$1 Trials That Turn Into Monthly Charges: How Subscription Traps Work and How to Cancel

Short answer: many phone-lookup, people-search, background-check and "report" websites sell a cheap first purchase (often $1 or a short trial) that automatically becomes a monthly subscription, disclosed only in small print. To stop it: cancel in your account on that site if you can, then ask your bank or card issuer to block the merchant and dispute charges you did not knowingly agree to.

How the trap works

1. You search for a phone number, a person or a document and land on a site promising a full report.
2. After a long "searching" animation, the report is locked behind a small payment, for example $1.
3. The checkout's small print says the payment starts a trial that renews at a much higher monthly price.
4. Cancelling is hard: no visible button, a phone line that is always busy, or an email address that does not answer.

Warning signs before you pay

• The price on the button is tiny, but the page mentions "membership", "trial" or "renews".
• A pre-ticked box agrees to recurring billing.
• You cannot find the company's name, address or cancellation policy before paying.
• Reviews on independent sites mention charges people could not cancel.

How to cancel and stop the charges

1. Cancel on the site if you can log in, and screenshot the confirmation.
2. Call your bank or card issuer and ask them to block future payments to the merchant, or replace your card.
3. Dispute the charges you did not knowingly agree to. See how to get a chargeback.
4. Using PayPal? Cancel the automatic payment in your settings and open a dispute.
5. Report it to your consumer protection agency (for example the FTC in the US, Action Fraud in the UK, Scamwatch in Australia).

A note on similar names

Names get confusing. For example, TrustCheck Club (trustcheck.club), a phone-lookup subscription site, is a different company from TrustCheck (trustcheckapp.com), which is a free review site for businesses in Ghana and does not sell subscriptions. If that is the charge you are dealing with, read how to cancel a TrustCheck Club subscription.

Watch out for follow-up scams

After complaining online, people are often contacted by fake support agents offering refunds. Never give a stranger your card number, a one-time code or remote access. Read how fake refund scams work.