Muscles com subscription charge scam or just misleading?

Neuadd97

Hi we had a call from our bank last week to say they had detected unusual activity on our account. It was a legit call but what we found really worried us. Turns out a company by the name of musclescom had been taking a monthly subscription charge (which looked like just a debit charge) for the last couple of months without our knowledge. Anyhow we racked our brains how this could have happend and in the end my wife said she thought it happened when she registered to use an Aldi EV charger at the local store. Being new to EVs at the time when she scanned the qr code on the unit she was taken to a site she remembers musclescom as the name which said we will only take 1 pound and you can have access for 50days to the charger unit? Anyhow she put in her card details and charged the car without issue . But what happend was they took the £1 then 3days later took £59.99 and every month there after. After being tipped off by the bank we blocked the subscription charge and changed the debit card .   Since we have stopped the payment we haven't had any reminders to pay sent to our email(she doesn't recall ever being asked for an email) we also found a web site by the same name but it's really vague as to what service it offers just saying enter email here to end subscription .well we are not about to give them our email so I ask has anyone else been caught by this scam? is it a qr code scam? or is it just a clever advertising wheez or loop hole for them to take our money without any service being given? It's not Aldi doing this but we wonder how muscles managed to overlay their App?

user1977

Well, is it possible the QR code was just something stuck on the charger by a scammer?

marcia_

user1977 said:

Well, is it possible the QR code was just something stuck on the charger by a scammer?

 Yes this is now a well known scam often effecting car parks where you need to pay online. 

elsien

Not Aldi, but the same scam.
https://bnnbreaking.com/breaking-news/crime/new-scam-at-ev-charging-points-in-britain-drivers-beware-of-fake-qr-codes/

born_again

Pop into Aldi store & ask them about it. 
Aldi are usually Pod Pod, although have now agreed with Shell Recharge for more chargers.

Neuadd97

Thanks every one the scam site is muscles bill com and next time we visit Aldi we will raise it with them though it has been 3 months now. Still it pays to check your bank statements and look out for odd charges that crop up no matter how small!

Skiddaw1

Oooh! The same thing happened when I met friends at a local cafe for lunch recently! They invite you to scan their app to order (so you don't have to go down several flights of stairs to order face to face). When friend scanned the app it proved to be the Muscles site. We brought it to the attention of the cafe staff so hopefully no one else was effected. It's clearly a growing scam.

Grumpy_chap

elsien said:

Not Aldi, but the same scam.

Not just EV charge points either.
What I believe to be a similar scam on a couple of lampposts down our High Street yesterday.  Plains bit of paper taped with a short text about "Council Services Survey" and then scan QR code to take part.  Obviously, I have not scanned the QR code, so it may not be collecting money but might be fishing for data.  Either way, an exposure to be aware of.

Skiddaw1

Apparently it's happening at various car parks too.

Neuadd97

Just as an update we managed to get back all our payments from our bank. So whilst it wasn't a lot it was more for us letting the bank know that this company is dodgy and to keep a watch for other transactions with other people