Did you get a credit card charge from CSMembers.com? More charges are on the way. You might have been scammed. You need to act quickly.
Did you know that you gave your credit card to a guy named Narek in Cyprus?
Authorized or unauthorized, a charge from Csmembers.com is a problem. This article will cover:
- What Csmembers.com is and how it ended up on your credit card
- The Risk of Identity Theft
- The certainty that More Charges are coming
- What to do Now
You need to act quickly. After reading this article, I encourage you to verify this information for yourself.
Lets review what might have happened…
What is CSmembers?
Csmembers.com is the billing name for set of adult oriented sites. The short generic name is used for discreet billing. The charge might appear with the customer service number such as: Csmembers.com 833-742-0933.
The full names of the adult sites are not appropriate for this article or website.
Is Csmembers.com a Scam?
The adult entertainment sites are real. I have never signed up for one, and know nothing about their content.
The question really is…
How did Csmembers end up on Your Credit Card Statement?
… or How did you get signed up? If you did not knowingly sign up for an adult site, then you probably signed up for something that advertised as free, but in reality there were hidden or hard to find charges. Here are some of the ways this odd looking, strange credit card charge ends up on your statement:
- The Get Verified Scam – Signing up for an Age or Date Verification service that advertised as “free”.
- The Free Adult Game – When signing up for the game, you provide a credit card to prove you are 18 years old
- The Cam Scam – Signing up for a cam site or other adult oriented site that used your credit card to to prove you are 18 years old
- The Free iPhone Scam – Signing up to register to win an iPhone, typically by responding to an ad that said you win an iPhone.
Behind each one of these scams, are trial-periods for dating and “bonus offers”, that turn in to expensive monthly subscription charges. Csmembers and the adult sites are in the hidden “bonus” offers of the scams that I found.
The Get Verified Scam
I found Csmembers.com by purposefully clicking thru a scam site that a reader sent me. His “date” had asked him to verify. For this article we will focus on the “get verified” scam.
Your Date
You meet someone online, and they express interest in you. They tell you they want to meet in person, but first you must verify to prove you are “safe” or something along those lines.
Your “date” sends you to a website that is advertised as a “free” verification service. The site asks for your credit card to verify you.
Charges are deliberately hidden or hard to find. These charges are from signing up to services that have a free trial period. When the trial period ends, you are charged from $40 to $50 per month. Also in those hidden charges can be “bonus” offers. That’s where I found the csmembers sites. There were two “Bonus” offers, that were about $49.95 each, per month.
How They Trick You
In these scams the charges could be completely hidden, or just hard to find. Because it is the internet, there are an infinite number of ways to get there. I found Csmembers.com by knowingly clicking thru one of the Get Verified scams.
There are two primary ways the scammers pull it off:
- iFrame: A web programming command that displays content from, and directs information to be entered into another site without you knowing.
- Too Big for the Smart Phone: Web Pages designed to hide information when you are on a small screen (your smart phone).
I found the csmembers.com sites in the first scam you will see this video. There are likely more charges than just Csmembers, so you will want to see how the sites rotate at the 2:00 minute mark.
Confused?
The operators of these sites do that on purpose. It is a complex network of facade websites, obfuscating servers, and shell companies. The obfuscation makes finding the responsible party difficult – and – provides plausible deniability. This chart will help you.
The details and depth of the scam is too much to get into in this article. You can read more at this here:
In Depth: The complex network of Age and Date Verification Scams.
The Hidden Charges
Here is what it looks like. The “Bonus Offers” to more adult entertainment are the csmembers sites. Here is what the hidden section looks like. I call this the three-site-whammy:
WHAM!!! That’s almost $150 PER MONTH!!! Notice how they pre-fill the check box for you. HOW AWESOME IS THAT !!!
It is likely that you have multiple charges stemming from this scam. If you have another unknown credit card charge, you can use this sites search feature to see if I have information on it.
Who Owns Csmembers.com?
The owner of Csmembers.com is unknown. The website is registered anonymously. Usually, there is a company name at the bottom of the web page, but not in this case. Also missing is the company names in the terms and conditions documents of the ALL 4 if the adult sites I am aware of. It is clear that someone is purposefully hiding their identity.
