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] |
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Kevin Chu, Some Rights Reserved.
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