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Anti-Spyware, have you ever checked if there is an automatic payment extension? 게시글 상세보기 - 등록일, 조회수, 첨부파일, 상세내용, 이전글, 다음글 제공

Anti-Spyware, have you ever checked if there is an automatic payment extension?

Date

2008-09-30

Hit

2652

The consumer complaints involving the Anti-spyware services are being steadily filed by the Korea Consumer Agency as of late. After using the Anti-spyware service to cure computer malware such as spyware or virus, the consumers find out that a monthly payment has been made without their consents.

The Korea Consumer Agency has filed 1,717 Anti-Spyware related cases (674 cases in 2006, 885 cases in 2007) over the last 3 years. 158 cases have been received by the Korea Consumer Agency in the first half of the year alone.

Among the consumer complaints during the fist half of 2008, the automatic service & payment extension accounted for the largest proportion with 54.4%, followed by the settlement without consumers’ consents, and the denial of consumers’ contract cancellation requests.

Damage Type	No. of Claims	Proportion(%)
Automatic payent extension	86	54.4
Denial of cancellation request	24	15.2
Settlement without consumer’s consents	43	27.2
Instillation without consumer’s consents	2	1.3
Others	3	1.9
Total	158	100

Consumer Damage Cases

■ Automatic monthly settlement

The most common cases are the automatic extension of service and payment. The Consumers usually only have used the anti-spyware service for one time or for a short period (1~3 months), yet the payment continues to be made through monthly mobile or home phone bills.

For the automatic service extensions, most damages occur either because the payment details are not explicitly notified to the consumers or because the business terms and condition are not carefully reviewed by the consumers. The consumers often times would not be able to notice the service fee on their bills due to their small amounts (more or less than KRW 5,000).

The college student “A” paid the Anti-Spyware service fee for a one time use and deleted the program after using it. However, the service fee was charged the next month and the consumer “A” complained about it to the Anti-Spyware company. They replied that the consumer “A” asked for automatic service extension. However, the consumer “A” said that “A” was not informed about any details on the automatic payment extension at that time.

■ Enforcement of mandatory period and denial of cancellation request

In the case of the automatic payment extensions, the cancellation requests have either been refused due to the 30~50 % discounted rate benefit or the discounted amount was asked to be repaid. There have been instances where the service fee was not charged for the month the cancellation was requested but was charged again in the following month.

Business owner, the consumer ‘‘Cho’’ (48 years old) paid the Anti-spyware service fee for one month (KRW 3,850) via his mobile phone bill. The service fee continued to be charged even though the consumer ‘‘Cho’’ did not use the service any longer. The consumer ‘‘Cho’’ asked the details to the Anti-Spyware company. The company replied that the consumer ‘‘Cho’’ had to pay KRW 2,200 since the compulsory periods were 4 months.

Consumer precautionary measures

n        Please go over carefully the contract details in terms of automatic service & payment extension and mandatory period.

n        Make sure that no unused service fees are on the monthly mobile or house phone bills. The consumers are advised to ask for the blocking of small money settlement to the telecom business operator if it is necessary.

n        Before downloading the ActiveX programs, please check the program details if it is essential or not.

Stronger lawful duties of internet sales brokers in online markets

Popular KBS TV program, ‘Wise Consumer’

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