I first noticed this company when I reviewed my monthly cell phone bill for July 2008 and noticed it was $9.99 more than it should have been. I checked the details, and found four text messages received by my wife's cell phone (none ever sent to them before then, by the way) from predictomobile on 7/28/08 and an SMS charge for $9.99.

I found this company on the internet, called them, and their representative claimed that she took a survey where she would have supplied her cell number and checked a box (apparently with very fine print attached to it) signing up for their service. My wife says she has no recollection of ever having taken any such survey and that she would remember providing her cell number even if she had, and so this begs the question of exactly how it is this charge got on my bill in the first place.

I had my wife go ahead and text the "STOP" message (8/8/2008) to this company as per their website to create some kind of evidence that we do not want this service, and then blocked the SMS feature on both our phones to prevent future issues from other such companies.

I did a bit of research, and found out that a number of others have had this problem, some of whom also never even took any such survey (and were never given back their money, by the way).

So, my interpretation is that this charge was unauthorized, and somebody--either at this company or some other individual that I can only imagine must be affiliated since this company profits from it--was going through a list of numbers and mysteriously signing people up for a service that they never agreed to.

And since my wireless provider is not responsible for this charge, I will have to pay my bill to keep my phone service and not have a bad mark on my credit report.

Short story is, I think this company swindled me, and I really hope that some lawyer with some sense about him- or herself will be up for a class-action lawsuit against this company to put them out of business. I don't care if I only get 20 cents back out of the $9.99 I'm out, if it means this company is punished.

Jon

Ooltewah, Tennessee

U.S.A.

Click Here to read other Ripoff Reports on Predicto.com - PredictoMobile

7 Updates & Rebuttals

Jim Learned

Trivoli,
Illinois,
USA

The Rebuttal is Canned

#2Consumer Comment

Sun, October 04, 2009

JSYK, the exact same comment from Predicto is posted to many of these consumer complaints. I think that as hardened scammers, the people at Predicto have no interest in what we consumers think of them.

john_SanFrancisco

SANTA CLARA,
California,
USA

Predicto scam get the attention of the court.

#3Consumer Comment

Sat, October 03, 2009

Dear Predicto Mobile Customer Service,

Your scam already gets the attention of the court.

Predicto Mobile and Residential Email are simply Nationwide scams: dear readers, please, check your cell phone bills.

They may charge health monitoring device cell-numbers by subscribing their joke of the day message.

NextWeb Media (nextWebMedia.com) owns Predicto and Predicto Mobile. By some unfortunate coincidence the name of NextWeb Media top management seems to be related to previous unauthorized cell phones charges and scam cases filed across the country in the last 4 years.

After I recouped with other lawsuits, Eyal Yechezkell, NextWeb Media CEO and Itai Kathein, President helped to found another company called Email Discount Network (EDN).

Eyal Yechezkell is quite famous in the cell phone and entertainment industries as nobody knows the dirty business. He even teaches how to market in the cell phone industry.

EDN was sued in Florida, Washington State, and Georgia for the same type of scam Predicto is spreading today: it is called "cramming" in the cell phone industry.

See Washington State Office settlement agreement (EDN) http://www.atg.wa.gov/pressrelease.aspx?id=14424

See Georgia Settlements (EDN) http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/settlements/07712/unauthorized-cramming.html#

See Georgia Subscriber Refunds http://www.georgia.gov/00/article/0,2086,5426814_5684686_80061913,00.html

See State of Florida complaint: http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/JFAO-6U3MJB/$file/EDNComplaint.pdf

in June 2006 200,000 subscribers were enrolled in Florida based on $1000 Worth Online Coupons!... displayed on their webpage. The delay for cancellation to the subscription was 30 days (30 days risk free), it was 3 days in reality: see section 29 page 4 of State of Florida Complaint above.

According to consumers contacted by the Attorney General, EDN, KATHEIN and YEZCHEKELL charged many consumers who had never visited EDN web pages and who, in some instances, did not even own computers. (page 9 section 65 of State of Florida complaint).

A new class action was filed 09/18/2009 in Eastern District of Michigan: Predicto used expired cell-phone contracts to bill new cell phone subscribers see court document at: http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/09/18/Alltel2.pdf

Another scam is actually running called Residential Email/ESBI (residentialemail.com) see blog http://tiredcynic.blogspot.com/2007/08/watch-out-for-residential-email-fraud.html

My guess is that NextWeb Media, Predicto, Predicto Mobile, PredictoMobile, or whatever is using kind of pyramid scheme to pay back previous subscribers and make huge profits with new subscribers just like Madoff in the financial arena.

My question now is: do Cell phone companies ever check customers complains, I just send a letter with a photocopy of the above documents to Verizon and ask them how they can authorize Predicto Mobile as a 3rd party.

Dear readers, if you have some time, please send these documents to your cell-phone companies (Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, Alltell, etc). Hope this document will help get some refund from cell phone providers.

