Spokeo

Complaints & Reviews on USAComplaints

USAComplaints currently maintains 60 historical complaints about Spokeo, published between 2009 and 2013. No approved complaints have been published on this site during the last three years. For a current reputation snapshot, see the independent sources below.

• Consumer ReportPublished Sep 8, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Sep 8, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Sep 4, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Aug 30, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Aug 30, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Aug 30, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Aug 25, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Aug 22, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Aug 18, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Aug 15, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Jul 6, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Jun 25, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Jun 20, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished May 30, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished May 30, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished May 29, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished May 16, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished May 15, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished May 9, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation
• Consumer ReportPublished Apr 11, 2013 · Historical consumer allegation

Complaint Themes

Each tag reflects a complaint's single primary theme (not every angle it raised), and complaints outside any problem theme — a positive report, or one later retracted by its author — aren't tagged. Counts may total less than the full complaint count above.

Independent Sources

Shown for context — not merged with USAComplaints' own numbers.

Contacts & Login

• Company website: https://www.spokeo.com/
• Customer service (site listing): 1-877-913-3088 41 complaints mention this number
• Customer Care, trial cancellation (Payment Policy): 1-888-271-9562
• Privacy requests (Privacy Policy): 1-877-864-0183
• Privacy and opt-out help: [email protected]
• Legal notices: [email protected]
• Contact page (email, chat, phone hours): https://www.spokeo.com/contact
• Opt-out page: https://www.spokeo.com/optout
• Account page (cancel membership): https://www.spokeo.com/user/account

Locations

Spokeo: cancel a membership, understand a charge, opt out a listing, complain (checked October 16, 2026)

Pages opened on October 16, 2026: Spokeo's Help Center articles on cancelling and on bank-statement descriptors, its Payment Policy, Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, opt-out page and Contact page, plus BBB and Trustpilot.

1. Cancel. The Help Center says: log in, open the account page (spokeo.com/user/account), scroll to the “Manage Account” section and click Cancel; if there is no Cancel button, use the Contact Form link in that section, select “I would like to terminate my membership” and choose “Terminate Now”. It adds: “Once you cancel, your membership will not auto-renew” and a confirmation email is sent. Another Help Center article says Spokeo does not charge a fee to cancel and that “we are not affiliated with any third-party vendors or apps that may offer to cancel your subscription for a fee.” The cancellation article also offers members who are not in a free trial a pause (“You will not be billed during this time”) and an email reminder 2 days before the next billing date. The Payment Policy gives the membership route as “Usage & Subscriptions” in Your Spokeo.com Account Settings. For free trials, the Payment Policy (last updated December 15, 2020) says cancellations “must be received prior to 11:59 PM PT on the last day of the trial” and gives Customer Care as 1-888-271-9562; an uncancelled trial “shall convert to an ongoing subscription”. The site's customer-service number is 1-877-913-3088 (Contact page hours: 7AM - 5PM PT, Monday to Sunday).

2. Refunds. The Payment Policy states: “All sales of all Spokeo premium content are final. All Spokeo Membership Plans are prepaid for the stated payment period (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, and annually) and are non-refundable,” and that on cancellation “any processed payment will not be refunded or prorated for partial-month usage,” with access continuing to the end of the paid period. It also says plans renew automatically unless the plan details say otherwise. Separately, the Help Center article “I'm not happy with your service” points to search tips and to the cancellation steps rather than to a refund process. Both are the company's own statements; this page does not predict how an individual request will be handled.

3. Reading a card statement. Spokeo's Help Center lists these descriptors as possible: SPK*SPOKEO, SPK*SPOKEO SEARCH, SPOKEO.COM 8888808455, SPOKEO.COM 8888580803, SPOKEO *8006994264, SPOKEO.COM 8006994264, SPK*SPOKEO ENTPRS, Spokeo *ENTERPRISE and SPK*LAWENFORCEMENT, and, under “other products”, SPK*BIZSHARK and SPK*INFOARMOR. The name “PrivPro” that appears in many 2012–2013 posts in our archive is not on that list (see the complaint record below). If a charge is unrecognised, the card issuer's own dispute process is a separate route from the company's.

