Signed up with Privacy.com after Linus Sponsorship

[Preferred]

I signed up quite awhile ago, and the CC I used then expired. I tried to make a purchase which was, for understandable reasons, declined.  I updated my credit card, but still couldn't make any purchases. So I contacted support:

 

Quote

Unfortunately for security reasons, we're unable to disclose the reason our abuse prevention system or human review team decided we were unable to support your account at this time, or discuss the decision any further.

We have closed the account and removed the attached funding sources from our system. Unfortunately this decision is final and the account can't be reinstated.

 

The purchase? Some dietary pills from a company I'm not familiar with.  How could I possibly have violated their TOS ?

Anyone else experience this? This was a bad experience. I hope LTT never use them as a sponsor again!
 

[Roswell]

Are you saying the diet pill sellers banned you from purchasing? If so, that’s kind of expected when using a VPN, it makes your web traffic look extremely suspect to the receiving party.

 

Third party VPNs in general are pretty pointless and a glaring security risk for 99% of people. In a world where SSL and TLS exist, there’s just about zero reason to use a third party VPN unless you want to dodge geo restrictions. 

[LAwLz]

52 minutes ago, Vitamanic said:

Are you saying the diet pill sellers banned you from purchasing? If so, that’s kind of expected when using a VPN, it makes your web traffic look extremely suspect to the receiving party.

 

Third party VPNs in general are pretty pointless and a glaring security risk for 99% of people. In a world where SSL and TLS exist, there’s just about zero reason to use a third party VPN unless you want to dodge geo restrictions. 

I think OP means that Privacy banned his account.

And Privacy.com is not a VPN. Privacy acts as a middleman between you and stores. So you give privacy.com access to your credit card and in return they provide you with services such as unique credit card numbers for stores.

[Preferred]

14 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

I think OP means that Privacy banned his account.

And Privacy.com is not a VPN. Privacy acts as a middleman between you and stores. So you give privacy.com access to your credit card and in return they provide you with services such as unique credit card numbers for stores.

lawlz is right. They banned my account. Said I had breached their terms of service.

 

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After a careful review process, we have decided to suspend your Privacy Account due to activity that is unsupported or in violation of our terms of service.

What I did to breach they refused to say. I don't see how I could possibly have breached it.

[LogicalDrm]

@LinusTech

@nicklmg

This is pretty anti-consumer stuff to not disclose reasons for removal. Personally I would avoid any company doing this.

[LAwLz]

5 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

@LinusTech

@nicklmg

This is pretty anti-consumer stuff to not disclose reasons for removal. Personally I would avoid any company doing this.

Worth noting that LMG does not even use a lot of sponsors themselves.

 

Remember, "this company sponsors us" does not mean "we like this company" or "we think this is a good company". It means "we get money to speak well about this company".

 

Privacy isn't even available in Canada, so I seriously doubt Linus or anyone at LMG have had any interaction with privacy.com more than "hey we got paid a bunch of money to pretend that we like this product so that our fans might sign up for it".

As soon as you see something being sponsored you should think "this is not Linus' honest opinion about something. He is being paid to say these things. They are no different than a commercial you might see on TV".

 

 

That's why I have such a disdain for "influences", like Linus. Their job is literally to convince their following to spend money on products. You, their following, is the product influences sell, and their customer is big companies (like in this case privacy.com).

[LogicalDrm]

27 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Remember, "this company sponsors us" does not mean "we like this company" or "we think this is a good company". It means "we get money to speak well about this company".

Just this tells that you don't watch a lot of their content. Not disagreeing all of your post as LMG has had issues with sponsors before, and they've dropped some too.

 

But they do at least try to choose their sponsors. Ofc it's not same when you get the products handed out by reps vs going the commercial route.

 

But from your point almost sounds like you would dislike any company who has sponsored LMG ever.

[demonix00]

Their Terms and Conditions state that they can terminate your account for ANY reason and you did attempt to process a transaction with a payment method that was no longer valid which would be reason enough, but there is a possibility that the company was in their prohibited industry list which would be another reason.

[LAwLz]

4 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

Just this tells that you don't watch a lot of their content. Not disagreeing all of your post as LMG has had issues with sponsors before, and they've dropped some too.

But like I said, there is no way they have even used privacy.com, or several other ones they have been sponsored by in the past because they aren't even available in Canada.

They have dropped sponsors because of backlash from the community, which just further proves my point.

 

Here is the timeline of how things have gone down when they have dropped sponsors:

Company: Hey LMG. Here is a bunch of money. Please try and coincidence your viewers to buy our product.

