Most people know that Black Friday is the biggest in person retail day of the year, but not many know that the following Monday is the biggest online shopping day of the year and it's called Cyber Monday. On Tuesday this week, the Senate Commerce Committee sent a message to Web sites all over cyberspace that they are watching for scammers. Internet companies Affinion, Vertrue and Webloyalty were singled out for using aggressive sales tactics to deceive consumers who were buying items online. The story goes that these 3 companies had partnerships with several shopping sites and that just before a consumer would make a purchase, an offer to get $10 cash back would appear.

Consumers thought this offer was tied into their purchase but they were wrong. Instead, by clicking "yes", the consumer enters into an agreement with a membership club opperated by Affinion, Vertrue or Webloyalty and are charged monthly because the company now has their credit card information. The companies state they have placed safeguards and disclosure statements into their offers, but consumers need to be careful as scams will be prevalent online in the next 2 weeks.

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