4. Remove a listing. Spokeo's opt-out page says to enter the profile URL and an email address, confirm by the email link, and that processing should take 24–48 hours. It warns that opting out “will not remove the data from its original source,” that each listing “must be opted out individually,” and that information “may reappear on Spokeo in the future without notice”. Spokeo’s California data broker registration says an opt-out completed on that page “will opt a consumer out from all public Spokeo websites except Thatsthem.com”, which has a separate opt-out at thatsthem.com/optout, and it lists Freepeopledirectory.com, Thatsthem.com, Peoplewin.com, Anywho.com and Family.me as other names it does business under. The CPPA registry page also says California residents may use the state’s DROP platform to send one deletion request to all active registered data brokers, which were required to begin processing such requests on August 1, 2026. Privacy requests can also go to [email protected] or, for Right-to-Know, Correction and Deletion requests, 1-877-864-0183 (Privacy Policy last revised June 25, 2026).

5. Outside routes. The Terms of Use contain an arbitration clause with a class-action waiver and a small-claims exception (Section 23); a written Notice of Dispute addressed to “General Counsel, Spokeo, Inc.” must be sent before arbitration. Another clause (Section 20(b), Limitation of Liability) says that, to the extent permitted by law, a legal action including an arbitration or lawsuit must start within two years of the event “or You waive the right to pursue that claim”, tolled by a valid Notice of Dispute; non-arbitrable disputes go to Delaware state and federal courts. Read the Terms before choosing a route. Complaints can also be filed with the FTC (reportfraud.ftc.gov), with the California Attorney General (the Attorney General's consumers page says to use its Complaint Against Business form at oag.ca.gov/contact/consumer-complaint-against-business-or-company when no other agency regulates the business) and with BBB.

Regulator action: FTC and Department of Justice consent decree (2012)

On June 12, 2012 the FTC announced that Spokeo would pay $800,000 to settle charges, brought through the Department of Justice, that it had “operated as a consumer reporting agency and violated the FCRA” by marketing people-search information to employers and recruiters. The FTC alleged that Spokeo did not ensure users had a permissible purpose, did not take steps to ensure accuracy and did not give users the notices the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires, and that it posted endorsements presented as independent that were written by its own employees. The order bars future FCRA violations and misrepresentations about endorsements.

Admission language. The FTC release says the order is “for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission by the defendant of a law violation.” The Commission vote was 4-0-1. The federal docket (United States v. Spokeo, Inc., C.D. Cal. No. 2:12-cv-05001) shows the complaint and stipulation filed June 7, 2012 and the consent decree entered June 19, 2012, with judgment of $800,000 as a civil penalty.

Today. Spokeo's current Terms of Use say Spokeo “is not a consumer reporting agency as defined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)” and tell users not to use the site for credit, employment, tenant-screening or other FCRA-covered decisions. The 2012 order is the only regulator enforcement action found in the sources checked on October 16, 2026: the California Privacy Protection Agency announcements page and the Connecticut Attorney General's press-release page (first page) did not name Spokeo, and the CFPB complaint database company lookup returned no Spokeo entry. These are scoped checks, not a statement about every agency.

Registrations and statements to California. The CPPA data broker registry lists Spokeo, Inc. as a registered data broker (a registration, not an enforcement action). In that filing Spokeo says it “collects and sells credit header information that is subject to the GLBA” through a service “currently referred to as Spokeo for Business - Right Party Contact (RPC)”, available “only to qualified businesses and government agencies” and representing “less than 5%” of its total annual data collection and sales. It answers Yes to having shared or sold consumers’ data in the past year to the federal government, to other state governments and to law enforcement. These are Spokeo’s own registry statements, shown next to the Terms’ statement that it is not a consumer reporting agency; this page does not reconcile them.

