Why are we being charged outside the App Store?

To be clear, you inadvertently signed up for a free trial/subscription through Nebula on their website and it makes no difference if you downloaded the app or not. You are still going to be charged if you do not cancel the free trial with Nebula where you started the subscription. None of this has anything to do with the app.

Most likely you were referred to this website through a Social Media post where the poster was paid to get you to take the "quiz" with Nebula. Sometimes they use website advertisements, but usually the scam starts on Social Media where the poster is allowed and even paid to convince you to go to the Nebula site.

As with any fraudulent website, in the US you can report them to the FTC. For the poster on Social Media, you can report that poster to the site.

https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/

goldysIennna wrote:

I’ve seen more than one thread about these guys. I haven’t been caught myself, but I firmly believe apps like this shouldn’t be available to download for free at all

Please read the information provided, and you will realize it has nothing to do with the app in the App Store. In fact if the free trial was started from the app in the App Store, it would have been easily cancelled using the standard method to view and cancel subscriptions in Settings on your device.

For any fraudulent website, you can file a report with the FTC in the US. It seems users are thinking this was the result of the app and not realizing that it was actually the website. Failing to realize that is only going to lead to being duped by other websites.

Recent court rulings have forced Apple to allow third party payments that do not go through the App Store. The courts also ordered Apple not to warn users about it, claiming such warnings were anti-competitive. The orders were the result of a lawsuit by Epic Games (developers of Fortnite) to allow out-of-app-store payments. There are numerous complaints here about Nebula and its billing practices for the exact same issue you have experienced. If anybody is shady it’s Nebula.

Apple is not to blame if that’s what you are implying. Read the story in the link below

https://www.theverge.com/news/660025/apple-changes-app-store-rules-to-allow-external-purchases

.

See If you want to cancel a subscription from Apple - Apple Support

This will stop future billing.

I’ve seen more than one thread about these guys. I haven’t been caught myself, but I firmly believe apps like this shouldn’t be available to download for free at all