Unexpected $50 charge after clicking on external support email for Nebula app

The support email link did not cause the charge. You were most likely directed to the Nebula site through a Social Media post or sometimes a website advertisement. They offer a trial "reading" that will become a subscription. Usually the offer is for $1 so they can get your credit card information where you will see the subscription charge. The subscription charge will occur after the trial period is over if you did not cancel before that time.

No, every purchase made with an app or on a website used by an app is not an in-app purchase using Apple's payment system where the amount is deducted from your Apple Account. An in-app purchases is a type of purchase made that is managed by Apple, but you can certainly choose to bypass Apple and make any purchase that does not involve Apple. In fact the courts in the US and EU have required Apple to allow users to make those purchases even with Apple's strong defense against it and warnings of the fraud that may occur.

Consider Facebook Marketplace where there are many scams that results in users losing money. You can also make purchases with the Amazon app that have nothing to do with Apple. Walmart offers their own subscription service within the app that is not managed by Apple. The examples are endless.

For any fraudulent purchase made that is not managed by Apple, the solution is the same as any other type of purchase. First you contact the merchant charging you, and if not able to resolve the matter, then you dispute the charge with the card being billed.

zarah0704 wrote:

Hey, you seem to know a lot about this scam. I was wondering if you might know if just asking your bank for help will be enough to stop them charging you money? (I’m from the EU) Or will they keep charging you? Because my mom has already been scammed out of about €70 right now and is scared that they will take more even if she has help from the bank.

Yes, your bank can help. You do have to make sure the bank is blocking further charges and not simply issuing you a new card. That will require you to report those charges as fraudelent transactions. The reason why that step must be done is that banks, along with Mastercard, VISA, American Express, etc, use a service called an Automatic Billing Updater to transfer subscriptions to a new account number to prevent interruptions in billing for legitimate services. Banks deal with fraudulent transactions all the time, so as long as they are aware that the charges are fraudulent, they can block future charges.

That’s wild… I thought support emails were just plain contact links, not something that could actually trigger a transaction. If that happened without any confirmation or prompt, that’s seriously concerning. Even if it’s accidental, that kind of behavior shouldn’t be possible on a site linked to an App Store app

I had a really similar experience! I used Nebula a while back and saw a promo that seemed totally normal. Paid through their page and also ended up with weird charges later that I couldn’t explain

I didn’t connect it to the support link at the time, but now I’m wondering...

Appreciate the detailed explanation. I was about to try their "Starseed upgrade" thing but didn’t know it goes through an external site. The second I read "not through App Store", I backed out. This definitely confirms I made the right call

Hey, you seem to know a lot about this scam. I was wondering if you might know if just asking your bank for help will be enough to stop them charging you money? (I’m from the EU) Or will they keep charging you? Because my mom has already been scammed out of about €70 right now and is scared that they will take more even if she has help from the bank.

I didn’t even think about reporting it because it didn’t feel like a "scam" in the traditional sense, but now I’m starting to realize this isn’t an isolated case. Thanks for posting this