Who is Spokeo: entity, what it sells, how it describes itself

Spokeo, Inc. is a corporation in Pasadena, California. Its Terms of Use give 556 S. Fair Oaks Ave., Suite # 101-179 as the notice address for legal notices, and BBB’s profile lists the same address; the address Spokeo filed with the California data broker registry is 199 S. Los Robles Ave Ste 711, Pasadena, CA 91101. This page does not call either one the company’s headquarters. BBB’s profile also lists “Type of Entity: Corporation,” the alternate name spokeo.com, and Mr. Harrison Tang as CEO. BBB's page data shows a business start date of April 7, 2006, incorporation on April 11, 2006 and BBB accreditation since February 1, 2009.

What it does (company statements). Spokeo says it “organize[s] over 12 billion records from thousands of data sources” into reports that can include contact information, location history, photos, social-media accounts, family members, court records and work information, and that it serves about 23 million people a month. Its About page says some information carries additional fees beyond base membership or a report. These are the company's own figures and were not independently checked. Its Terms describe individual binding arbitration for most disputes (AAA Consumer Rules), a class-action waiver, and an exception for individual small-claims actions.

Other names. The registry filing lists Spokeo.com, Freepeopledirectory.com, Thatsthem.com, Peoplewin.com, Anywho.com and Family.me as names Spokeo, Inc. does business under.

Not to be confused with. In a September 2026 federal suit against the Connecticut Attorney General, Spokeo appears as a co-plaintiff alongside BeenVerified, LLC and other people-search companies (see Lawsuits). Co-plaintiffs on one docket do not show common ownership: the corporate-disclosure entries identify separate corporate parents for several of the other plaintiffs, and the Spokeo entry read on the docket does not name one. This profile makes no statement that Spokeo and BeenVerified are related.

Complaint record: our archive, BBB and Trustpilot as displayed on October 16, 2026

usacomplaints.com archive. We link 60 published posts dated 2009 to 2013 whose offender field names Spokeo or a variant (Spokeo, Spokeo.com, Spokeo Incorporated, Spokeo e-mail finder, and combined entries such as 'Privpro, Spokeo'). They were written by individual visitors, are unverified, and describe the service as it was in those years. By a simple keyword match (a post can match several groups): 41 mention a charge, billing, an unauthorised or repeated payment; 26 mention cancelling; 24 mention a refund or getting money back; 19 mention results described as inaccurate, false or empty; 11 mention removing information or privacy; and 19 mention 'PrivPro'.

About 'PrivPro'. Many 2012–2013 writers describe monthly charges of $14.95 under the name PrivPro after signing up for Spokeo and some call it a Spokeo subsidiary. Those are the writers' statements. Spokeo's current statement-descriptor article does not list that name and no company or regulator source opened for this page states the relationship, so posts that name only PrivPro are not linked here.

BBB. BBB profile for Spokeo, Inc., Pasadena, CA, as displayed on October 16, 2026: BBB Accredited Business, rating A-; 562 total complaints in the last 3 years, 153 filed in the last 12 months; customer-review average 1.07 of 5 from 210 customer reviews. BBB states that it does not verify the information.

Trustpilot. Page 'www.spokeo.com' as displayed on October 16, 2026: 1,625 reviews, score 2.5, claimed profile since November 2019, 324 reviews in the last 12 months. Trustpilot shows 'No recent history of asking for reviews' (reviews 'may not be representative') and 'Replied to 100% of negative reviews'. The star distribution on the page is 56 percent one-star and 26 percent five-star; this is Trustpilot's display, not a measure of our own.

These sources use different methods and are not added together or compared.

