Watch out for those Money Back Offers!

The Senate is cracking down on those Member Rewards Programs and Money Back Offers you see on hundreds of popular websites after you have purchased a product or service. Three Internet companies, Webloyalty, Vertrue and Affinion Group are currently under investigation for

exploiting consumers’ expectations about online shopping to trick them into joining their membership clubs.

Chairman Rockefeller states that the ads are purposely designed to mislead web shoppers since most do not realize they are being charged for the service. Information about any charges are buried in the fine print and these Membership Reward Programs don't ask for a credit card because they receive the information from the company in which you just purchased a product or service from.

This is a $1.4 billion industry and Webloyalty, Vertrue and Affinion Group have partnered with many well know websites. There was 19 partners who earned over $10 from sales of these membership programs. Some of the companies are 1-800-Flowers, Buy.com, Classmates.com, Columbia House, Fandango and Shutterfly. There are almost 75 partners who have earned between $1 million and 10 million. Some of these companies include 1-800-PetMeds, Avon, Barnes & Noble, Cheap Tickets, eHarmony, Tiger Direct, True.com, and Victoria's Secret.

According to Webloyalty less than 1 percent of consumers have complained about the reward programs, but they have stated that they do plan to make it more clear that the service they offer is an additional charge. In the mean time watch out for those $10, $15, or $20 cash back advertisements or the coupons that can look like this:

For more on this story (including some senate documents), read TechCrunch and the U.S. Senate Committee press release.