[USA] “Web Services Company” charged be for a service I didn’t know about.

Hi everyone,

Posting here to see if anyone else has experienced this and maybe raise a warning. Just got off the phone with this company as well as my bank.

I noticed a charge to my bank account was posted, that I didn’t recognize. Naturally I called my bank and disputed it. After filing the claim and getting sent to speak with the fraud department, they informed me that the charge was the result of a bill in my name from a secure networking company. The agent gave me the company’s number and told me to speak with them to see about resolving it on their end. If this kept up I’d have to close out my existing bank account as it would be considered compromised.

So I called the company and the man who answered said that I had been charged because my free trial of their VPN service had ended.

Thing is, I have never signed up for a VPN service, nor ever heard of his company before that charge. Yet these guys had my full name, my email, and apparently my checking account info. I do most of my online shopping with my credit card anyway, so the odds of accidentally entering my bank information somewhere are basically 0.

He told me that they do a lot of marketing with partners on gambling sites, dating sites, etc… and that I probably got signed up through them. I explained I had no idea who they were nor how they would’ve gotten my information. I asked if he could tell me which of these “partners” would’ve signed me up. To which, he said he couldn’t tell me as that would defeat the whole purpose of VPN? He admitted that looking at my “account” that I had not used the service whatsoever.

Eventually he agreed to remove me from the list of subscribers and issue me a refund. Was very nice about the whole thing, which makes me question if this was a legit scam or not.

My questions:

Has anyone else had an experience like this? What should I expect? Also, if this was a mistake on my end how would I go about tracking down where it occurred?

Thanks everyone.