This report is based on an analysis of user reviews describing a massive fraud scheme organized by the XR Academy platform. The essence of the scam lies in initiating a nominal transaction to verify the card, followed by the hidden enrollment in an expensive monthly subscription without the user's explicit consent.

According to user Douglas Trenchard, the company's business model is built on attracting users through third-party resources, where they are asked to pay a negligible amount (e.g., 1 cent). At the same time, the website design intentionally hides the fact that the user is agreeing to a regular monthly deduction of a much larger amount. According to user Maria Olicher, she attempted to download a free book, clicked on a hidden ad, entered her email, and paid 0.04 AED via Apple Pay, after which she received a notification of a successful subscription for 209 AED (about 50 euros) per month.

Victims fall into this trap through various online scenarios. According to user Amirkhan Chodiev, he tried to watch a live broadcast of a football match, paid a nominal $0.01 for access, and the next day discovered a charge of $200. According to user Robert Chen, a malicious program disguised itself as other software during installation, requesting 0.01 euros as a test fee, and then quietly deducted 26.30 euros for a subscription. According to user Spectrum, a similar situation occurred when installing a passport photo app via the App Store: after paying 0.01€ through Apple Pay, a subscription for 49.99€ was issued on behalf of XR Academy, registered in Amsterdam.

The amounts of unauthorized charges range from 26 to 100 dollars or euros. According to user Mohammed Alsulaiti, unauthorized payments of about 57 dollars were deducted seven times in a row until he noticed them while renewing his telecom contract. Users note that customer support ignores requests, and the only way to stop the charges is to block the bank card.

Nevertheless, refunds and subscription cancellation are possible with a legally sound approach. According to user Manfred W., upon discovering a charge of 49.99 euros, he sent an email to the support address. In it, he officially notified them of the absence of any contractual relationship, revoked the authorization for direct debit, and demanded the immediate termination of the forced subscription. A few hours later, XR Academy support confirmed the cancellation of the subscription and promised to stop further charges. This case demonstrates that the formal use of consumer protection legal norms forces XR Academy to back down.