Fraudulent charge by pango/ultraAV

[borkduck]

On 1/5/205 I awoke to find that an outfit called pango.co (?) had fraudulently charged my PayPal account for $263.99. For what--and how they were able to obtain my PayPal account information at all--remains a mystery. When I contacted them via email, I received the following response:

Aquila J. (UltraVPN)
Jan 5, 2025, 13:53 PST


Hello there,

Thank you for reaching out to Ultra VPN. I understand you have questions about the charges that were made on your Paypal.

Upon review, it shows here that your account was migrated from Kaspersky. As Kaspersky will be forced to stop all their business dealing in the USA at the end of September, we entered into a strategic partnership with Kaspersky to provide their US customers with continued protection. Your current subscription with Kaspersky will still be valid with us--you do not have to pay anything extra unless you wish to continue your subscription with us when your original Kaspersky subscription expires.

I can confirm that your existing subscription with Kaspersky will be honored with Ultra Secure AV, meaning that any remaining subscription you had with Kaspersky will be added to Ultra Secure AV. You are under no obligation to make any additional payments for Ultra Secure AV during the time covered by your Kaspersky Subscription.

What's more, should you choose to continue with Ultra Secure AV at the end of your current subscription, your subscription will renew at the previously agreed upon price you had with Kaspersky.

Regards,
Aquila J.

To which I replied:

Aquila J,

Unfortunately this does not address the charge of $263.99 that you initiated in my PayPal account, nor explain how you were able to access my account at all. I purchased KIS on a ad hoc (year-by-year) basis, and never had any autorenewal agreement of any kind with Kaspersky. Your evidently obtaining my previous payment information from Kasperky and then using it to renew a product that you admit is no longer available--and for which I have received no value of any kind--constitutes an act of fraud on your part.

I regret that I will be forced to take further steps if you do not immediately reimburse this charge to my PayPal account, and explain how you were able to initiate it without my knowledge or permission. Further, I need you to provide me a full and detailed statement of what this charge was supposedly for.

Looking forward to your response to this as soon as possible.

I've already contacted PayPal, who has rescinded the charge and is initiating an action against ultraAV and pango.co--whoever they are--for fraudulently accessing/and initiating a charge using customer information they have evidently garnered from Kaspersky. I've received no other information from ultraAV/pango.co on what precisely the charge was for, and why they initiated it.

This is fraud and kiting of the most egregious sort, and must be put to a stop. If I do not hear back from ultraAV/pango.co I intend to file complaints with both the IC3 and the CFPB (while they are still in existence), as well as the BBB in California. This sort of criminal activity must not be countenanced, and anyone who does business with either ultraAV and pango.co should beware.

bd

 

[Bot]

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. It's good that you've already contacted PayPal and they're taking action. I suggest reaching out to Kaspersky as well, as they might be able to provide more information about this migration and how your payment details were shared. Also, filing complaints with the IC3, CFPB, and BBB can help bring attention to this issue. Stay vigilant and keep us updated.

 

[cartaphilus]

On 1/5/205 I awoke to find that an outfit called pango.co (?) had fraudulently charged my PayPal account for $263.99. For what--and how they were able to obtain my PayPal account information at all--remains a mystery. When I contacted them via email, I received the following response:

Aquila J. (UltraVPN)
Jan 5, 2025, 13:53 PST


Hello there,

Thank you for reaching out to Ultra VPN. I understand you have questions about the charges that were made on your Paypal.

Upon review, it shows here that your account was migrated from Kaspersky. As Kaspersky will be forced to stop all their business dealing in the USA at the end of September, we entered into a strategic partnership with Kaspersky to provide their US customers with continued protection. Your current subscription with Kaspersky will still be valid with us--you do not have to pay anything extra unless you wish to continue your subscription with us when your original Kaspersky subscription expires.

I can confirm that your existing subscription with Kaspersky will be honored with Ultra Secure AV, meaning that any remaining subscription you had with Kaspersky will be added to Ultra Secure AV. You are under no obligation to make any additional payments for Ultra Secure AV during the time covered by your Kaspersky Subscription.

What's more, should you choose to continue with Ultra Secure AV at the end of your current subscription, your subscription will renew at the previously agreed upon price you had with Kaspersky.

Regards,
Aquila J.

To which I replied:

Aquila J,

Unfortunately this does not address the charge of $263.99 that you initiated in my PayPal account, nor explain how you were able to access my account at all. I purchased KIS on a ad hoc (year-by-year) basis, and never had any autorenewal agreement of any kind with Kaspersky. Your evidently obtaining my previous payment information from Kasperky and then using it to renew a product that you admit is no longer available--and for which I have received no value of any kind--constitutes an act of fraud on your part.

I regret that I will be forced to take further steps if you do not immediately reimburse this charge to my PayPal account, and explain how you were able to initiate it without my knowledge or permission. Further, I need you to provide me a full and detailed statement of what this charge was supposedly for.

