HELLO

Hi everyone. My name is Mary and I live in Pennsylvania. I am happily married with 2 kids and I am 35 years old.

Hello, Mary - and welcome to scamwarners.

Please have a read through the Forum - especially the stickies - & feel free to ask questions if you need some help.

Really, we are a friendly bunch so don't be shy

Thanks for replying to my post. I don't know if anyone has heard of Magicjack before but stay away from it. Magicjack is a telephone service in West Palm Beach Florida. They have a device, called a magicjack, that you plug into the USB port on the computer and then you plug your landline phone into the other end of that. They offer a 30 day free trial and you pay $19.95 a year with no monthly phone bills. Sounds good, right? It's a big scam. We only had the device for 2 days and they were already doing things with our checking account. They made us get an overdraft in our bank account and we had to pay $30.00 for the overdraft fee. My bank said that Magicjack is responsible for paying me back that $30.00 because they are the ones who caused the overdraft. I have filed complaints with the FCC (whom Magicjack said they are approved by but the FCC said they never heard of Magicjack), the FTC, ripoffreport.com, I filed a complaint with the attorney general there in West Palm Beach and with the attorney general in Ebensburg. I even found the local news station in West Palm Beach to have there fraudulent company reported on the news. A reporter from that news station (wptv channel 5) in West Palm Beach Florida called me at my home today here in Johnstown and asked me if I would be willing to be interview on their news to let people know about Magicjack. I told her that I am from Johnstown, so obviously it's not possible for me to be interviewed there. She said there are alot of people calling into the news station complaining about Magicjack. She told me she will let me know when it's broadcasted and she said I'll even be able to see the broadcast. I don't know how that's going to happen but that's what she told me.

Not being from the US, I am not familiar with Consumers Rights etc there.

This does not sound like the type of scam we can do too much about, except advise people of the way Majicjack does business. Their website is legitimately registered, they have a slick video of 'Dad & Daughter' plus a tv news item concerning their product on it & possibly a 'Terms & Conditions' section.

So far, nothing illegal.

From what you say, though, their business practices appear 'suspect' & you reporting them through the appropriate legal channels seems the best way to proceed in having them investigated.

Thanks for the warning. Perhaps it may save someone else in future from losing money.

So, you don't think it's illegal to steal money from people without their knowledge. To me that is theft. Of course they are going to make their website look all sweet and innocent- THAT IS PART OF THE SCAM. It really surprises me that people really fall for that "sweet and innocent" crap. Well, I'm not that dumb. Of course, Dan Borislow (the inventor of the magicjack) is going to put his sweet looking daughter on the website. He knows what can lure people into his trap. A BUNCH OF THEIVES. I will make sure something will be done with that pack of criminals!

So, you don't think it's illegal to steal money from people without their knowledge. To me that is theft.

Hi mjlohr.

There's a difference between sneaky, disgusting business practices and doing something illegal. Unfortunately, what many of us may think of as blatant theft may be legal in the eyes of the law.

What you need to do is get hold of a local Consumer Group and report these people. They'll be able to put you straight on wether there's any course of action you can take.

Hello again, Mary.

Sorry - I did not mean to imply that what they do in practice is illegal, merely that their website does not show how they operate or that they are an illegal operation.

Scam websites (such as we deal with here) are usually registered anonymously, for short periods (like 1 year max) - & another of our sister sites (aa419.org) is dedicated to closing such sites. The website we are discussing here is not a 'fake' site - they are, on the surface, advertising & offering a legitimate product. Their business practises are a different matter, as Chris states above.

I apologise for any confusion.