So my partner got a notice from a collection agency--"Radius Global Solutions LLC." of Minnesota
It claims that she is late on a payment to "1 & 1 Ionos Inc."
We did some degree of research on both companies. They both really exist and both have an A+ rating with the BBB. This apparently means very little however because, upon further review, 1&1 IONOS Inc., formerly just 1&1 and subsequently bought out by Ionus, has a lot of complaints in the BBB blog. Mainly these complaints are from those that had subscribed with Ionos for their web hosting services but had since tried to cancel. These complaints include harassing phone calls from IONOS customer service to try to get payment.
My partner claims that she never used them for any purpose and hence never tried to cancel. She used GoDaddy for her website. She checked her email histories and found only one email from IONOS, an ad. that had no personal reference at all.
To make matters worse, apparently a scammer is using IONOS as a front to try to scam folks into providing data. These folks are sending emails that look like they are from IONOS.
Anyway, there are multiple contact #s to try to find out what is going on. But, if this is a scam, they might be able to take advantage of our contacting them to steal data. I suppose we could call from a pay phone and if you know where a working one is located, let me know.
The Dilemma:
If we don't contact them and it is legit. We could get further charges. I've forgotten stuff before. It happens. If we do contact them and it isn't legit, we could give away data to the scammers. How do we know which it is without risking giving away our data?
Note: It seems that it is possible that my partner had a card stolen a while back and cancelled a day later but this purchase could have happened during that one day. If that is true, I think my partner has to pay up. After all, it is not the companies problem that she let her card get stolen.
But the dilemma is still that there is no way to find out what is really going on. I suppose we could contact the consumer protection agency. Is that the best way to handle it? Has anyone had something similar happen? How did you deal with it?
It claims that she is late on a payment to "1 & 1 Ionos Inc."
We did some degree of research on both companies. They both really exist and both have an A+ rating with the BBB. This apparently means very little however because, upon further review, 1&1 IONOS Inc., formerly just 1&1 and subsequently bought out by Ionus, has a lot of complaints in the BBB blog. Mainly these complaints are from those that had subscribed with Ionos for their web hosting services but had since tried to cancel. These complaints include harassing phone calls from IONOS customer service to try to get payment.
My partner claims that she never used them for any purpose and hence never tried to cancel. She used GoDaddy for her website. She checked her email histories and found only one email from IONOS, an ad. that had no personal reference at all.
To make matters worse, apparently a scammer is using IONOS as a front to try to scam folks into providing data. These folks are sending emails that look like they are from IONOS.
Anyway, there are multiple contact #s to try to find out what is going on. But, if this is a scam, they might be able to take advantage of our contacting them to steal data. I suppose we could call from a pay phone and if you know where a working one is located, let me know.
The Dilemma:
If we don't contact them and it is legit. We could get further charges. I've forgotten stuff before. It happens. If we do contact them and it isn't legit, we could give away data to the scammers. How do we know which it is without risking giving away our data?
Note: It seems that it is possible that my partner had a card stolen a while back and cancelled a day later but this purchase could have happened during that one day. If that is true, I think my partner has to pay up. After all, it is not the companies problem that she let her card get stolen.
But the dilemma is still that there is no way to find out what is really going on. I suppose we could contact the consumer protection agency. Is that the best way to handle it? Has anyone had something similar happen? How did you deal with it?