Looking forward to your response to this as soon as possible.

I've already contacted PayPal, who has rescinded the charge and is initiating an action against ultraAV and pango.co--whoever they are--for fraudulently accessing/and initiating a charge using customer information they have evidently garnered from Kaspersky. I've received no other information from ultraAV/pango.co on what precisely the charge was for, and why they initiated it.

This is fraud and kiting of the most egregious sort, and must be put to a stop. If I do not hear back from ultraAV/pango.co I intend to file complaints with both the IC3 and the CFPB (while they are still in existence), as well as the BBB in California. This sort of criminal activity must not be countenanced, and anyone who does business with either ultraAV and pango.co should beware.

bd

And so it begins...
Many folks are not as diligent as you, damn! Based on the fact that some old folks are still paying for their AOL accounts it's safe to assume that ultraAV is going to make a killing with their "new" memberships.

 

[cofer123]

Out of all the ways Kaspersky could've left the U.S. market this was the worst move possible.

This speaks volumes about their ethics. It gets hard to place trust on them knowing that not only they installed UltraAV without user's consent back in September, but that they also transferred all their user's data to a third party.

 

[nickstar1]

I agree i loved Kaspersky but doing this to they're users was very wrong. The consumer isn't the reason why kaspersky got banned in the US but it seems kaspersky took out it's anger on it's customers and not the us government. Wrong move in which they will regret in my opinion it's going to hurt them more now.

 

[simmerskool]

Unfortunately this does not address the charge of $263.99 that you initiated in my PayPal account, nor explain how you were able to access my account

I've already contacted PayPal, who has rescinded the charge and is initiating an action against ultraAV and pango.co--I intend to file complaints with both the IC3 and the CFPB (

curious were you continuing to run Kaspersky or or UltraAV? Unfortunately my experience with Paypal in this type of situation was that they tended to side with vendor -- I wish you good luck in receiving a refund, and you say PP has rescinded the charge. Great! but I doubt PP will initiate "an action" against UltraAV, although it seems ripe for a class action as I assume there are thousands of others in same situation. Please follow through with CFPB. If you learn more about this "action" please keep us informed.

 

[Zero Knowledge]

$263.99

. Horrible is the only word to describe this. Why Kaspersky thought it was a good idea to dot his is beyond me.

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

On 1/5/205 I awoke to find that an outfit called pango.co (?) had fraudulently charged my PayPal account for $263.99. For what--and how they were able to obtain my PayPal account information at all--remains a mystery. When I contacted them via email, I received the following response:

Aquila J. (UltraVPN)
Jan 5, 2025, 13:53 PST


Hello there,

Thank you for reaching out to Ultra VPN. I understand you have questions about the charges that were made on your Paypal.

Upon review, it shows here that your account was migrated from Kaspersky. As Kaspersky will be forced to stop all their business dealing in the USA at the end of September, we entered into a strategic partnership with Kaspersky to provide their US customers with continued protection. Your current subscription with Kaspersky will still be valid with us--you do not have to pay anything extra unless you wish to continue your subscription with us when your original Kaspersky subscription expires.

I can confirm that your existing subscription with Kaspersky will be honored with Ultra Secure AV, meaning that any remaining subscription you had with Kaspersky will be added to Ultra Secure AV. You are under no obligation to make any additional payments for Ultra Secure AV during the time covered by your Kaspersky Subscription.

What's more, should you choose to continue with Ultra Secure AV at the end of your current subscription, your subscription will renew at the previously agreed upon price you had with Kaspersky.

Regards,
Aquila J.

To which I replied:

Aquila J,

Unfortunately this does not address the charge of $263.99 that you initiated in my PayPal account, nor explain how you were able to access my account at all. I purchased KIS on a ad hoc (year-by-year) basis, and never had any autorenewal agreement of any kind with Kaspersky. Your evidently obtaining my previous payment information from Kasperky and then using it to renew a product that you admit is no longer available--and for which I have received no value of any kind--constitutes an act of fraud on your part.

I regret that I will be forced to take further steps if you do not immediately reimburse this charge to my PayPal account, and explain how you were able to initiate it without my knowledge or permission. Further, I need you to provide me a full and detailed statement of what this charge was supposedly for.

Looking forward to your response to this as soon as possible.

I've already contacted PayPal, who has rescinded the charge and is initiating an action against ultraAV and pango.co--whoever they are--for fraudulently accessing/and initiating a charge using customer information they have evidently garnered from Kaspersky. I've received no other information from ultraAV/pango.co on what precisely the charge was for, and why they initiated it.

This is fraud and kiting of the most egregious sort, and must be put to a stop. If I do not hear back from ultraAV/pango.co I intend to file complaints with both the IC3 and the CFPB (while they are still in existence), as well as the BBB in California. This sort of criminal activity must not be countenanced, and anyone who does business with either ultraAV and pango.co should beware.

bd

Won't be surprised if pango.co will sell your data as well

 

[bazang]

Out of all the ways Kaspersky could've left the U.S. market this was the worst move possible.

