Are you trying to stop bogus charges on your Credit Card?

The charges to WWW.CARE.REAL.COWA or REAL.COM or RealOne or cereal.com have nothing to do with us!

I had the same problem, as have many other who have come to us for help. Some how, we are the destination of victims like you who are trying to track down this subscription scam.

The culprit is REAL.COM.

Probably, you downloaded the Real-One media player (a very nice player, by the way) and if you are not VERY CAREFUL, you can "accidentally" sign up for a $9.95 monthly subscription. Further, if you don't notice the bogus charges on your credit card statement, you've spent far more than their player is worth, especially considering the MICROSOFT MEDIA PLAYER, and NETSCAPE "WinAmp" players are "Free".

PLUS, YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE RealOne PLAYER FOR FREE IF YOU LOOK HARD ENOUGH ON THEIR SITE!
Download a FREE RealOne player here.

It's disgusting that businesses have to stoop to this level to try to squeeze money from the system, but it is a tough world out there, and Real.com is trying to compete against FREE players from Microsoft, Netscape and many others. So, they trap unsuspecting users like you (and me!) and attempt to sneak charges on credit card bills. Just think how many people aren't careful and just continue to pay month after month. You have a right to give yourself a pat on the back for getting this far in tracking this down.

And while you've got those unscrupulous slimes on the phone, please let them know that we would appreciate it if they take us off the list so we are not caught in the path of correcting your bills!

GO TO WWW.CARE.REAL.COM to stop your subscription!
If I were you, I would demand a full refund. These scams have got to stop!

PLEASE DON'T CALL US OR SEND MAIL TO OUR COMPANY AS WE CAN DO NOTHING TO HELP YOU OUT. PLEASE INVESTIGATE THIS DIRECTLY WITH REAL.COM

PLEASE BE OUR GUEST AND CALL REAL.COM DIRECTLY:

Customer Support is available toll-free by phone in English and Spanish in North America at 1-888-768-3248.

Customer Support is available by phone in English and Spanish in North America at 1-866-420-5833 or 206-674-2650.

Monday, 9:00 am to 9:30 pm - Eastern Time
Tuesday - Friday, 9:00 am to 9:00 pm - Eastern Time
Saturday, 10:30 am to 8:00 pm - Eastern Time
Sunday, 10:30 am to 9:00 pm - Eastern Time

I also have this DIRECT email address: Please use it, as you won't find any email address on their site:
jpaulson@support.real.com

(It took me a while to find these phone numbers, as they really don't want you to be successful in stopping these payments. If you go to their site, you will have to literally cut off your right arm to get a phone number!)

Good Luck!

Here is some feedback from Patricia, who was also a victim of this scam:

September 17, 2003
To Whom It May Concern:
I just wanted to say "thank you" for helping me to cancel the Real One nonsense. As you suggested I have been paying this charge ($9.95) for many months and finally decided today to track it down. Thank you for leading me (and thousands of others probably) to the site with the phone number. It is no error that they did not show their contact number on my charge statement!!!!!! My charge card company couldn't even solve this one!
Again, thank you!

Here is some feedback from Denell, another victim of this scam:

November 14, 2003
I want to thank-you, 100 fold. I was billed unjustly from Real1., they sent no confirmation letter that they were going to start billing me, I never asked for this,(I was even out of town and not e-mail accessible during the time I was told I had agreed to this). I contacted customer service was given my refund and contacted the credit dept to refund 1 month more. The cowards didn't even have the nerve to post their phone number w/the bank or give their correct e-mail address. So thank you
Denell

Here is a letter sent to Real.com from another angry victim from Great Falls, MT, that has been paying these bogus bills accidently for some time:

Thank God the Bank statement had a website and the Owner of that company has obvioulsy had it up to his eyeballs with angry consumers, after 22 hours of trying to figure this out this month alone! I pray (notice not believe ) that the charges to my account will stop at this point I don't even care about getting a refund for something that we've been trying to stop for 5 month's. It is pointless your customer service dept. is deaf and useless- the saying banging your head up against a wall sounds like a better plan,and more fun too! Clever little billing tactic.
Thankfully this will make it clear that we are watching our statements now and will be checking to make sure this is not billed on our card and that we will notify our bank of this if we continue to get billed.
Thank you
Bridgette & Sean Beach

Yet another victim:

Thanks for the info on the Real.com scam. I appreciate your using your resources to help others. At least I got one month back and ended the scam charge.
Good luck to you--Peter

P.S. We have finally been in communication with Real.com on this issue, and they claim that they will be trying to clear it up. Apparently, the merchant-account that allows them to process your credit card was truncating the url and concatenating it with the state. So, instead of CARE.REAL.COM this was converted to CARE.REAL.COWA, since they are in Washington State. I'm not sure why, but we became the location that everyone would find when they searched on this address. I had to construct this web page in an effort to avoid all the irritated victims of their sneaky sales approach. All I can say is I hope this clears up soon. I really think REAL.COM honestly does not want you to go to this page (who would?) and would like to handle your call themselves. Of course, we can't wait to eliminate this headache from our lives!