What just happened? A single appnebula.co email click and $50 gone

So, you offered your payment info to a website through PayPal.

How is Apple involved here?

Yes, Nebula is known around here for their underhanded practices outside of the confines of the App Store platform. Which is why all subscriptions should be handled through the App, endnote form links in websites or emails.

You will need to cancel whatever they subscribed you to directly with them.

https://24hours.support-nebula.com/hc/en-us/articles/28900802305297-How-to-cancel-subscription

The charge was going to happen whether you clicked the email link or not. This is not an Apple issue. I suspect you were directed to their webpage through a Social Media post where it was that poster that got paid to refer you. Sometimes they use web advertisements, but most of the time it is through Social Media.

When you paid for the quiz results, you inadvertently signed up for a free trial where you are going to be charged for a subscription at a later date if you do not cancel and the email you received was probably at the time that the trial ended and you saw the charge.

It makes no difference whether you downloaded the app or not, the charge was still going to happen if you did not cancel through Nebula. With any fraudulent charge, the solution is the same, first you contact the vendor billing you and if unresolved then you dispute the charge with the payment method being billed.

If the referral was through Social Media contact them for allowing this scam to occur. To report a fraudulent/scam website in the US, that is done with the FTC. You are not alone and many others have fallen for this same tactic, that I would call a scam. Nebula does disclose the subscription in their Terms of Use, but nobody reads those and it should not be needed to avoid an unsuspected charge.

https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/

As with others, this charge did not occur with any app where the purchase is managed by Apple. As for external links where developers are allowed to manage their own transactions. That is now the case since courts in the US and EU have forbidden Apple of excluding this action and have even prevented them from warning users about having another party manage their subscriptions. Apple tried and failed along with paying some hefty fines.

Yep, you would need to provide a screenshot. Any purchase made in the app with an in-app purchase to your Apple Account will show up here:

View your purchase history for the App Store and other Apple media services - Apple Support

As others have seen, the purchase was not an in-app purchase and does not show in your Apple Account. Think of things like Amazon, Walmart, or even Facebook Marketplace where you can certainly make purchases with those companies/sellers on your iPhone and they are billing your card directly, without any involvement from Apple. Facebook Marketplace is a particularly scammy site where many have been duped, yet it is still there with people ready for you to give them your account information to take your money.

If you pay with a Cash app including Apple Cash, there are no protections. It is this reason why Apple states to only send Apple Cash to people you know as once they receive it, the only option for a refund is if they send the money back to you. You also would not give someone on the street a $100 bill and expect your bank to reimburse you if you had been scammed.

delilahhh_sun wrote:

I left a comment on a nearby post describing the same issue with these guys, and decided to write here as well. None of the solutions mentioned above worked for me either. I really don’t think Apple should allow apps like this to stay on their platform!!!!

The app is not the source of the problem. Subscriptions are started on their website by inadvertently agreeing to the free trial with the reading/quiz you took. It makes no difference at all if you downloaded the app or not and the subscription did not originate from having the app or even clicking an email link. It is likely you were directed to this website from a Social Media post where it was this poster that was paid for your referral to that company. None of that involves Apple and you can confirm that yourself by viewing your subscriptions on your device.

I had a similar thing happen and found the $50 in a weird place on my apple account. It wasn't in cash but did show up under my account. I wish I had screenshot it.

Eventually, other purchases used up the $50, but there was no way for me to request the money be returned to my account. It also did not go to the Nebula app even though that's what I was trying to purchase from.

I left a comment on a nearby post describing the same issue with these guys, and decided to write here as well. None of the solutions mentioned above worked for me either. I really don’t think Apple should allow apps like this to stay on their platform!!!!

Apple, please pay attention to this issue - how much longer will this go on? I’ve read the reviews, and everyone is complaining about this project, yet you keep ignoring it. Why???