This speaks volumes about their ethics. It gets hard to place trust on them knowing that not only they installed UltraAV without user's consent back in September, but that they also transferred all their user's data to a third party.

Kaspersky informed users. Those users just did not bother to do their due diligence. Kaspersky claims it sent out emails multiple times.

The OP should have no problem reversing the transaction all by themselves unless they stupidly connected their bank account to their PayPal account.

For any disputed transaction, you have to file the dispute immediately with the Payor platform, otherwise you will lose time and can lose the dispute.

 

[cartaphilus]

. Horrible is the only word to describe this. Why Kaspersky thought it was a good idea to dot his is beyond me.

Kind of justifies the US GOV decision of banning them for spycraft methods.

No way any legitimate well meaning company would pull such a stunt. They would refund the money for the unused portion of the time not served. Instead they stuck users with over priced sub par solution and sold all the user data and info.

If their disregard for user data is so blatant why would you expect them to keep your secrets from the Russian government if they are Russian and the owner is a KGB plant?!!!! It goes to show that they don't give two shits about your information.

 

[bazang]

Won't be surprised if pango.co will sell your data as well

Pango Group is an Indian tech investor group. Pango in the USA is a front company for the Indian techno money.

They will sell anybody's data if it is legal.

 

[bazang]

curious were you continuing to run Kaspersky or or UltraAV? Unfortunately my experience with Paypal in this type of situation was that they tended to side with vendor -- I wish you good luck in receiving a refund, and you say PP has rescinded the charge. Great! but I doubt PP will initiate "an action" against UltraAV, although it seems ripe for a class action as I assume there are thousands of others in same situation. Please follow through with CFPB. If you learn more about this "action" please keep us informed.

You must always use a credit card to have consumer protection rights. Regardless of what PayPal decides, if you dispute a transaction directly to the credit card they will side with the card holder as long as the rules are followed.

I cannot believe how many people connect their debit card and bank accounts to PayPal. That is just crazy because then you have few consumer protection rights.

 

[simmerskool]

You must always use a credit card to have consumer protection rights. Regardless of what PayPal decides, if you dispute a transaction directly to the credit card they will side with the card holder as long as the rules are followed.

I cannot believe how many people connect their debit card and bank accounts to PayPal. That is just crazy because then you have few consumer protection rights.

I recall my situation more clearly now. I had used a credit card for health club monthly access and charges related to being charged during covid when the by state-law and local ordinance the club was closed for a few months. it was only for $40.00 but irked me. the credit card company rep at first agreed with me but then ultimately sided with the vendor club. I would have won in court but not worth my time or effort. My satisfaction was the club ended up closing some of its locations around town, ie, they lost lots more money than they took from me. Agreements for recurring payments are (can be) "problematic"

 

[jamey910111]

I’d remove all my info in a heartbeat ahead of time if i was aware it was going to aa company like pango. Hope u get ur refund / money back.

 

[bazang]

I recall my situation more clearly now. I had used a credit card for health club monthly access and charges related to being charged during covid when the by state-law and local ordinance the club was closed for a few months. it was only for $40.00 but irked me. the credit card company rep at first agreed with me but then ultimately sided with the vendor club. I would have won in court but not worth my time or effort. My satisfaction was the club ended up closing some of its locations around town, ie, they lost lots more money than they took from me. Agreements for recurring payments are (can be) "problematic"

Here in the EU it costs hundreds of Euros to go to court in an attempt to recover 30 Euros.

 

[Sorrento]

OVPN which I was quite pleased with have been bought out by Pango which will affect my trust in it though I don't use it anymore now anyway

 

[Berny]

For what--and how they were able to obtain my PayPal account information at all--remains a mystery.

Kaspersky FAQ : What payment methods can I use : PayPal

" We accept the following payment methods: Visa, MasterCard, Eurocard, Discover, American Express, Diner’s Club, JCB. "

 

[simmerskool]

Here in the EU it costs hundreds of Euros to go to court in an attempt to recover 30 Euros.

Probably more so in US, unless you go to Small Claims court without a lawyer, & suing a company, they show up with a lawyer...
PS aside from that health club losing some of its club locations, I did not use that no fee credit card for nearly 2 years, so they lost money on me too. You have to be careful canceling a credit card, it can f***up your credit rating.

 

[oldschool]

unless you go to Small Claims court without a lawyer, & suing a company, they show up with a lawyer...

Lawyers aren't permitted in Small Claims Court, at least here in my state. But, is it worth the hassle for $20-$30? Although, one could say it makes more trouble for the company, especially an unknown outfit like Pango, and do it to spite them. They'd have to some low level average joe, who doesn't know jack.

 

[oldschool]

some old folks are still paying for their AOL accounts

Hell, I know someone who uses an AOL email as their main one.