I'm so beyond mad that I could just scream.

Gosh, what a bummer. I have had a situation where a small deposit I made went into the wrong bank account (not mine). The bank was very helpful in resolving the matter. Try talking to your bank again and see if they can help trace the charge. If you have to go back to the grant company again, tell them you want to speak to a supervisor. If you have a good relationship with your husband, why would he think you were lying? Hopefully your husband will be understanding and help you resolve the situation. Who is to say that he did not make the charge somehow? If he did and he is trying to hide something, he may falsely accuse you. You know you are in the right and that you did not make the charge. Do not let your husband or anyone else intimidate you. Be persistent and you will get this resolved and hopefully get your brother released. Good luck.

I am sorry it always stinks when these kinds of things happen. You should be able to open up a dispute with your bank. You will likely need to go in to your branch, to fill out a dispute form, and make it clear to them that it was not you that made this inquiry and that you never signed up for this. They wll then look in to it, and 9 times out of 10 they will find that you had nothing to do with it and will return your money to your account. But it could take a couple of weeks I am afraid. Make sure to keep track of everyone you talk to and the dates you talked to them.

When I made an order to a company not too long ago, I chose their promotional offer, not knowing I was signing up for a subscription...at least not until I saw it on my bank statement. To make matters worse, it was a monthly fee, not a one time thing. Boy, was I furious! The first thing I did was look up their phone number online that had been on the statement. And I found this complaint board where others had been scammed the same way. http://www.complaintsboard.com/ When I called their number (which was toll free) I got an automated answer and was on hold for several minutes before I hung up. I knew that I'd never reach them this way if they just put the caller on hold. Fortunately there was another number to call from the site that I mentioned. Too bad it was long distance. But I made the call. I had to, to stop these charges from reoccurring. A woman answered almost immediately. I told her what happened, or at least I tried to. My darn phone was having connection problems and the woman couldn't hear me. In the end she told me that since I bought the service with the "special offer" that I wasn't entitled to my money back, but that she would cancel the subscription so I wouldn't have any further charges on my card. I would have disputed it further, and tried, but gave up because the connection was so bad. I told her thank you and hung up. To my surprise a few days later I got an email from them saying that I got a refund. Apparently they reversed the charges anyway. I guess with all the complaints they've gotten they want to make sure they have some happy customers. Try the complaints board site. It might just come in handy. Good luck in getting your money back!