Gift Card Hub scam.

born_again

minimalising said:

My bank refunded me very quickly.  I got the impression they knew all about this company.

Don't spend it yet. Retailer can reject & you will be re debited.

Banks know about a lot of companies. But they have to work within card regulations. Which if not broken means nothing. 

TripleH

Just as a point of clarification, having an overseas address isn't dodgy. You could be in the UK for 2 days every month but for personal reasons want to use your base in Pakistan for example.

Likewise you could use your accountant's office address in the UK as your address when you never spend any time in the country.

Having a foreign address is likely to raise red flags to a lit of people so a scammer may opt for a UK one. So addresses can be meaningless.

minimalising

born_again said:

minimalising said:

My bank refunded me very quickly.  I got the impression they knew all about this company.

Don't spend it yet. Retailer can reject & you will be re debited.

Banks know about a lot of companies. But they have to work within card regulations. Which if not broken means nothing. 

I'm not planning to spend it any time soon but that's good advice.  Ta!

To add to the 'is it a scam or not debate' (it is).  When you cancel, you fill out a form which looks like any other unsubbing form.  They then send you an email which, for me, landed in my spam folder.  And that email then sends you to another very similar form.  That's the one that actually unsubs you.  Again, based on everything about their design, and general ethics, I'd suggest that's a deliberate attempt to mislead users yet again.

I'm hoping they do try to take another payment now that I've got the email saying I've unsubscribed.  That'll just add to my case if they try to take the money back.  I expect they just play the large numbers game though and don't both fighting the ones who fight back.

Either way, they're either a very scammy or very scummy company.   I'm usually very, very scam aware.  I'm surprised they caught me out (I operate on the internet like I'm RJ MacReady).  The lesson from all this is to never go in via a sponsored link and I'll stick to that from now on.

safaseed

Guys, this happened to me yesterday.
I topped up my EE simcard a £9.80 from giftcard-hub on december 14, 2024 yesterday I got a notification of leaving £49 feom my bank account and even didn't know for what it was! Then I ended up with this giftcard-hub thing that put a credit on my bank account for £49 monthly!!!!!! I still even don't know what is this £49 is for? I called the company, they said they will camcel the subscribtion but wont refund my money. I called the bank they just said they have frozen my card but can't help with the refund. 
Note that I did not get any T&C email or any email regarding that "subscribtion". If this is not a fraud, so whats the definition of fraud?

born_again

safaseed said:

Guys, this happened to me yesterday.
I topped up my EE simcard a £9.80 from giftcard-hub on december 14, 2024 yesterday I got a notification of leaving £49 feom my bank account and even didn't know for what it was! Then I ended up with this giftcard-hub thing that put a credit on my bank account for £49 monthly!!!!!! I still even don't know what is this £49 is for? I called the company, they said they will camcel the subscribtion but wont refund my money. I called the bank they just said they have frozen my card but can't help with the refund. 
Note that I did not get any T&C email or any email regarding that "subscribtion". If this is not a fraud, so whats the definition of fraud?

Banks definition of fraud. Is when a unknown 3rd party uses your details. Not something that you authorise. 
As posted previously. This is very clear when you agree to the T/C before making the payment. 

Finapojke

born_again said:

safaseed said:

Guys, this happened to me yesterday.
I topped up my EE simcard a £9.80 from giftcard-hub on december 14, 2024 yesterday I got a notification of leaving £49 feom my bank account and even didn't know for what it was! Then I ended up with this giftcard-hub thing that put a credit on my bank account for £49 monthly!!!!!! I still even don't know what is this £49 is for? I called the company, they said they will camcel the subscribtion but wont refund my money. I called the bank they just said they have frozen my card but can't help with the refund. 
Note that I did not get any T&C email or any email regarding that "subscribtion". If this is not a fraud, so whats the definition of fraud?

Banks definition of fraud. Is when a unknown 3rd party uses your details. Not something that you authorise. 
As posted previously. This is very clear when you agree to the T/C before making the payment. 

But surely if the site is promising you "endless entertainment, exclusive discounts and personalised recommendations" upon purchase of this subscription... and you receive none of this/can't access this and neither can you create an account to enter the member zone, then that IS fraudulent activity. We are being cleverly trapped into the 49e subscription (that we obvs don't want), but then they are not delivering on the actual services/products promised with this sub. 

eskbanker

Finapojke said:

born_again said:

safaseed said:

Guys, this happened to me yesterday.
I topped up my EE simcard a £9.80 from giftcard-hub on december 14, 2024 yesterday I got a notification of leaving £49 feom my bank account and even didn't know for what it was! Then I ended up with this giftcard-hub thing that put a credit on my bank account for £49 monthly!!!!!! I still even don't know what is this £49 is for? I called the company, they said they will camcel the subscribtion but wont refund my money. I called the bank they just said they have frozen my card but can't help with the refund. 
Note that I did not get any T&C email or any email regarding that "subscribtion". If this is not a fraud, so whats the definition of fraud?

Banks definition of fraud. Is when a unknown 3rd party uses your details. Not something that you authorise. 
As posted previously. This is very clear when you agree to the T/C before making the payment. 

