "more info" or "cancel" prompts on those advertisements, they were nonetheless sent the items advertised -- which ranged from books to digital cameras -- and charged by AOL for the purchases through their credit cards or checking accounts. Before filing the case or receiving any media attention, the plaintiffs' legal team received complaints from more than 200 AOL customers reporting the same problem.
By the time customers receive the unauthorized purchases, the damage has already been done. Some customers overdrew their credit card or checking accounts because of the unauthorized orders, which often included big-ticket high-tech devices. Other customers returned the items, but were not refunded for the shipping costs, and many didn't want to be bothered with repackaging and shipping back the unwanted products.