Sorry not really an Apple related issue but I’m seeking the wisdom of the crowd.
In September Google posted a £7.99 charge to my wife’s credit card for ‘Google Workspace Cc’. My wife didn’t sign up for this and has never given Google her credit card details. She called her bank, who were not convinced it was a fraudulent payment, and let the charge stand - they committed to block further charges.
In October Google posted a further charge this time for ‘Workspace Dublin.’ Back to the bank who refunded the charge and blocked any further payments until…
November when the same charge was applied ‘Google Workspace Dublin.’ My wife has had the charge refunded and had her credit card updated.
However there are no subscriptions in her Google account, on her iPhone and we cannot access the Google ‘admin console’ to cancel any subscription because we have no credentials to do so.
Google’s help pages are a masterclass of circularity and opaqueness and there seems no way to talk to a human.
Anybody any ideas on how to crack the case?
How do you know the charges actually came from Google and not from a scammer that created a merchant account with a name similar to Google?
Or perhaps your card was stolen and is being used for someone else’s Google account?
Tell your card issuer that you want them to cancel and reissue the card. And tell them that you don’t want any of your subscriptions auto-updated to the new card number. See if Google or anything else you use complains.
‘How do I know the charge is from Google’? That’s a very good question that caused me to reflect.
Firstly the bank seems to think it’s genuine. They should have a way to check the provenance of the charge. ‘Should’ is doing some heavy lifting there.
Secondly the actual amount corresponds to a Google plan for workspace and it’s applied on the same monthly date.
Thirdly it’s an odd scam if you have a stolen credit card number to use and you chose Google workspace - unless it’s part of a bigger picture.
However you raise a very good point. I don’t know for sure.
The existing card has now been cancelled so, in theory, there can be no more charges.
In early October my spouse experienced a couple of very small charges (US $0.59 and a few days later $0.79) on her credit card, stemming from a European entity. They flew beneath the radar, and about a week later she was looking at her card’s charges in Apple Wallet (!) and saw a charge for $59.95 for a Europe-based “subscription service.”
The bank’s security service was very prompt in identifying all three charges as fraudulent and part of a larger scheme. The new card arrived 2 days later.
Two thoughts:
- This seems to be a new instance of schemes that have been played for years in the credit card arena.
- Why your bank would defend the first charge and allow it to stand is beyond my understanding. Who is their customer, after all?—your wife, or “fake Google”?
Your third point about it being an “odd scam” is exactly what the scammers wish you to think. They are taking advantage of the subscription-overload phenomenon that makes consumers wonder, well, did I just forget I started this subscription? And yes, it is part of a bigger picture. If you don’t dispute each and every suspicious charge on account, the next step is to throw the decimal point another place over to the right and see if it stands.
Excellent points, thank you. I’ve shared this with my wife and she will be back onto her bank to dispute the first charge that was allowed to stand. The further two have, as I said, been refunded and her card updated so that should stop it.
Vigilance about charges posted to a card is vital.
There’s a difference between a Google account and a Google Workspace account. Gmail vs Google Workspace: Key Differences for Users & Businesses The google account is free; the Google Workspace offers additional features that Google charged for. Google has their own explanation at Compare Google Workspace editions - Business - Google Workspace Admin Help The charge is from $7.20/£5 per user, per month.
If you’re getting charged, Google thinks you signed up for the service. If you don’t want it you need to contact Google.
Catch 22
‘1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using an administrator account, not your current account xxxxxxx@gmail.com.’
My wife can’t sign in because she does not have any credentials for an administrator account. That’s because she didn’t sign up for any paid Google subscription.
You cannot contact Google about your account unless you sign into the administrator account. It’s seemingly impossible to find a way to talk to a human employee in Google.
Is there any administrator for that account?
I understand the frustration; that’s why I do as little business as possible with Google. They are not trustworthy and if they won’t tell you how to cancel an account they are charging you for, they deserve to be classed as scammers.
I found this page: What is Google *Gsuite_Cc@Google.Com/Ca on my credit card? The monthly charge is $18.42. - Google Workspace Admin Community (see the response to the question.)
I followed the bitly link in that reply (logging in to one of my Google accounts) and Google suggests on that page that if you don’t have an account with them it’s best to contact your credit card’s fraud department.
It sounds like someone else used your wife’s credit card details when they signed up for an account.
If there is an administrator then we don’t know who it is. I’m inclined to believe Matt McCaffrey and go with the theory it’s a scam not necessarily perpetrated by Google. However I can’t check because I don’t think I’ve ever come across such an opaque organisation as Google.
This reminds me that Google’s opacity serves to enable scammers by not offering any way I can find to report scams coming from Gmail accounts.
A few links I use to report scams directly to Google (and yes, it is terrible there isn’t a centralized email address/web form/web page to flag frauds as many other major companies have):
https://support.google.com/mail/contact/abuse?sjid=8593310568912033403-NC
https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report_phish/
Now, for the OP’s situation, I think it sounds more like a stolen credit card number than a Google account takeover. So I agree with @Shamino to work with the card issuing bank to dispute the charges, cancel the card, and block automatic updates of card number and card expiration dates on subscriptions.
A question – I have always assumed that when Google says “your Gmail and Google Account” they mean a Gmail address, not an email address in my personal domain. I recall at some point in the past trying to complain about a phishing scam sent from a gmail address to my personal domain and not being able to file a complaint. Has that changed?
My partner had several spurious charges come through on her credit card just yesterday, some from someone claiming to be a cloud provider as well as some claiming to be Google. Interestingly, she has 2FA on that card, which was not triggered in these cases although it was in at least one other. The bank is investigating
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Dave W.
Thanks for this link although, ironically (or maybe entirely expectedly) having filled in the information the submit button wouldn’t then work. A cunning ploy by Google. My wife has 2FA but it wasn’t triggered in the case of the ‘Google’ charge.
You say she has 2FA on her credit card. Do you mean on the bank login for the card?
I’ve never heard of any way to have 2FA for the card itself on a “card not present” purchase…
I don’t intend to answer for @dqwignall …however in general, businesses can trigger a form of 2FA on certain transactions on the Visa network if they use Visa 3-D (this function is not universally adopted by card issuers in the US).
In answer to @dqwignall (and thank you @Halfsmoke) my wife’s Visa card (and my cards) have 2fa for account log in and some on-line purchases.
She also checked with her bank who confirmed the charges do come from Google and not a spoofed account.
Thanks Halfsmoke – I learned something new!
That is indeed what she has. Specifically a text message that says something like “use this code to complete the online purchase” with a number to call if you weren’t actually making the transaction.
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Dave W.