The contact number is: 833-742-0933. However, staffing is managed by a contracted customer service center firm. The person you speak to will handle your billing problem, but they are not part of the company that owns the adult sites.
A Business Partner?
When I found the adult sites that are handled by csmembers.com, they were the “bonuses” when you were signed up for an adult themed online dating site. Nautell Capital Limited is the owner of most of the adult themed dating sites. Nautell is a shell company in Cyprus. Narek Melkonian (an Albanian surname) is the registered director. You can read more about Nautell here: Nautell Capital Company Information.
Nautell, and other companies in Cypress can be researched here.
Risk of Identity Theft
Track with me on this. You probably came thru one of the date verification scams or something similar. So your date, was probably some dude in a far away country, they sent you to a facade website. You were probably at a site that was owned by an Albanian guy named Narek, who runs a company in Cyprus, and runs your credit card thru an unknown company. Then there is the entity that owns csmembers.com, who remains completely hidden.
Who Has Your Credit Card and Personal Information?
I have no idea. When you entered your credit card, it was probably given to JoinOurWebsite.com. JoinOurWebsite is registered anonymously. In order to process a credit card transaction, they will use a payment processing company. There are trustworthy payment processors, and there are untrustworthy payment processors. I do not know what company is used. Nautell might have access to it.
… not equipped to handle your personal and financial information
Bottom Line: A set of shell companies that are using a services with unknown origin, sharing your information as they see fit, with unknown security measures, has your credit card and personal information. I have no idea who is really involved here. There is no reason to believe, that any person or company in your transaction is equipped to handle your personal and financial information.
More Charges are Coming!
The charge to your credit card account is a monthly (recurring) charge. Additionally, there will probably be charges from a dating site, or whatever “free” site you were signed up for, when you came in contact with the csmembers.com sites. I hear from readers quite often that they have with 2, 3, or more charges on their account.
Hard to Cancel
My readers have reported that the subscription is hard to cancel in these types of sites. It is possible that when they cancelled, they had only found one of the shell company charges. There can be a delay between when you contact them, and when the cancel is applied. If it is at the end of the trial-period or billing period, you get billed again. Being hard to cancel is one of the many reasons I recommend canceling your credit card. Here is the cancel policy from a site that uses csmembers.com for billing:
But Wait! There is More!
…he said with a tip of the hat to Billy Mays…
Added Bonus: Free Spam and Phishing
If you have given your email to a scammer who then referred you to a date verification site, the scammer will sell your email on the dark web. This will result in a high rate of spam and sooner or later, phishing attempts.
Is CSmembers Legitimate?
I don’t think so. It appears as if their revenue model is to place expensive trial membership signups in hard to find places. When a victim finds the charges, enough of the victims just pay the bill and cancel without further challenging the charges. It might not be illegal, but the business model is very clear, and in my opinion, unethical.
How to Cancel Csmembers.com
If you are going to seek a full refund, you might need to call them. Before you contact them, you will want to read and follow the instructions in the next section,
If you simply wish to cancel, there is a cancel function and other contact information at their website. You will probably need to provide a partial credit card number. That is O.K. (Here is why). Besides, you will be cancelling your credit card anyway.
Never again provide them a full credit card number.
What You Should Do About a Credit Card Charge From Csmembers.com:
There are 5 things you need to do now to protect yourself. What you do depends your circumstance – why you think the charge is on your credit card. The information includes everything you need to contact, cancel, and protect yourself from further charges.
Important: Only you can make the determination: Did you know? Should you have known? Were you scammed? This is a serious situation, but as long as you keep calm and act quickly, you will be fine. Click one of the options below and we will take it from there…
You remember signing up for a free service, such as a Date / ID verification or cam site, but it was free.
None of the above is familiar
Someone else in my Household did this.
Did You Use Your Debit Card?
Then you need to act extra quickly. I have had readers get their bank account drained by the date verification scam. You can read more about why you should never use a Debit Card online here.Thank you for visiting, and good luck.
Ronin Eternales