Please report to FBI cyber crime division at https://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx and to Attorney General office.

Kdawg

Johnstown,
Colorado,
U.S.A.

Predicto is definately a SCAM and they need to be stopped.

#4REBUTTAL Individual responds

Thu, November 13, 2008

Accroding to the suppsoed customer service rep you sign up at the site with the information and then they send you a TXT with a supposed PIN to enter. I worked with my wife who knows to avoid these types of Scams and she didnt sign up nor enter any PINs. Others have reported getting text SPAMs from the 654654 number and then getting charged. This kind of bull needs to be stopped so unsuspecting consumers are given the shaft.

Jon x

Ooltewah,
Tennessee,
U.S.A.

My take on the PredictoMobile Employee Response

#5Author of original report

Wed, November 12, 2008

Well, it's been a few months after this incident, and no further charges have appeared on my cell phone bill. Whether it is from me disabling SMS on the phones or not I have no clue. Regardless, as far as my wife and I can tell this company used a loophole in most cell phone plans to make money for itself, which leaves the average consumer with little to no legal recourse outside of a class-action lawsuit. If the consumer's cell phone provider is nice, like mine was, then the charge can be taken off the consumer's bill. But, hey, if the cell phone provider won't take it off, then the consumer has to pay it if he or she wants continued cell phone service. And I'm sure that Predictomobile and a host of other companies like it figure that most consumers are not going to go legally pursue ten bucks. Well, I hope everyone whose cell provider was not nice band together and sue the company out of existence. That would really make my day. And, as nice as it is that the company rep wanted to extoll the fantastic customer service and reputation of Predictomobile, I've read plenty of stories of quite a few people that found themselves politely brushed off by your company when it came time to getting their money back. And, let me reiterate, neither my wife nor I entered her cell phone number on any site, and never signed, digitally or otherwise, any agreement on your or any subsidiary site. We know better, because we do not want our cell number abused, stolen, or subject to hidden charges. And yet, your company still managed to find a way to do it, without our having given you our information. So, point is, looks like your company stole from us, and that seems to be the interpretation of a large number of others who have been similarly, unfairly and without having requested it, charged. Have fun with your dialing for dollars (or rather, texting) scheme while it lasts. I do not trust your customer service because of what others have said about it. All I trust your company to continue doing is what was done to my family, without our permission. And maybe it seems a bit odd for me to still be irritated about $9.99 that was adjusted off of my cell phone bill by my carrier, but I am. Good luck, everyone.

Joe Harvey

Brooklyn,
New York,
U.S.A.

customer service

#6UPDATE Employee

Tue, October 14, 2008

We are sorry to hear about your experience. Please note that we at PredictoMobile take customer satisfaction very seriously and would like address any concerns. You can call us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 800-360-0518 so that we can resolve your inquiry. Keep in mind, our toll-free customer service number is also posted on our website as well as included in SMS messages sent to your phone. Please note that a customer enrolls in our service by submitting their cell phone number on the PredictoMobile sign-up page which clearly explains the terms and conditions including price of service and billing to the cell phone. We then send the user a text message to their personal cell phone which again details this information. In order to activate the account, the user must then enter the PIN on our website or reply with a confirmation from their cell phone. The clear disclosures and double opt-in process ensures high levels of consumer protection and satisfaction. Again, we look forward to speaking with you and resolving any concerns which you may have. Sincerely, Customer Service PredictoMobile

Jon x

Ooltewah,
Tennessee,
U.S.A.

Predicto.com - PredictoMobile Swindled money from me Internet PART II

#7Author of original report

Fri, August 08, 2008

Well, the good news is that Verizon was willing to credit me the $9.99 PredictoMobile swindled. Praise be to Verizon! However, it stands now that PredictoMobile has effectively swindled money from Verizon, since Verizon has been awesome enough to understand that the charge was unauthorized. I really hope that Verizon gets the credited amount back from PredictoMobile. Or, even better, ends up suing the daylights out of PredictoMobile, LLC. I couldn't quite figure out what PredictoMobile's home state is, but I'm going to work on that to see if I can post the contact information they don't seem to want to give, so that people whose wireless provider is not nice enought to credit their account can have a better address for complaints.

Jon x

Ooltewah,
Tennessee,
U.S.A.

Update - Verizon was nice enough to adjust my account for the charges

#8Author of original report

Fri, August 08, 2008

I called my phone carrier, since I had no luck with PredictoMobile.com. A wonderful customer service representative at Verizon was nice enough to credit my account for th $9.99, so it looks like I was able to get my money back from Verizon, even though they strictly speaking didn't have to. So, it looks like PredictoMobile has now swindled money from Verizon. I still hope some nice lawyer is able to help Verizon then, since this is the only company out of this who has been wondeful.

Reports & Rebuttal