After I closed their website once, it will not open again. One good thing about my bank, though, and that is that they will not allow any transactions without a phone number attached, which they always display on my online balance sheet. The number attached to the charge for unrestrictedownloads.com is [protected]. I called and, of course, they do not take calls on weekends, although they said that they are available 24 hours a day by email. Of course, they did not state just what that email address might be, and all of those that I have tried thus far to cancel this mess simply bounce right back to me.
My sister is an FBI agent who works with electronic consumer fraud, especially that coming out of Canada, which is one of the worst countries of all, even worse than Africa for this sort of thing. Does anyone have an email address or online address that will allow access of the account?
If you want to see something scary, google the IP address, 63.243.188.103. That will take you to a web hosting site, but my guess is that the same person runs ALL 21 plus websites on the account there, as they are all just far too similar to one another not to clearly speak of fraud- freemusicdownload, unrestrictedownload, yourmusicaccess, etc...
Do please note, I was able to get an email through on two different addresses directly related to the financial accounts of unrestrictedownload.com, and they have not- at least did not immediately- bounce, although I do not know if it will do any good in the long run, or not. Plus, there is nothing to stop them from bouncing the messages back to me after they have been read. Still, it might be worth giving it a try and I'll let you know what happens from my side of things:
The email addresses are:
info@MYMP3DOWN.COM
customerservice@MYMP3DOWN.COM
Note that it seems to be case specific. (And don't forget that phone number is [protected].)
"Reelvidz" is just the latest name for a scam being run by the same group of guys in Russia who used to do business under a variety of names, all having to do with "downloading movies free (.com)." What they do is put up thousands of sites, each one offering either a low cost introductory trial membership, or a free memberships that just incidentally requires you to give them your credit card number, even though they claim they will not charge your card. (They say that this is to prove that you are a human, but as we all know, the CAPTCHA device used by millions of legitimate servers does that just fie, and for no money at all.)
With the low-cost trials, the membership period will either be seven days, or a number that is devisable by seven. This way, they can be always be sure of having a weekend free and clear, where they can access your bank, and you are wholly unable to stop them. The charge usually takes place late on a Friday afternoon. Instead of the $1.99 fee you are probably expecting them to take, these scoundrels will usually charge somewhere between $50- $75, amounts just low enough that most people give up fighting to try to recover the loss. Getting that money back is pretty near impossible, as, for one thing, you willingly gave them access to your account.
Thankfully, most people only get hit once or twice, but I have heard of those who've had their accounts assaulted over and again, on a regular basis. And as you've already discovered, private banks do not seem to be of much help.
One of the worse things about this whole thing is that these guys act pretty much with impunity, as no one seems to be able to keep them down for long. They do tend to be frightened of the FBI, though, so once you contact them, make sure you let them know you will be filing, or have already filed, an FBI fraud report . You can do this by going to the "Be Crime Smart" page on the FBI website, which is the section that deals with the issue of scams: http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/.
On the right side of that page, you will find a box titled "How to Report Crime & Fraud." Click the link that seems most appropriate to your situation, then be sure to follow through with whatever they ask of you. Unlike most government forms, they tend to be fairly easy to follow, so there ought not be many reasons not to act on this. You can even submit your complaint anonymously, if you are so inclined.
I know that complaining to the FBI probably seems like small comfort, but at least it is a positive step, one that may just end up helping more than you know. At the very least, it will force the people behind Reelvidz to think twice before they try to hurt you again. (Just be sure you let the bad guys- and not just your bank- know that you have, indeed, filed a report.)
