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Wise Media “Love Genie Tips” Spam Class Action Lawsuit
By Sarah Pierce
A federal class action lawsuit claims Wise Media, LLC is a spammer that bilks wireless customers out of $10 a month for “flirting tips” unless they immediately reject a “tip” they never asked for, consented to, or even received.
Lead Plaintiff Andrew Humble alleges in the class action lawsuit that he received a text message from an unknown sender in January 2012 stating: “LoveGenieTips Flirting Tips; 3msg/week for $9.99/m T&Cs: lovegenietips.com Msg&data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help, STOP to cancel. PIN 5WY6.”
Because he did not recognize the number, Humble ignored the text, according to the class action lawsuit. Two minutes later, Humble says he received this text: “Lovegenietips: You joined $9.99/m for 3msg/wk bill to cell.”
Again, Humble says, he did not respond to the text because he didn’t recognize the number.
“Humble had no intention of enrolling in the subscription plan,” the Wise Media class action lawsuit states. “In support of this lack of any intention to enroll in the subscription plan, Humble relied on the fact that he did not have a relationship with defendant, had not solicited any goods or services from defendant, and had not responded to any of defendant’s texts.”
It wasn’t until February, when Humble says he received a third text message from Wise Media stating “LoveGenieTips: Subsc renewed 1mo. 3msg/wk for $9.99/mo billed to cell,” that he became suspicious and decided to check his bank account and cell phone bill for unauthorized charges. His suspicions were confirmed when he discovered a monthly subscription charge from Wise Media in the amount of $9.99 charged to his account on January 6.
“Humble never authorized this charge for LoveGenieTips Alerts, which was charged to his cell phone bill the same day and presumably minutes after he received the first SMS text message,” the class action lawsuit states.
On top of that, he adds: “Defendant’s conduct is particularly egregious because not only did defendant involuntarily enroll consumers in a fee-based service, defendant also failed to provide the services it claimed that it was charging consumers for – i.e. the consumers never received the weekly flirting tips.”
Humble says his experience with Wise Media is shared by many consumers.
“Through unknown means, Wise Media obtained the mobile phone numbers of consumers without their knowledge or consent. Defendant obtained these numbers even though consumers had never visited the website, had never expressed interest in defendant or the subscription plan, and had no relationship with the defendant,” the text message spam class action lawsuit states.
“Without any action or solicitation by the consumers, defendant sent SMS texts to the mobile phone numbers that it had acquired… using equipment that had the capacity to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random sequential number generator.”
This is a direct violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, as well as fraudulent and unfair business practices, Humble says. He is seeking actual monetary loss or $500 each for each violation of the TCPA (whichever is greater), plus restitution, damages and treble damages for a proposed class of all individuals who received unsolicited SMS text messages from or on behalf of Wise Media, and who were charged for a Subscription Plan on their cell phone bills.
A copy of the Wise Media Text Spam Class Action Lawsuit can be read here.
The case is Andrew Humble v. Wise Media, LLC, Case No. 12-cv-1203, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.
Updated March 27th, 2012
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25 thoughts onWise Media “Love Genie Tips” Spam Class Action Lawsuit
my god…i just saw 4 of these charges on my bill…never authorized it, how do i join the class action this is insnae
How can one be a part of this class action suit? Please let me know
I just had to call ATT and get the $9.99 charge reversed. While the customer service rep was doing his thing I googled LoveGenieTips and found this site. I’m glad someone is doing something about this and I’d like to be in on this lawsuit as well.
I can’t believe people are out there doing this. I would love to find the loser behind all of this and take a bat to his face!
Sorry I didn’t add the link, Enjoy:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/your-money/cellphone-cramming-gets-a-second-look.html
My wife’s phone was hit exactly this way. I called AT&T and they promptly refunded the money. They also put a block on our phones which would require a pin in order to subscribe to these types of services. I would like to join this lawsuit if at all possible. We can’t let people get away with scams like this. I also found a great article that talks about these types of scams, naming Wise Media. I am filing a complaing with the Better Business Bureau, the FCC, and with the Georgia Governor’s Office of Consumer Protection. Please let me know if there is any other way I can help!!
I’d like information on this lawsuit. Has anyone else received additional spam messages from ‘free ipad’s’ now that you’ve complained? I have the feeling WiseMedia is now selling our contact info.
I also contact the Governor’s Office of Consumer Protection in Georgia and WiseMedia replied very quickly with a check.
Governor’s Office of Consumer Protection
2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive SE, Suite 356
Atlanta, Georgia 30334-4600
404-651-8600 (Metro Atlanta)
800-869-1123 (Toll-free in GA outside Metro area)
http://www.consumer.ga.gov
I too was hit by this spam artist. When I contacted A&TT’s customer care center they blamed me! I also read many complaints on their customer forum. Even if they sent STOP they were still billed and received no service.
AT&T is in on this scam – they continue to make boatloads of money when their customers dont notice the bill or dont bother to complain. FYI – if you try to complain to AT&T they just ignore you, literally giving you silence on the phone. They know their service sucks and the unfortunate employees are left to deal with the clean up. Their fraud department is useless – they don’t even deal with this kind of fraud, they refer you back to customer care for some more annoying and fruitless discussion that will not result in anything chaning. Hope there are more of these class action lawsuits. Good luck everyone.
I was also hit. AT&T readily adjusted charges for last 60 day billing period. Luckily I looked at my bill this month which I normally only do maybe twice a year. I suggested
to AT&T it would be advisable to reject all publishers such as this one if the user does not send a response back. I am like many that just ignore trash emails. AT&T is aware and said I needed to send the word stop… How ridculaous for something I never even asked for.
This digital newsletter is so important! I too, received one of these text last week and I have absolutly nothing to do with this company.
I was just hit with this the same way! May that company burn to the ground!