Maezawa from the President’s Office here.
As announced on our official pages, we’ve recently received several reports of scams involving people impersonating Universe Club, so we’re also issuing a warning here.
https://universe-club.jp/information/132590/
https://universe-club.jp/information/fraud-case/
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/3ad96385ba6a0496ac3661b50e18ad45fcbad7f8
Universe Club has also consulted with the police. If you’ve been a victim, please go to the police and file a report, and provide them with as much information as possible so the scammers can be arrested as soon as possible. Universe Club is not involved in this at all, so please file a report.
Scammers may seem difficult to catch, but the police can even trace simple things like changes to the sender’s IP address. The more information they collect, the easier it should be to identify the people responsible.
Now, regarding the actual question:
> I was contacted by someone claiming to be from Universe Club.
Emails from us will come from the universe-club.jp domain. If you’re contacted through social media or elsewhere, I recommend verifying it by emailing an address on this domain.
> They told me the membership fee was ¥10,000 as part of an anniversary promotion. Does that ever happen?
I don’t believe we’ve had such a promotion in the past or currently. That said, it’s possible we may do something similar in the future.
One way to verify this is to remember that we will never ask you to transfer money to a personal bank account. Please check whether the account is under the name of Universe Club or one of its group companies.
We’ve heard that scammers ask victims to transfer money to an account in an individual’s name. That will never happen with us, so please do not make the transfer.
> Is this real?
I’ve partially redacted the names in this question to prevent an unrelated person with the same name from being mistaken for the culprit.
Neither of the names mentioned belongs to a Universe Club employee. We don’t even have an executive vice president in the first place…
> They told me to send three “tips.” Does Universe Club accept tips like that?
Not at the moment. However, we may introduce all kinds of things in the future.
The best way to tell is to contact us directly.
Even if we did start accepting tips, we would never say that we would refund them later. The president doesn’t like strange systems like that, so if someone mentions a refund, you should consider it suspicious.
> Does Universe Club ever allow someone to join without an interview?
No.
There may be cases where someone joins because they personally know the president, but in that sense, it’s essentially the same as the president interviewing them himself. Even in those cases, we still ask them to provide identification.
PATOLO, however, seems to be considering various options, so it may eventually become possible to join without an interview.
Instead, we plan to introduce eKYC, meaning members will still have to verify their identity even if there is no interview.
(Age verification and identity verification are two different things.)
No, it doesn’t. It’s a scam.
Rather than asking here, please contact Universe Club through the official contact information that you—or someone capable of making sound judgments—has properly researched.
If anyone asks you for money in the future, please have someone you trust verify it and contact the official support channel. You seem particularly vulnerable to falling victim to scams.