Lawsuits: Robins v. Spokeo, Kellman class action, 2026 Connecticut suit

Robins v. Spokeo (FCRA). A consumer, Thomas Robins, sued under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (C.D. Cal. No. 2:10-cv-05306). On May 16, 2016 the U.S. Supreme Court (6-2) vacated the Ninth Circuit's decision and remanded, holding that the Ninth Circuit's standing analysis was incomplete and that a bare procedural statutory violation does not by itself satisfy Article III. On August 15, 2017 the Ninth Circuit again ruled, reversing and remanding; a certiorari petition (No. 17-806) was denied on January 22, 2018. After mediation in January 2019, the district court approved a stipulation for prospective relief on March 11, 2019; the plaintiff filed a notice of voluntary dismissal “with prejudice” on March 12, 2019, and on March 13, 2019 the court entered an order granting the stipulation dismissing the entire action with prejudice.

Kellman v. Spokeo, Inc. (class action, N.D. Cal. No. 3:21-cv-08976). Filed November 19, 2021 before Judge William H. Orrick. The Ninth Circuit denied Spokeo's Rule 23(f) petition for permission to appeal on August 29, 2024. In March 2026 the court terminated pending motions as moot “in light of the parties' intent to settle”; on July 14, 2026 plaintiffs filed an unopposed motion for preliminary approval of a class settlement, and a Third Amended Class Action Complaint was filed July 17, 2026. The docket shows a motion hearing on August 19, 2026 (entry 324) and a proposed order filed that day (entry 322). CourtListener shows no entries after August 19, 2026; whether preliminary approval was granted is not shown in the entries available on October 16, 2026. The docket entries do not state the claims or settlement terms. Plaintiffs’ counsel Morgan & Morgan posted on July 21, 2026 that the parties reached a “$10 million settlement agreement” in what it calls a right of publicity lawsuit about “teaser profiles” under the laws of Alabama, California, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio, South Dakota and Washington, with classes of Californians and Ohioans totaling 275,000 people certified in 2024; it calls the settlement “proposed”. That is plaintiffs’ counsel’s description of a proposed settlement, not a court finding; no settlement website was identified in the sources checked.

Spokeo, Inc. et al. v. Tong (D. Conn. No. 3:26-cv-01510). Filed September 17, 2026 against Connecticut Attorney General William M. Tong by 14 plaintiffs, including Spokeo, Inc. and BeenVerified, LLC. The docket lists a motion for preliminary injunction (filed September 18) and a September 25 order setting responses due by October 13, 2026; later entries show a motion for extension of time (October 6), an order on it (October 7) and an October 8 entry resetting motion deadlines and the answer deadline. The new dates are not shown in the free entry text. CourtListener classifies the case as Cause 42:1983 Civil Rights Act, Nature of Suit 950 Constitutional - State Statute; the entries read do not describe the claims.

Atlas Data Privacy Corp. v. Spokeo, Inc. (D.N.J. No. 1:24-cv-04299). The docket shows a remand order on November 20, 2024 returning the case to Morris County, New Jersey state court and a Third Circuit order denying leave to appeal on March 18, 2025; the entries read do not describe the claims. Other individual suits against Spokeo appear on CourtListener and are not listed here. Complaints in lawsuits are allegations.

Is Spokeo Legitimate?

Spokeo, Inc. is a corporation with a Pasadena address in its own Terms of Use and on BBB, where it has been listed with BBB accreditation since February 1, 2009 and an A- rating as displayed on October 16, 2026. It publishes cancellation steps, a Payment Policy, an opt-out page and privacy-request channels (links above).

The record also shows the other side: in 2012 the FTC and the Department of Justice obtained a consent decree with an $800,000 civil penalty over FCRA and endorsement allegations, entered without an admission of a law violation; BBB shows 562 complaints in three years and a 1.07 of 5 customer-review average; Trustpilot shows 2.5 from 1,625 reviews; and a class action filed in 2021 is at the settlement-approval stage. Spokeo states that it is not a consumer reporting agency and that its reports must not be used for FCRA-covered decisions. This page offers no rating or verdict of its own.

Court & Public Records

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