G C.

Spokeo is one of the most deceitful companies I have ever had the displeasure of encountering. They offer a service that they know most people are only going to use once and forget about, hence why they'll sneak in subscription services to make money. In many cases you get signed up without even realizing it. "Spokeo Connections" doesn't even seem like it's a real thing and you cannot find one positive review of people who enjoy their Spokeo Connections Subscription. So far I've found that "InfoArmor" and "Privpro" are also some weird branches of Spokeo that were used in a similar fashion.

Most subscription services will email you at least once a week or to tell you about new features or things that you may like. A popular video game related subscription service sends me a very courteous "Thank you for your purchase" every time they charge for my subscription. They make it completely impossible to not know you have the service. Do you know why they do this? It's because they are a reputable company, not trying to hide and proud of their business. Spokeo doesn't email you anything except customer service surveys after you cancel and call over and over again about your "refund for only 1 year because that is all the system can do". They completely disappear from your life. What does that tell you about the company? They WANT you to not know you're signed up so that they get free money. There is no one in their right mind who would pay nearly $40 a month, for multiple years, for a Spokeo Subscription.

My rage for this company sparked me to do some research. I advise everyone else to do the same because you are in for a real shocker ladies and gentlemen. There is a much larger problem than Spokeo. Those of you who obtained a new debit/credit card or thought they wouldn't be able to charge an expired card will find this extra interesting. Most people assume that if the information on your card changes then a company shouldn't bill you until you update the information. This is wrong. Once Spokeo (or other companies) has your information they may be able to charge closed accounts, new cards or expired cards. Your bank doesn't care if Spokeo rips you off. Your creditor doesn't care if Spokeo rips you off. They will all actually happily GIVE out your new card# to Spokeo! They are all involved in a scheme together called Account Updaters. This Account Updater nonsense is disguised as a "convenience" feature for merchants to renew subscriptions without reaching out to their customers so they don't lose sales. What this really is an easy way for Spokeo (and companies like them) to make a lot of money from unsuspecting people and drain their accounts. I'm not sure if Spokeo uses any other private Account Updaters besides the ones from Visa & Mastercard.

You are automatically subscribed to these Updater Services any time you open a credit/debit card and your bank probably won't even tell you. They may even pretend like it doesn't exist. On a pdf document I've found from Visa they even urge merchants not to tell you about it. This is all for your "convenience", in case you lose your credit card. You don't need the hassle of reauthorizing a company to take your money, right? God forbid your service get interrupted while you wait for a replacement card. You may even start to think about why you use a service to begin with or catch something that wasn't supposed to be there when the company contacts you about updating your billing. The horror! This feature wasn't "convenient" for me at all when it came to Spokeo. Even with their pitiful refund I'm still out about $300. Without this wonderfully stupid Visa Account Updater creation that amount would have been significantly reduced.

My next mission is to find out if I can opt out of these Updater Services from the major credit card companies all together by directly calling my bank and creditors. I'm going to be sending them letters as well. I'll be sure to mention Spokeo as an example of how the system can be abused every time I write or call. Then after that I want to see if there are any ways to revoke a company's status from the big club if they blatantly abuse it. Spokeo has to pay for every card# the Updater Systems have to find and is a rather large client, so the chances of that are pretty slim. Your creditor or bank will most likely side with them. I am researching if I have a valid complaint to send to the FTC and if they would look into some of Spokeo's other secret "third party processors" and "updaters". I also want to see about if anything can be done about forcing more disclosure from the major credit card companies about this alleged "convenience feature" and the companies that use them. I am even going to cancel other well known Subscription Services that use these Visa/Mastercard/Amex Updaters just because I can no longer trust them after my experience with Spokeo.