You will often hear it said that the internet can be a dangerous place! What with data security, fraud, spam and the like, you have to be diligent to avoid losing data or even your identity to parties unknown.

Recently I decided to subscribe to a well known newsletter. Now to keep things in context this newsletter costs over a thousand dollars a year so it is reasonable to have some expectations when it comes to service, quality and security. I made all the usual checks before ponying up my credit card including reviewing forums, checking the digital certificate and researching the organisation thoroughly.

Imagine my surprise when American Express email and SMS me that there has been a fraudulent transaction on my card. With heavy heart I call the help desk expecting to be told that my card has been used to buy a villa in some small country way out of the juristiction of the Australian police. Thankfully Amex had nipped it in the bud and had not honoured the transaction. These are the reason they gave: 1. The transaction was done manually as a mail order transaction, 2. The transaction was from a company called Agora and had I heard of them and 3. It was outside my normal spending practices.

Now it was time to do some real reasearch! The invoice I received via email was in fact from Port Phillip Publishing (not Agora) and sure enough it was for the Slipstream Trading product that I had subscribed to. Who was Agora? I went and googled Slipsteam and got redirected to one of those single page, 3 mile long websites that are so commonly used by companies selling time share and pyramid schemes. How had I missed this, and still no mention of Agora. I called the help desk and got the run around. Should be used to this by now. In frustration I gave up and allowed American Express to cancel my card.

The moral of this story? Well I will never know whether the product I tried to buy was real or not. The company was let down by using dated manual credit card transaction services and a web presence that may not have fairly reflected the quality or size of the organisation. Finally, the help desk (or the the companies face on the world), was not very polite and not terribly helpful (and reading between th lines, possibly outsourced). So the take away from this is simple: In todays world of websites and help-desks it is essental to make sure that the communication methods you use to engage with your customers are the best they can be. Relying on basic brochure websites, email and outsourced helpdesks could turn out to be the best way to save money .... and customers!