Check your old paid LJ accounts RIGHT NOW.

[leeshajoy]

Hey, I'm new here, but I thought the word needed to be spread: some paid LJ accounts have apparently had Automatic Payment turned on without the account owner's consent. It's not clear when or how this happened--the one staffer who commented on it claims it won't result in any credit cards being charged--but y'all might want to check your old accounts just in case.

Edit: Here's a direct link to check your account's payment settings. You'll need to be logged into the appropriate account, of course.

Second edit: It is recommended that you delete any saved credit card information found in your account settings, just to be on the safe side.

Comments

[backtothelight]

Wow. This on top of everything else... Oh, they are so endearing themselves to their customer base. I'm hoping that where my paid accounts (that expire in January, thank God) have an expiration date and ask me to upgrade to automatic means that mine are safe.

[leeshajoy]

I wouldn't count on it. I've seen complaints from at least one user who claimed to have never had automatic payments turned on, ever, but found them set up as such under Account Settings. (I say "claimed" since I don't know this person and it's possible s/he could be lying or mistaken.)

[backtothelight]

Well, I'm definitely going to keep looking at it. I've checked at the account settings page, and neither of them have a next billing date or whatever on it, but yes, still looking, absolutely.

(Also you played Bob in Milliways. You were fun to play with. *Kitt*)

[leeshajoy]

OMG, you were Kitt?? Awesome! *friends you liek whoa*

[backtothelight]

XD Yep! I was Kitt, and I actually still RP him in places - well. Fewer places now that I'm on DW.

[jhumor]

To be safe? I would make sure all your credit card information is deleted. Just because I don't trust LJ at all anymore.

[backtothelight]

Luckily, none of mine is saved on there. Just checked.

[jhumor]

Good :)

[erika]

Jeez. Thank you for letting me know! I've spread the word.

You may want to edit your post to include a link to the page to check—Account Status.

[leeshajoy]

Done! Thanks for the suggestion.

[destinyislands]

Wow.

I so would not want to be LJ staff right now...This plus everything else...Wow.

[brewsternorth]

IKR. The poor CSR who put their head above the parapet to respond in the R88 update to queries about the Unexpected Autopay is getting a lot of flak.

[destinyislands]

Yeah. I feel sorry for them. I haven't looked over the comments, but I can guess what the comments are probably like right now.

[brewsternorth]

I've checked my account settings and seem to be unaffected by these shenanigans, but am decidedly unimpressed.

[backtothelight]

Check this out: http://factionary.livejournal.com/2116.html

Is this allowed? I'll delete it, but... this is very, very telling.

[leeshajoy]

I've already heard a lot of that being tossed around in the comments for newsposts about Release 88, for whatever that's worth.

[destinyislands]

x__x igrick's responses...I can feel the arrogance dripping on me.

[brewsternorth]

Wow, thanks for that. I thought igrick was a sort of moderately high-up LJ staffer tasked to apply a new broom to the looks of the site. I had no idea he was the head of LJRu. O:

[yvonne]

oh honey, no, he really is self-proclaimed ~head of all lj~ not only ljru. some superiority issues.

[deird1]

You know, when I start coming to the conclusion that I'd trust Facebook more than LJ, something is very wrong...

[arethinn]

"Eek" indeed.

[backtothelight]

Last new comment, as far as I can tell. This is what my account status looks like:

http://i442.photobucket.com/albums/qq142/backtothelight/LJsafemaybe.png

As far as I can tell, this means that I don't have automatic payments turned on. Check yours. If it matches, as far as I can tell, you're okay.

[erika]

Yep, that means you don't have autopay turned on.

[jenna_marianne]

Thank you for the info! I can't recall if I'd set up automatic payments or not, but it was turned on when I just checked.

[writ]

lucky i deleted my lj then :)

Oh, dear.

[gimere]

Yikes.

Double yikes.

[jhumor]

I recommend another suggestion to the edit: Just DELETE all credit card information that is stored on LJ/autocomplete, it may not be completely failsafe, but it's another step in your protection.

[leeshajoy]

Done. Man, I never thought I'd actually be glad that my credit card was stolen and had to be replaced last month.

[jhumor]

It is rather pathetic, isn't it?

So many people were pissed at me that I deleted EVERYTHING when I yanked my personal LJ last year and moved here. Well, you know what? I was afraid something like this would happen.

God, I really hate being right sometimes.

[yvonne]

I moved all my entries here from all lj's I had earlier this year. I just had a feeling shit will hit the fan. better safe than sorry.

[jhumor]

I yanked everything from Fail-Jay too. The "Do you want to delete all your comments in addition to your journal?" I marked "YES!" I didn't want Fail-Jay to make ANY money off of me in any way, shape or form.

[yvonne]

I don't like lj since they made even basic accounts when logged out show ads. it's so shady. I know they want the money, but if it's a basic acc - hands off.

[jhumor]

Wow... that's really low, especially since they advertise that that don't do that... :(

[jhumor]

Because, by yanking my journal and all my comments, I messed up their threads.

My reply: blame LJ, I'm within my rights to have it so LJ makes NO money of anything I've written.

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you for the heads up.

I don't recall whether I had it actually set to autopay, but since I'm not interested in renewing my paid account, it's better that it's turned off.

[vanian]

Thanks for the heads up.

[yvonne]

if I've never turned on the atomatic payments but once paid for my paid time with my credit card (other times iI paid with different ways) I am I safe?

[jhumor]

Double check it. In fact, if you can, completely remove all your credit card info.

[yvonne]

I can''t find where to look if they have my credit card info. they have to have it.

[jhumor]

I don't know where it is now (I haven't given them money since I moved my permanent account here). But it used to be on the "Upgrade account" page.

[yvonne]

I have a plus acc rn. they can only do that to paid ones right?

[yvonne]

feels like they're pulling final rip-off and are about to run away with the money before the ship goes down

Credit Card Fraud is a Felony...

[fannyfae]

Thanks for the heads-up. I had automatic payment on nomanselizabth over there. I want to make damned sure it doesn't happen again.

[xoxomarina]

LiveJournal fails again. What else is new? :/

[virgine]

It's a sad day when a person is grateful their computer had to be reformatted, they lost everything, if only because their credit card info is now gone.

Cripes.

[niciasus]

That happened to me. I had turn off automatic payment at LJ a year ago. In December, I received a notice the payment failed. My CC had expired and I thought GOOD for you. They were actually charging me a month in advance of my paid time expiration. Needless to say, I was kinda upset. However, I noticed other companies (hint: anti-virus renewal companies) are charging a month before subscription ends. Is this becoming the norm with net companies.