Community discussions

[Iona-D]

https://myfox8.com/news/bbb-issues-warning-for-roku-users-in-25-states

Another one?  What's with this?  Why is Roku so attractive to the scammers?  It's mandantory sign up policy with credit/debit card digits?  Or so easy for scammers. to mislead people without too much trouble?

[thetick]

Because Roku is a very small company without a large corporate law firm.  Roku is many orders of magnitude smaller than Apple, Google or Amazon.  The scammers know not to mess with big companies so the scammers can run a muck if a small company owns the brand.

[atc98092]

@thetick makes good points. Another reason is that they are probably the most widely available and used home media streaming device. It's similar to Windows being targeted by viruses far more than MacOS or Linux. There's more targets available, and most users are simply unaware of the scams. 

[boogernose]

This is the original post: https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/22338-bbb-investigation-customers-allege-caligeeks-charged...

Roku offers a lot in theory. So the novice just doesnt know that initially its all free.

Ya just buy the dam machine. Probably Roku should blatantly say on the box

something to the effect of 'No Fee's to connect'. They have to be careful not to scare the consumer off.

[overagain46]

thank you for all the information because Roku let me know that they did not charge for an upgrade to get my tv reset...and I didnt think they charge for connection but this person was very demanding so I will notify my bank and will go back and change my personal info because they put in a different email and gave me a whole nother email and messed up my internet service and spectrum was the one who picked up on it...thank you again for the info

[ShaunPC]

I read the story. Why are people so stupid? It is obvious if you read the documentation that there is no cost to activate a Roku device. As the man said, you can't fix stupid.

[thetick]

It's not always stupid.  Some people just get a shiny new toy and want to play.  Most people never read instructions anyway before they power on new electronics.

[boogernose]

Yeah the scams all target people new to Roku that just dont know.

[ShaunPC]

"Most people never read instructions anyway". Yep. That's stupid.

[Iona-D]

This topic was brought up for protecting the newest joiners to the streaming world.  Anyone is vulnerable to scams.  Anyone.  It's a question of ease of setting up the newest must-have electronics without real physical protection offered by more professional installers of yesteryear pay tv I.e. cable. 

I just installed another device just a few days ago.  I knew what I was doing so my sister is safely watching her own streaming content now.

This is the best way to introduce new people to the joys of streaming.