Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal told WalletPop his office has launched an investigation into controversial Webloyalty.com — a company you might not have heard of, but might find charges for on your credit card statements.

The company operates Reservation Rewards and other programs that thousands of people have complained lands unwanted charges on their credit cards after they’ve used sites including Fandango.com and Priceline.com. Somewhere in a series of windows following your order to buy tickets, users end up clicking a box that gets them subscribed to Reservation Rewards and signed up with a negative option — meaning that you will keep being charged until you cancel. Your credit card information was retained from the previous transaction.

The problem is, many of those complaining don’t realize for some time, or at all, that they’ve signed up because the charges — usually just a bit more than $10 — don’t jump out on their credit card bills.

Webloyalty disputes the charges and says that its policies are clear and legal.

“Webloyalty.com provides its two million members with valuable, easy to use reward, discount and protection services. We make every effort to be straightforward with our offers, allowing consumers to make educated choices regarding the products and services they purchase. We would like all of our members to derive value from our services and remain members for a long time. However, if someone wants to cancel, we make it easy for them to do so by contacting our Customer Service Centers,” said Rick Fernandes, CEO, Webloyalty.But this is how a typical consumer complaint goes: Lori Peters-Merkel, who lives outside Spokane, Wash., said she purchased something online last year only to discover later that from July through February she received three separate charges of $11.99 a month on her credit card. She said she remembers clicking through some windows after her transaction, but knows she never agreed to subscribe to any of those programs.

Blumenthal said his office has been looking into the Norwalk, Conn., based company for a while and can’t project when the probe will be complete. He said he wasn’t sure how many consumers had complained to his office, but the Connecticut office of the Better Business Bureau reports fielding 1,627 in the past three years. (Read more at: WalletPop.com)

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