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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
This is a total scam. The phone companies claim they are not making any money from this yet they spend at least ten minutes to unsubcribe and issue refunds, this has to cost them money. TMobile gave me anumber to call for Wise Media, L.L.C 888-412-6574, the person on other end states that they are a third party unsubscriber, and she would need my phone number to access “my account”. I shouldnt have an account with them. I want to call them everyday to just waste their time and tell them I will stop when thet text the word “STOP ” to me. Also got a number for Send Me another scam done the same way..886-277-9648.
I am actually embroiled with T-Mobile over some shady charges themselves but when I saw my final bill I was ENRAGED to see a totally unknown $9.99 usage charge to my unlimited data plan! I saw that wise media llc was the culprit. They sent me a spam text to my number like a month earlier about some love or diet tips and I repsonded harshly and thought that was it. Well two seconds later they send me another text welcoming me to a subscription and letting me know I would be billed for $9.99 monthly unless I sent the word “STOP” to them. I NEVER contacted this sham company and have no idea how they got my number. I sent the word “STOP” to the number within seconds but they still charged me. So now I have to see if T-Mobile will refund this money. I want to join the class action suit if I can. “Companies” like this are evil!!!
My high school kid is lazy to check messages in his phone. Once every few weeks I clean the message inbox for him. I recently saw these messages and never cared to reply and just deleted them. Now I see $10 premium service fee in my T-Mobile bill. I called T-Mobile and they said it takes 2 billing cycles to get the refund. And they suggested that I should have replied STOP or CANCEL when the first message was received. In case of email spam it is recommended never to respond. Otherwise you are confirming your email id which only leads to more spam. I was on that mindset for these messages too and never responded like STOP or CANCEL. I am very upset for two reasons – reason one – like every one here, I am charged for a service I never asked for – reason two – these messages (or services) are sent to a kid’s phone. I don’t think these messages are appropriate for 13 or 14 year old kids.
I just got hit today. I cancelled it – but have no idea what I’m being charged yet. The company references a phone number that takes you to a call center. This is not the companies customer service – although it’s advertised as that. Then this call center gives you an email – ready https://longlifelovetips.com. I say, you know that’s not an email address – the person has no response. She tells me I’ll receive a refund check. Yeah right. I go to the web site – Find out the company is called Wise Media LLC. Brought me here. I never give out my cell phone number – NEVER. I don’t enter those sweepstakes that require a cell – I don’t use it when I purchase stuff online, and I don’t buy apps. My phone plan doesn’t even support apps. I just don’t know how this is legal
This is ridiculous. A company can just charge you moblie account?! I was just told tby AT&T that they charge 10 bucks to cancel the subscription! What a freaking scam! How do I get on class action?!
Me too! I was afraid to open the text since I didn’t recognize the number. They got me for 10.00 in March, but I called TMobile today and they blacklisted the number and refunded my money for this bill. I will join the lawsuit if we can–I only got hit for 9.99, but it is the principle–good lesson–look at the bill closely!
Just got off the phone with Verizon to credit a charge for 9.99 and then realized that “Love Genie Tips” have been charging our account for the last 4 months. Ridiculous! We will be looking at our bill a lot more closely lately. I hope this class action lawsuit gets some steam behind it.
I’ve filed a complaint with the attorney general of my state. I found the charge while looking at my bill and wondering why I had $10 of usage charges when I paid for unlimited data already. And low and behold this scheming company shows up.
I got hit twice and I called T-mobile and they are going to ask for my refund.
I want to be part of the Class Action Suit against those people.
Just discovered same charge on my wife’s phone.. Mad… This bad people should be sued for breaking the trust between the family members.
Unbelievable. Now what? Should I assume my wife is trying to cheat on me?
I want to join this suit too and sue them for moral damage!