Friday January 04, 2008
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Friday January 04, 2008 | Should I Still Trust VeriSign? The m-Qube Scam | Computers |
VeriSign, a company who millions of people trust to encrypt their most sensitive data, recently bought a company whose only business plan seems to be to scam people.
In 2006 VeriSign acquired m-Qube, "a leading mobile channel enabler." To put it another way: they sell ring tones. That would be well and good, but m-Qube's tactics are deceiving at best, and certainly very questionable. Typically, m-Qube (or some other shill) offers "free" ring tones, but in the process enrolls the user in a "club" that bills the user $10 to $20 per month. Most people don't even notice the additional fee until it's way too late.
The number of complaints against m-Qube is growing and VeriSign's own FAQ includes several questions dealing with m-Qube's practices.
The most questionable practice (and why I feel safe to call this a scam) is that even if the user cancels the process they are still enrolled, and still billed. After noting a $20 increase in my cellular bill I called my provider who immediately knew what was going on. I remembered back a few weeks being offered a free San Jose Sharks (hockey) ring tone. The process to get the ring tone started asking for too much information, so I bailed on it. I never received anything, but was still enrolled in this "club." Fortunately, the customer service rep knew exactly how to unenroll me, and how to request a refund for the now TWO months of services I'd been charged for (and received nothing for).
It didn't take much to find lots of people with similar stories about m-Qube's scam. But I didn't expect that a reputable company like VeriSign would be associated with them, let alone own them. How can I trust a company who supports a company like m-Qube? If they are willing to scam people $20 a month then who is to say that they won't sell the private keys to the certs they distribute?
Update [01/30/2008]: I received my latest bill and it included a credit for everything, so the process worked. Also, as noted in the comments, m-Qube is really a billing service and it's their clients who are pulling the scams. I don't think this completely exonerates m-Qube, or VeriSign, but it sounds like the process is improving.
Tags: cell fraud m-qube mobile mqube phone scam verisign
January 04, 2008 01:51 PM PST Permalink | Comments [7] |
Trackback URL: http://blogs.sun.com/kevin/entry/i_no_longer_trust_verisign
Comments:
You certainly are judged by the company you keep, eh? This is especially true of VeriSign. This is not unlike the fact that PayPal is partnered with DoubleClick. So, if you go to your PayPal account page, all of the following links take you to a DoubleClick server:
What's New
* Learn about important updates to Recent Activity
* All-New Security Center
* Shopping Is Safe And Easy With PayPal
* See Where You Can Use PayPal
Policy Updates
* January 25, 2008
Just what I wanted - all my purchasing info going to Double-Click via a cookie placed when I went to PayPal!
Hate to sound paranoid, but trust no one.
Posted by Steve Elmore on January 04, 2008 at 02:27 PM PST #
sales r down and they gots to make money somehow
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/23044.php
Posted by jim on January 04, 2008 at 09:23 PM PST #
I understand your dilemma, but being on the inside of this, there are things that need to be understood. m-Qube is just a billing company. The people who offered you the ringtone sent m-Qube the charge, who in turn connects that bill to your phone company. It is not m-Qube at fault, but the shady practices of some of their clients. I know, I have been in this business for 3 years, trying to fight for better practices. You wouldn't believe how far they have actually come compared to those 3 years ago. It was mayhem back then... Talk to the MMA (http://mmaglobal.com/) when one of these ringtone sellers does you wrong. MMA is the ruling body, and they can go after these shady practices.
Posted by Tim on January 07, 2008 at 06:55 AM PST #
Thanks for the additional info, Tim. Can you offer any way of determining who the other company is? The bill just says "m-qube" so how could we know who the real seller is?
Good catch, kevin.
I've always been wary of Verisign. If you've ever tried to transfer a domain registration from them you would be too. They make it extremely difficult, apparently so you'll just give up and fork over 2x the market rate for ICANN intermediation. I actually prefer GoDaddy for many of the services that are also offered by Verisign - in spite of their sleazy marketing, they're upfront and fair about their charges. For ecommerce payment services, go to Cybersource for better value and integrity than Verisign and Paypal.
It's amazing to me that ANYONE trusts Verisign any more. They have been involved in slamming domains, hijacking domains, creating a false sense of security with their meaningless "Seal", and so on. The value of trust? Click through my link to see my experience with the value of trust!
Posted by Peter da Silva on March 29, 2008 at 07:03 AM PDT #
Peter, if you don't renew/reregister with 'a' registrar, then your site goes down. Obviously you know this but that is why they called it a 'renewal'. Also it clearly says transfer right above where you would sign (refering to your images). Do you sign documents you don't fully read/understand? I wouldn't...
Posted by Jeff on May 01, 2008 at 01:59 PM PDT #
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Kevin Chu, Some Rights Reserved.
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