Scam alert: Privacy and safety issue

  • I signed up for a free plan couple of days ago.

    Today I discovered my campaign is not working. I checked the plugin settings and I see my campaign is no longer listed. Error message is:

    “Something went wrong while attempting to connect Reported error:
    [account-error] The API returned a 401 response with this message: This account is not currently active. It is either expired, paused, archived, canceled, or temporarily suspended. (status: 500)”

    When I signed in on the website of Optinmonster I get the following message:
    Action Required: Your OptinMonster account is suspended!

    It’s credit card related. Weird, during the free plan I already provided my credit card details (Reason: to make sure this is not a bot spam registration according to OptinMonster).

    When signed in I see a big window I need to update my credit card details. No further details about money or whatever, just that.

    By accident I clicked on the billing tab.

    In the billing section, I found out OptinMonster prepared an invoice of $168.00 (knowing that I selected the free plan).
    That’s when I had my ahaa moment. I gave the clearance for the free plan and they need me to give them clearance to charge 168 dollars. If I had provide my credit card details I am being charged for that without my knowledge. This is by definition SCAM!!

    Definition of scam: “A scam is a deceptive scheme or trick used to cheat someone out of something, especially money. Scam is also a verb meaning to cheat someone in such a way.”

    They will reply to this review with “That’s certainly not our intention!”. Their working method shows it’s evident this is their intention.

    I find this suspicious and for my own safety, I no longer want to use OptinMonster.

    Rule number 1: Never give your credit card details unless you are planning to purchase and always Google after a company before handing over your sensitive data.

    Big tech companies like Google, Twitter, or Facebook don’t ask for your credit card details. They all use perfect proven methods to verify accounts such as phone number, and email confirmation.

    I declare Optinmonster a scammer.

    • This topic was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by marbs.
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  • Hi @marbs,

    Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback about our free plan sign-up process. It sounds like there has been a miscommunication which is entirely on us. Let me clarify why a $168 invoice was prepared for your account.

    While I couldn’t find your account to verify, it sounds like your campaign received quite a few views (congrats) and reached the free plan view limit. The free plan allows your campaigns to be shown 300 times.

    When an account reaches its view limit, our system automatically upgrades it to the next plan level. However, you can adjust your pageview and upgrade preferences to ensure the card on file is not used if your account reaches its limits.

    You can read more about those settings here – https://optinmonster.com/docs/pageview-and-upgrade-preferences/.

    And if your card is charged unexpectedly, you can take advantage of our 14-day unconditional money-back guarantee.

    That said, we could undoubtedly clarify what situations your card is used in and how to adjust your pageview and upgrade preferences during the sign-up process. I’ll share a few suggestions for improving this experience with our team this week.

    We’re sorry OptinMonster didn’t work out for you and thank you again for sharing your feedback. Good luck with your future endeavors!

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)
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