DoNotPay Unsubscribes You from Spam–and Tries to Get You Paid | Hacker News Reader

DoNotPay Unsubscribes You from Spam–and Tries to Get You Paid

wired.com

30 pointsstx10 comments

Wasn't there a post here on HN only days ago saying DoNotPay had been charging their account for months after they cancelled their account?

Yeah, your right https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23935317 .

I shared this because I thought it was interesting and wanted to see what the HN community thought. I should have searched it first.

Well, it does sound like a very useful service.

I wonder how they could have gone that far off the rails. Maybe they got taken over by investors, or acquired.

Son of a bitch. It’s happening to other people too? Every month I get “Subscribe” as the line item. I’m contacting my bank for the third time in a row to remove that $3 transaction. They’ve even issued me a new card, and I still get it.

I wonder whether disposable credit cards protect against this.

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-protect-yourself-online-...

A new card won't usually solve this. If a merchant has a recurring payment on the account, the payment network will happily update them with the new card details.

Look up any of:

- Visa Account Updater

- MasterCard Automatic Billing Updater

- American Express Cardrefresher

- Discover Network Account Updater

Yes he’s right. Changing your card number won’t do anything - you should ask the merchant directly to cancel

The poster is not saying that they were charged after cancelling. They say they weren’t aware that it costs $3 a month, which seems pretty obvious from both the signup flow and article IMO

I’ve unsubscribed from 80 spam emails so far

I've been noticing a $3 charge and had no idea this was the source. "Subscribe" is very vague description on the credit card statement. The subscription services I enjoy using have descriptions that show up in Google and send me a statement emailed (or physically mailed) to me each time they make a charge.

Although the company appears to have early ties to British origin, most of the claims appear tied to the US environment and justice system.

    * Does any benefit of DoNotPay remain for individuals in other parts of the world? 
    * Any similar initiative in Europe?

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