If you buy items on the Web, there's a good chance you've seen a popup screen after making a purchase that offers you a cash back reward on future purchases. "Cash back! On future purchases! Awesome!" you think, clicking the "yes" button and entering an e-mail address. "After all, companies can't sign me up for any kind of mysterious recurring charges with an e-mail address, right?"

Wrong—thousands of people have seen charges of $9-12 show up on credit cards every month after clicking on such links. That's because they have actually enrolled in a Web loyalty program, in many cases without knowing it.

Companies like Webloyalty have affiliations with merchants—big names like Orbitz, Petco, Fandango, Priceline, and FTD. When customers sign up for their "cash back" offer, Webloyalty simply gets the billing information from the merchant. Problem solved—except for consumers.

Papers, please

Congress wants to know what's going on. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, and he has just demanded that companies like Webloyalty and Vertrue explain themselves to his committee.

In a sternly-worded letter to Webloyalty's chief exec, Rockefeller said that the company has "engaged in business and marketing practices on the Internet that generate a high volume of consumer complaints... Consumers regularly complain that your company charges their credit card or debit card on a monthly basis for services they are not aware they have purchased."

The committee wants a huge cache of documents by June 17, including everything "related to internal discussions regarding Internet consumers accidentally or unknowingly signing up for an online membership service or discount club... including Webloyalty's efforts to minimize this problem."

The Better Business Bureau of Connecticut (where Webloyalty is based) gives the company a C+ when it comes to dealing with consumer complaints and says that Webloyalty has racked up 1,839 complaints in the last 36 months.

Ars requested comment from Webloyalty on Rockefeller's investigation but received no response by publication time. The company's website maintains that its loyalty programs "all provide significant value" to consumers.

Why would companies like Orbitz partner with such companies? Money. As Vertrue (which operates programs much like Webloyalty's) put it in some online marketing materials, "Your company receives a handsome commission, and your customers are motivated through the $10 cash back premium to return to your website for additional purchases."

Not that customers think this is a great deal; the Better Business Bureau gives Vertrue an "F" rating and says that it has processed 2,560 complaints about the company in the previous 36 months.

The power of tough questions

It's always heartening to see the government asking tough questions about such operations; Congressional hearings on NebuAd were themselves enough to shutter the company's US operations, while the Federal Trade Commission made itself spectacularly useful last week by attacking the biggest "extended warranty" telemarketers.

The obvious problem, of course, is that there are far more schemes to investigate than the combined forces of the FTC and the Senate Commerce Committee can handle. If anyone in government does have a bit of free time, though, might I suggest another round of cramming investigations?