Account, payments & subscriptions

[timote]

I too just discovered this same issue. Have a Roku device and associated account, have an old Hulu account but neither has a recurring charge or associated monthly charge. Logged into both to confirm. Just realized I have been charged, for the last 6 months, $6.99/month, by "Roku for Hulu, LLC" out of Wilmington, DE. Started a Fraud investigation with my credit card company, was forced to get new card numbers, contacted the BBB, and have spent way too much time on this. Spoke to a helpful rep in the fraud dept and they admitted they have heard of this same issue recently.

On the credit card statement, conveniently, this is the only charge that does not list a telephone number or url address in order to verify the charge.

SCAM!!

[Streamer317]

@timote  If your Roku account shows you never signed up for Hulu through Roku then some hacker stole your credit card. This has nothing to do with Roku. And I highly doubt you call the Better Business Bureau. 99.9% of people Simply dispute the charge with their financial institution. When you log into your Roku account does it say you have a Hulu subscription? 

[rexdstock]

for over a year one can see bogus replies like the one above... why in the world would these cc hackers only do hulu charges? Bogus reply. Has to be a Hulu shill 

[timote]

Thanks for the reply. No, I do not have an active subscription or any recurring charges from Roku or Hulu. Pretty easy to file a complaint online w/ the BBB, but I discovered not in this case as "Roku for Hulu, LLC" doesn't seem to exist.

I even tried searching for my account at Hulu based on the credit card info but there was no associated account.

[Streamer317]

@timote  Then obviously someone stole your credit card info. Contact support here 

https://support.roku.com/contactus

[DBDukes]

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@rexdstock wrote:

for over a year one can see bogus replies like the one above... why in the world would these cc hackers only do hulu charges? Bogus reply. Has to be a Hulu shill 

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Or, perhaps someone who worked in the payments industry for over two decades can shed some light? If so, prepare for a lesson. Class is in session.

You have seen the Roku and Hulu charges. You appear to have not seen the charges for many other services. However, just because you didn't see them doesn't mean they don't exist. In fact, there seem to be more Disney+ related false charges than Hulu false charges. And about as many HBO Max related false charges than Hulu false charges. You haven't seen them, so you're claiming they don't exist. They do. You just don't know about them.

And, there are similar charges for other services, such as Amazon rather than Roku, and subscriptions. Fake charges. Again, you seem to not be aware of them. But again, just because you aren't aware doesn't mean they don't exist and aren't numerous. They are. You are simply familiar with a very small portion of the overall fake charges issue.

In fact, your reaction is the very reaction upon which these payments account thieves thrive. They expect people to see "Roku" (or whatever) on the credit card statement and believe that Roku (or whoever) did the charge, and focus on Roku. The truth is that Roku didn't. If it's not on your account page as a charge, it's not a charge from Roku. But your insistence on believing what a thief said helps the thief tremendously. The longer you focus on the wrong problem, the greater the chance of the thief getting away.

It's been explained that if there is no charge from Roku on your Roku account page, then Roku didn't do it. A thief did. And this may be a shock to you, but a thief will also lie. Let that sink in.

When a payment transaction is submitted, the party submitting can put whatever free text they want. They can put Roku. They can put NASA. They can put Queen of England. They could put your name (!). They can put anything. And, if they put it in a format that looks legit, it passes right through. There are billions of transactions handled each year. One of the three largest payments processors in the US alone handles over 50-billion transactions a year. So, yeah, a thief lying on a payment card submission will get through. It's up to the card holder to be vigilant in looking over things, and to make good decisions on following through.

If you don't like the answer, continue to do as you wish. But if you continue to pursue the wrong avenue for resolution, and you wind up waiting too late to pursue things correctly, you won't get any of your money back. The thieves count on this. And you are just making their job easy.

The thieves have your money, and will keep your money, and you'll never get any of it back, if you keep pursuing the wrong avenues. They are literally laughing all the way to the bank. I'm not. I'm shaking my head, because you've been told what's actually going on, and refuse to accept it. I don't have your money. Roku doesn't have it. Some thieves do. And you're covering for them.

[Breanna-Roku]

Hi @timote, thanks for reaching out. Let's take this to a private message so we can gather further information from you.

Oh, and thanks so much for helping out here @DBDukes and @Streamer317 

[fujohndoe]

Roku charges me over $20 for "Hulu Services". I contact Roku Customer Service and they tell me that since I don't have any subscriptions and my Hulu charges are only $14.99 per month. It must be another Hulu account that was billed via Roku; they referred me to Hulu. Hulu customer service asked me for the associated email address for the associated charge. I was like " I have no idea, but will gladly verify the credit card information ". After, 1 hour and SLOWWWWWWWW chat they told me they could not provide the email address associated with the account. Sooooooooo, why is Roku charging third-party services and not able to provide information??? The bottom line is that I paid Roku, not Hulu; therefore, I should be able to verify the transaction information since I verified my Roku account, my current Hulu account-not associated to the transaction in question. 

Anyway, after almost two hours I have no idea how the charge was authorized 🙂 

To prevent future headches, I cancelled my Hulu account that I had for over seven years; I hardly ever use it anyway. Additionally, I trashed my Roku. Back to cable services; wish me luck 🙂 

[DBDukes]

@fujohndoe 

Let me give you some information that you seem to be missing. My 22+ years in the payment industry should be an indicator that I am properly informed about this information, and that it is reliable, even if the information is not how you thought things work. This a behind-the-curtain look at things.

Any scammer can submit a charge to any compromised payment account (credit card, etc.). And, the scammer can put anything they want in the description. The "merchant" (the one submitting the information) provides a free text description. It can say anything. Anything. Let me say that again: anything.

Which means the scammer/merchant can lie. They can put "Hulu" or "Roku" or "HBO" or "NBC" or "CBS" or anything. Anything. There is no check in place to ensure the information is accurate. It's nothing but a free text field (limited character length) that provides information.

That also means they could put YOUR name on a submission to someone else. Then you'd have that person calling you and complaining about your billing them for something, when you aren't a part of any of it.

You see where this is going? What could have happened is your payment information was compromised somewhere, perhaps a data breach from a store, and a scammer submitted charges and put other information in the description.

I would recommend contacting your bank and submitting a fraud claim. They have additional information about the charge, and can verify where it actually originated, or at least if it actually came from Roku or Hulu or wherever.

Trash your Roku if you wish. It's your money, your property to treat as you see fit. But bring your bank into this and stop the scammers. Throwing a Roku in the trash doesn't stop the scammers.

[HDMIGuy]

@fujohndoe You need to carefully read the response by @DBDukes .  Cancelling your Hulu account and trashing your Roku will not stop the fraudulent payments.  I recommend you login to your Roku account on a computer or phone and check your subscriptions.  If nothing is listed for Hulu the charge is not from Roku.  You stated "my current Hulu account-not associated to the transaction in question" so how is cancelling the Hulu account going to solve the problem?