LMG: Okay sounds good. You don't seem too shady so we'll accept it.

LMG: Check out this product!

Fans: That product sucks ass. How could you get sponsored by them!?

LMG: Oops, okay we won't accept money or make ads for them anymore.

 

 

The fact that they have dropped sponsors proves my point! Sure they don't accept sponsor-money for any and all companies, they do some vetting, but that does not take away from the fact that they have on several occasions promoted companies and products they have no first-hand experience with. Such as privacy (since they are not available in Canada).

 

 

All I am saying is this. Just because LMG is sponsored by someone or something does not mean it is a good product. Treat it as any other commercial that you might see on TV.

 

 

 

4 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

But from your point almost sounds like you would dislike any company who has sponsored LMG ever.

Nope, I do not dislike any company that sponsors LMG. I just don't view the sponsorship as anything other than a commercial, just like the ones I might see on TV. Neither should you.

Again, it is Linus' job to make you, the viewer, buy some product. That's what pays their bills. It's not like a friend recommending you something because they like it. Linus being sponsored is very much a stranger being paid to convince you to buy a product.

 

And before you start thinking "yeah, LAwLz just hates anyone who sponsors Linus", there are several posts on this forum where I say things along the lines of "it's good that Linus changed VPN sponsor from Tunnelbear to PIA because PIA is the one Linus himself actually uses".

[LogicalDrm]

1 hour ago, demonix00 said:

Their Terms and Conditions state that they can terminate your account for ANY reason and you did attempt to process a transaction with a payment method that was no longer valid which would be reason enough, but there is a possibility that the company was in their prohibited industry list which would be another reason.

The problem is that they refuse to disclose the reason. It would be all good if they said "hey, you tried to use invalid payment method. We see it as something-something. That's why your account has been terminated." But, as told by OP, they instead say "You have violated our terms, but we aren't going to tell you how. Goodbye."

[LogicalDrm]

18 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Here is the timeline of how things have gone down when they have dropped sponsors:

Company: Hey LMG. Here is a bunch of money. Please try and coincidence your viewers to buy our product.

LMG: Okay sounds good. You don't seem too shady so we'll accept it.

LMG: Check out this product!

Fans: That product sucks ass. How could you get sponsored by them!?

LMG: Oops, okay we won't accept money or make ads for them anymore.

 

So... I actually do agree with your points more than it might show. But you cannot just take in the fact that someone might look things with bit more rainbow colors than just black and white like you. So instead of actually reading to my point, you go on pushing in yours. So this quoted part proves my point further. If LMG would not have integrity at all, they would have taken NordVPN, Raid Shadowlegends and bunch of other "cheap crap" money along with their more high-end sponsors like Intel, Corsair, Asus and LG.

 

18 hours ago, LAwLz said:

The fact that they have dropped sponsors proves my point! Sure they don't accept sponsor-money for any and all companies, they do some vetting, but that does not take away from the fact that they have on several occasions promoted companies and products they have no first-hand experience with. Such as privacy (since they are not available in Canada).

 

Conflicting with yourself, nice touch.

 

18 hours ago, LAwLz said:

All I am saying is this. Just because LMG is sponsored by someone or something does not mean it is a good product. Treat it as any other commercial that you might see on TV.

 

This would be something I agree with. I have not bought anything just because someone I like says its nice product. They might raise my interest, but really nothing more. With LMG, they are sometimes sponsored by free services, where the sponsorship doesn't actually give anything to me. I rather pay directly at that point. Or offer "discount" which is same regardless of sponsorship or not.

 

18 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Neither should you.

 

Making assumption without basis there.

 

18 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Again, it is Linus' job to make you, the viewer, buy some product. That's what pays their bills. It's not like a friend recommending you something because they like it. Linus being sponsored is very much a stranger being paid to convince you to buy a product.

 

I would personally take friends recommendation with same grain of salt I take anyone's.

 

Maybe you are one who gets everything because friend recommends them. /s

***

 

And not to derail them, but to lay my case. I'm not die-hard fan. I'm highly critical. Starting from Linus reviewing black PSU cables on black cloth, going over their obnoxiously bad audio with both WAN shows and event coverage. And ending with more recent dealings with community on ID strikes and other issues. But I do watch their content, and have pretty good ear to bullshit.

[TetraSky]

Forgetting to update your credit card after it expired is an honest mistake to make. Getting outright banned for that is ridiculous, even more so if they refuse to say why.

