Wise Media “Love Genie Tips” Spam Class Action Lawsuit

A federal class action lawsuit claims Wise Media, LLC is a spammer that bilks wireless customers out of $10 a month for “flirting tips” unless they immediately reject a “tip” they never asked for, consented to, or even received.

Lead Plaintiff Andrew Humble alleges in the class action lawsuit that he received a text message from an unknown sender in January 2012 stating: “LoveGenieTips Flirting Tips; 3msg/week for $9.99/m T&Cs: lovegenietips.com Msg&data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help, STOP to cancel. PIN 5WY6.”

Because he did not recognize the number, Humble ignored the text, according to the class action lawsuit. Two minutes later, Humble says he received this text: “Lovegenietips: You joined $9.99/m for 3msg/wk bill to cell.”
 
Again, Humble says, he did not respond to the text because he didn’t recognize the number.

“Humble had no intention of enrolling in the subscription plan,” the Wise Media class action lawsuit states. “In support of this lack of any intention to enroll in the subscription plan, Humble relied on the fact that he did not have a relationship with defendant, had not solicited any goods or services from defendant, and had not responded to any of defendant’s texts.”

It wasn’t until February, when Humble says he received a third text message from Wise Media stating “LoveGenieTips: Subsc renewed 1mo. 3msg/wk for $9.99/mo billed to cell,” that he became suspicious and decided to check his bank account and cell phone bill for unauthorized charges. His suspicions were confirmed when he discovered a monthly subscription charge from Wise Media in the amount of $9.99 charged to his account on January 6.

“Humble never authorized this charge for LoveGenieTips Alerts, which was charged to his cell phone bill the same day and presumably minutes after he received the first SMS text message,” the class action lawsuit states.    

On top of that, he adds: “Defendant’s conduct is particularly egregious because not only did defendant involuntarily enroll consumers in a fee-based service, defendant also failed to provide the services it claimed that it was charging consumers for – i.e. the consumers never received the weekly flirting tips.”

Humble says his experience with Wise Media is shared by many consumers.

“Through unknown means, Wise Media obtained the mobile phone numbers of consumers without their knowledge or consent. Defendant obtained these numbers even though consumers had never visited the website, had never expressed interest in defendant or the subscription plan, and had no relationship with the defendant,” the text message spam class action lawsuit states.

“Without any action or solicitation by the consumers, defendant sent SMS texts to the mobile phone numbers that it had acquired… using equipment that had the capacity to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random sequential number generator.”

This is a direct violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, as well as fraudulent and unfair business practices, Humble says. He is seeking actual monetary loss or $500 each for each violation of the TCPA (whichever is greater), plus restitution, damages and treble damages for a proposed class of all individuals who received unsolicited SMS text messages from or on behalf of Wise Media, and who were charged for a Subscription Plan on their cell phone bills.

A copy of the Wise Media Text Spam Class Action Lawsuit can be read here.

The case is Andrew Humble v. Wise Media, LLC, Case No. 12-cv-1203, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.