Who the hell is GroupBuilder.com ?

[Punkinhead]

I rarely use Paypal - generally only for Ebay. I logged into my Paypal account yesterday for the first time in months and saw a "subscription" from a company called GroupBuilder for $19.95 set to be payed in April. I have no idea what it was so I canceled it. A few hours later I got an e-mail from someone from GroupBuilder asking why I was canceling my "supporting membership". A little googling indicates that GroupBuilder was bought by VerticalScope. The only thing I can think of is that VS got my Paypal info through Advrider. I was a supporter at Advrider but canceled that a day or two after the VS announcement so there should be no recurring payments to them. And even if there was, my subscription is good until October so an April payment doesn't make sense. I could be wrong - I have a shitty memory so maybe this isn't related to Advrider and Vertical Slope. It could just be a straight up scam. Or it could be something I legitimately set up and forgot about, but even with my shitty memory I doubt that. In any case, I completely closed my Paypal account. I could respond to the e-mail from GroupBuilder to ask what's up but I don't want to engage them until I have a better idea who they are.


So who the hell is GroupBuilder and why would I have a subscription with them?

 

[ZoomerP]

Interesting. A search turned this up, with predictable comments about VerticalScope:

Groupbuilder.com tried to buy freestompboxes.org

Some months ago I was contacted by Faith Lopez, an employee of groupbuilder.com, about selling freestompboxes.org. I did not believe it at first, so did not even reply to the first emails. They kept coming, until they got a snarky response to the effect

www.freestompboxes.org

GB may have been bought by VS, but at least some of GB's forums aren't using VS software yet. My guess is you had something set up through PayPal for a GB forum or service, and it had nothing to do with VS until GB was assimilated. Then again, who knows? Slimier things have happened.

Thanks for posting this. Maybe you'll save someone else from feeding the beast.

 

[Punkinhead]

What's weird is Advrider is the only forum I've ever sent money to. I've never bought a subscription on any other site.

 

[ZoomerP]

What's weird is Advrider is the only forum I've ever sent money to. I've never bought a subscription on any other site.

There is GroupBuilder.net, some kind of email management service: https://groupbuilder.net/

Could it have been something associated with them?

 

[Yinzer Moto]

Hmmmm, I guess I need to cancel the CC I used for the subscription over there.

 

[Punkinhead]

There is GroupBuilder.net, some kind of email management service: https://groupbuilder.net/

Could it have been something associated with them?

The subscription and e-mail were from GroupBuilder.com

I don't know if the .net and .com are related.

 

[Punkinhead]

OK, in fairness to VS I replied to the e-mail from GroupBuilder and it was a charge for another forum where I'd forgotten that I signed up as a paying member several years ago. I don't remember being given a choice to be automatically charged every year though.

 

[BillsR100]

It always surprises me when I've canceled my debit card to get a new one, later I'll get emails from far away places telling me they "cannot process my payment".
So now I look at getting a new debit card as kinda like "cleaning house" and getting rid of little things I'm automatically being charged for.