 

Since OP mention they were trying to buy some pills, it could be that the company they tried to use was was prohibited according to the terms

Quote

Prohibited Industries

You may not use the Payment Services for the following businesses or activities: (1) any illegal activity or goods, (2) paraphernalia that may be used for illegal activity (3) unauthorized multi-level marketing businesses, (4) rebate based businesses, (5) betting, including lottery tickets, sports related gambling, casino gaming chips, off-track betting, and wagers at races, (6) manual or automated cash disbursements, (7) prepaid cards or checks (8) sales of money-orders or foreign currency, (9) wire transfer money orders, (10) high-risk products and services, including telemarketing sales.

But unless they consider OP's pills as "illegal goods" or "high risk", I'm not sure why that would be the case. (They could be if they are technically not legal in the US)

 

Overall, very shady that they refuse to say why exactly. Would love for Linus and his team to get to the bottom of this if they ever deal with Privacy again.

[CPotter]

On 8/8/2020 at 12:05 PM, Preferred said:

I signed up quite awhile ago, and the CC I used then expired. I tried to make a purchase which was, for understandable reasons, declined.  I updated my credit card, but still couldn't make any purchases. So I contacted support:

 

 

The purchase? Some dietary pills from a company I'm not familiar with.  How could I possibly have violated their TOS ?

Anyone else experience this? This was a bad experience. I hope LTT never use them as a sponsor again!
 

Hey! Apologies for this, I'm messaging our contacts at Privacy to figure out what happened, and am also letting them know that their customer support here wasn't great and that they should be informing users of why their accounts might get banned.

[Preferred]

3 hours ago, CPotter said:

Hey! Apologies for this, I'm messaging our contacts at Privacy to figure out what happened, and am also letting them know that their customer support here wasn't great and that they should be informing users of why their accounts might get banned.

Thank you so much.

 

The pills were nothing amazing, and certainly not illegal: https://www.balanceofnature.com/product/fruits-veggies/#!/

 

The reason I thought I would try privacy.com is that some people on trustpilot.com reported being billed after canceling. The only reason I'd spend this kind of money on these pills is because a friend of mine couldn't stop raving about them. Way too expensive but ... 

 

Quote

Unfortunately for security reasons, we're unable to disclose the reason our abuse prevention system or human review team decided we were unable to support your account at this time, or discuss the decision any further.

We have closed the account and removed the attached funding sources from our system. Unfortunately this decision is final and the account can't be reinstated.

Since you are all probably curious, this is where they say that can't disclose what the TOS violated even was.  As you may guess, they didn't respond to any further comments after that.

 

Quote

While we wish we could provide you with more information, we are unable to share any details about the many factors that go into these decisions because of the security-conscious nature of our business

and this

[Preferred]

Also, this may entertain someone, I did write this to them:

 

Quote

btw, I came as a viewer from Linus Tech channel on youtube. This reflects bad on him too, so I will contact him about this pending the outcome.

I'm very impressed that you agree enough to contact privacy.com. That means a lot. 

[dalekphalm]

They almost certainly think you're buying drugs, and "diet pills" are codeword for some illicit drug. Maybe that entire store has been blacklisted. Who knows.

 

Either way, not disclosing the reason for being banned is not cool - and hiding behind "security" is just sad.

[Quinnell]

I have considered using Privacy a few times but honestly I haven't because I wasn't sure if I wanted to give them my payment information.  This kind of thing certainly doesn't bestow confidence.

[Preferred]

4 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

They almost certainly think you're buying drugs, and "diet pills" are codeword for some illicit drug. Maybe that entire store has been blacklisted. Who knows.

 

Either way, not disclosing the reason for being banned is not cool - and hiding behind "security" is just sad.

Did you click the link I gave? there's nothing suspicious about those pills. They're sold on Amazon too.

[dalekphalm]

34 minutes ago, Preferred said:

Did you click the link I gave? there's nothing suspicious about those pills. They're sold on Amazon too.

Just because I don’t think you’re buying drugs means they agree with me. *shrugs*

[Preferred]

Response from Privacy.com. Thank you CPotter for taking the time to look into this. I'm very impressed.

 

Quote

... we realize that there is a case we haven't accounted for in the legitimate flagging of a card that is lost or stolen, and the subsequent addition of a card with similar billing info from the same issuing bank. Without going into too much detail, as there are certain disclosure protections we must make to keep fraudsters on their toes, I can say that we've revisited this policy and added some logic to handle exceptions. 

Basically I did loose a card a long time ago, which I forgot about, and I reported it lost.  I hadn't realized that it was using that debit card as I use credit cards everywhere and the debit card is the one that was lost. I attempted to make the purchase, when the purchase failed, I updated the debit card. That caused their flagging.

Again, thank you to LMG for dealing with this so swiftly. Very cool.