The charge that comes back every month
How the trap is set
It rarely looks like a scam, because for the first minute it isn't one. There is a product, a price, a checkout, a confirmation. What is missing is any moment where you were asked plainly: do you want to be charged this every month?
Instead the recurring term sits where the eye does not go. Under the button. Grey on grey. On a terms page linked from the footer. Sometimes it is a genuine free trial, with the card taken up front and the charge starting quietly the day it ends. Signing up takes four clicks; cancelling takes a form, an account login, and an email address that bounces.
Then the product turns out to be nothing — a supplement that never ships, software that does not exist, a membership with no members. By the time that is clear, the second payment has gone out.
Why it catches careful people
Because nothing about it trips an alarm. No urgency, no threat, no stranger, no bad grammar. Every instinct people are taught to use is watching for a scam that announces itself, and this one arrives as a purchase you made on purpose.
It also catches people who are careful with money, precisely because they check the total at the checkout rather than the terms beneath it. The number was right. The commitment was not.
Stopping it
- Find the confirmation email — search your inbox and your deleted items for the trader's name. You need its wording before you ring anyone.
- Ring your bank first, not the trader. Ask for two things: block future payments from that merchant, and raise a chargeback on what has already gone. The useful phrases are goods not received and not as described.
- Cancel with the trader in writing, by email, so there is a record — never using a phone number that appears only in a suspicious message.
- Check the next statement. A blocked merchant sometimes returns under a slightly different trading name.
If the bank is unhelpful, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority handles disputes about how a bank dealt with your chargeback, and it is free. If the trader misled you about what you were buying, that is a matter for the ACCC and your state consumer affairs office.
The renewal email that is a different trap entirely
If an email says a subscription has already renewed for a few hundred dollars and gives a number to ring to cancel it, treat that as a separate scam. Usually there is no subscription and no charge; the goal is the phone call, where someone offers to process a refund and asks for remote access to your computer.
The check takes ten seconds: look at your own statement. If the charge does not exist, neither does the subscription. There is more in the remote access guide.
Common questions
How can I be charged monthly when I only bought one thing?
Because the page you bought from described a subscription, usually in small grey text near the button or on a terms page you were never going to open. Legally the trader will point at that wording; practically it was designed not to be read. The confirmation email is where it becomes visible, which is why that email deserves two minutes rather than the delete key.
The product never arrived, or was rubbish. Does that change anything?
It strengthens your position. A charge for goods never supplied, or goods nothing like what was described, is a straightforward chargeback under the card schemes and a consumer guarantee issue under Australian Consumer Law. Ring your bank, use the words goods not received or not as described, and ask specifically for a chargeback.
How do I actually stop the payments?
Cancelling with the trader is the first step but not the reliable one, because a trader running this model is not motivated to process cancellations. Ring your bank and ask them to block future payments from that merchant. A recurring card payment can be stopped at the bank, and a direct debit authority can be cancelled there too. Ask for confirmation in writing.
How long do I have to ask for the money back?
Chargeback windows run from the transaction date and vary by scheme and reason, often around 120 days and sometimes longer where goods were never received. The practical answer is the same either way: ring today rather than researching for a week. A bank can only work with what is still inside the window.
Is a free trial the same trap?
It is the most common version of it. The trial is real, the card details are taken for the trial, and the recurring charge begins quietly when it ends. The tell is that the cancellation path is always harder to find than the signup path was. If there is no plain cancel link in the confirmation email, assume that is deliberate.
What about emails saying my subscription has already renewed?
That is a different scam wearing similar clothes. An email announcing your antivirus or account has auto-renewed for a few hundred dollars, with a number to ring to cancel, is usually a lure: there is no subscription and no charge. The goal is the phone call, where someone offers a refund and asks for remote access to your computer. Check your own statement instead. If no charge exists, the email is fiction.
How do I check something before I buy it?
Look for recurring wording on the checkout page before you enter card details, not after. Search the trader's name together with the word subscription or cancel. And when the confirmation email arrives, read the part describing what happens next month, because that is the whole commitment and it is the paragraph the trader most hopes you skip.
If money has already gone, what to say to the bank, and in what order is the next thing to read.