But surely if the site is promising you "endless entertainment, exclusive discounts and personalised recommendations" upon purchase of this subscription... and you receive none of this/can't access this and neither can you create an account to enter the member zone, then that IS fraudulent activity. We are being cleverly trapped into the 49e subscription (that we obvs don't want), but then they are not delivering on the actual services/products promised with this sub. 

People get very hung up on the F word, but there's little value in trying to attach that particular label to something like this, as (in the context of card regulations) it just comes down to whether or not goods or services were provided or not, rather than the actual motives of the company concerned....

born_again

Finapojke said:

born_again said:

safaseed said:

Guys, this happened to me yesterday.
I topped up my EE simcard a £9.80 from giftcard-hub on december 14, 2024 yesterday I got a notification of leaving £49 feom my bank account and even didn't know for what it was! Then I ended up with this giftcard-hub thing that put a credit on my bank account for £49 monthly!!!!!! I still even don't know what is this £49 is for? I called the company, they said they will camcel the subscribtion but wont refund my money. I called the bank they just said they have frozen my card but can't help with the refund. 
Note that I did not get any T&C email or any email regarding that "subscribtion". If this is not a fraud, so whats the definition of fraud?

Banks definition of fraud. Is when a unknown 3rd party uses your details. Not something that you authorise. 
As posted previously. This is very clear when you agree to the T/C before making the payment. 

But surely if the site is promising you "endless entertainment, exclusive discounts and personalised recommendations" upon purchase of this subscription... and you receive none of this/can't access this and neither can you create an account to enter the member zone, then that IS fraudulent activity. We are being cleverly trapped into the 49e subscription (that we obvs don't want), but then they are not delivering on the actual services/products promised with this sub. 

Checked your spam/junk folders. Or is it just something that they offer when you logon to their site & the offers etc are there?
If you feel they are not providing what they are offering. Then take it up with them 👍

Finapojke

eskbanker said:

Finapojke said:

born_again said:

safaseed said:

Guys, this happened to me yesterday.
I topped up my EE simcard a £9.80 from giftcard-hub on december 14, 2024 yesterday I got a notification of leaving £49 feom my bank account and even didn't know for what it was! Then I ended up with this giftcard-hub thing that put a credit on my bank account for £49 monthly!!!!!! I still even don't know what is this £49 is for? I called the company, they said they will camcel the subscribtion but wont refund my money. I called the bank they just said they have frozen my card but can't help with the refund. 
Note that I did not get any T&C email or any email regarding that "subscribtion". If this is not a fraud, so whats the definition of fraud?

Banks definition of fraud. Is when a unknown 3rd party uses your details. Not something that you authorise. 
As posted previously. This is very clear when you agree to the T/C before making the payment. 

But surely if the site is promising you "endless entertainment, exclusive discounts and personalised recommendations" upon purchase of this subscription... and you receive none of this/can't access this and neither can you create an account to enter the member zone, then that IS fraudulent activity. We are being cleverly trapped into the 49e subscription (that we obvs don't want), but then they are not delivering on the actual services/products promised with this sub. 

People get very hung up on the F word, but there's little value in trying to attach that particular label to something like this, as (in the context of card regulations) it just comes down to whether or not goods or services were provided or not, rather than the actual motives of the company concerned....

Exactly. So if the 49e sub promises you "endless entertainment, exclusive discounts and personalised recommendations" and then it is not possible to access or receive any of this, then the goods and services supposedly included in the sub have not been provided, regardless of how we all ended up with this sub. Valid reason for a refund acc to UK Financial Ombudsman "the goods or services received don’t match the description". 

Finapojke

born_again said:

Finapojke said:

born_again said:

safaseed said:

Guys, this happened to me yesterday.
I topped up my EE simcard a £9.80 from giftcard-hub on december 14, 2024 yesterday I got a notification of leaving £49 feom my bank account and even didn't know for what it was! Then I ended up with this giftcard-hub thing that put a credit on my bank account for £49 monthly!!!!!! I still even don't know what is this £49 is for? I called the company, they said they will camcel the subscribtion but wont refund my money. I called the bank they just said they have frozen my card but can't help with the refund. 
Note that I did not get any T&C email or any email regarding that "subscribtion". If this is not a fraud, so whats the definition of fraud?

Banks definition of fraud. Is when a unknown 3rd party uses your details. Not something that you authorise. 
As posted previously. This is very clear when you agree to the T/C before making the payment. 

But surely if the site is promising you "endless entertainment, exclusive discounts and personalised recommendations" upon purchase of this subscription... and you receive none of this/can't access this and neither can you create an account to enter the member zone, then that IS fraudulent activity. We are being cleverly trapped into the 49e subscription (that we obvs don't want), but then they are not delivering on the actual services/products promised with this sub. 

Checked your spam/junk folders. Or is it just something that they offer when you logon to their site & the offers etc are there?
If you feel they are not providing what they are offering. Then take it up with them 👍

As I said, you *can't* access/logon to their site after taking out the sub (just keeps giving an error), meaning you can't "enjoy" any of the offers/discounts they promise/you've paid the 49e for. So that is fraud, even in banking terms. The top-up payment is just a clever way of getting you to fall into the trap. Of course I've checked spam and junk, and of course I've taken it up with them! I just wanted to point out to others that they are not fulfilling the very T&Cs you mention = fraud