New app cancels free trial subscriptions
At one or another, we’ve all signed up for some service that offered a free trial. Most of these services require you to submit a credit or debit card number in order to qualify for the free trial. Many of these services count on you forgetting when the free trial ends so they can charge you for another billing period. Some less scrupulous services will promise a free trial but will hide the recurring charges in the fine print. Free trial subscription charges may now become a thing of the past as an app is in development that tries to put a stop to those charges.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKYfJ_GwKak%5D
As a teenager, Josh Browder developed an algorithm called Do Not Pay that helped people fight parking tickets. Now, he’s developed an app called Free Trial Surfing. The app reportedly gives you a temporary credit card number that you can use to sign up for free trials. The temporary number is not tied to any of your cards or bank accounts. The card number will then be canceled when the trial period is up. The temporary card number can not be used for any other charges. The app is said to be available on Apple’s iOS devices with a web platform coming soon.
Of course, some of the free trial platforms are trying to block accounts that use Free Trial Surfing. However, the app is backed by a major bank. That means if a platform tries to block numbers used by Free Trial Surfing, they will also block numbers from other credit and debit cards as well. Since retailers can’t afford to block such revenue streams they can’t tentatively block the app. There is one caveat to the app though. In order to use it, you will have to give Free Trial Surfing an actual credit or debit card number. While the app is currently free, that could change in the future.
FedEx text scam is more dangerous than you think! | Greg's Corner 9:00 am on January 24, 2020 Permalink
[…] If you were to click on the link in the phony text you would be taken to a site that looks like Amazon but isn’t. The fake Amazon site then asks you to fill out a customer service survey in order to claim a prize. However, to collect the prize you need to cover the cost of shipping and for that, you need to provide your financial information. Yet, it doesn’t stop there. On top of everything else, by providing your payment information you’re also signing up for a subscription service that will charge you close to $100 a month for products related to the ‘prize’ you chose. We’ve previously discussed subscription scams here. […]