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BREAKING NEWS! Nomad Internet accused of $75 million scam by Texas Attorney General

| Updated Apr 20, 2023

Nomad Internet has been accused by the Texas Attorney General of perpetuating a $75 million deceptive scheme: “I have secured a temporary injunction with an asset freeze against Nomad Internet to make sure they cannot scam any more unsuspecting consumers,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxon.

The April 20, 2023 action comes just a few weeks after we and numerous other YouTube RV creators exposed a long list of customer service complaints and controversy about the founder's criminal background.

Here's a video we just did explaining the law enforcement actions taken against Nomad and several of its top officers.

Details of the alleged scam

According to Paxon, the Texas lawsuit alleges violations of the state's Deceptive Trade Practices Act by Jessica Garza, her husband Homero “Josh” or “Jayden” Garza, and the company the couple manages and controls, GEV IO, LLC d/b/a Nomad Internet, “which perpetrated a $75 million deceptive scheme from their home in New Braunfels, Texas.”

Paxon said the scheme saw Nomad acquire large quantities of SIM cards from legitimate wireless internet providers, reprogram those SIM cards to avoid detection, and then repackaged the telecommunication equipment for resale.   

“The Garzas mispresented their relationship with the legitimate wireless internet providers, inducing consumers to purchase expensive monthly internet service plans. Upon detection of their unauthorized use, the legitimate wireless internet providers terminated the SIM cards, leaving consumers without internet access.,” said Paxon.

The 21-page lawsuit filed by the State of Texas against the Garzas and Nomad Internet is filled with many more details.

At the heart of the case is the way Nomad Internet squired SIM cards.

SIM is an abbreviation for Subscriber Identity Module and is a small electronic chip that is inserted into a mobile phone or another cellular device like a modem that connects to the Internet. It stores information such as the user's phone number, network authentication data, and other data necessary for the device to connect to a cellular network and function properly.

“Defendants have perpetuated a $75 million-dollar deceptive scheme against major internet
service providers and individual consumers alike,” the suit alleges.

“Defendants opened business account contracts with (Mobile Network Operators). Using a business account to obtain SIM cards, Defendants then improperly leased the SIM cards to consumers as if they were an authorized internet service reseller….

“Defendants were not an authorized internet service reseller. The contracts Defendants used to procure the SIM cards prohibited resale.”

Eventually, the big mobile networks caught on that something unauthorized was going on.

The suit explains:

“When this method of obtaining large quantities of SIM cards by creating business accounts
was detected and blocked by networks, Defendants then applied for thousands of individual data
lines using fictional identities….

“After improperly acquiring large quantities of SIM cards by contracts for individual data lines, Defendants illegally resold these lines to unsuspecting consumers. Even after network providers detected and terminated the unauthorized use of their networks, leaving consumers without internet access for which they were paying, Defendants continued to charge consumers large monthly fees.”

And what about that claimed arrangement with Verizon? It was a total lie.

“Defendants have explicitly claimed an affiliation with traditional service providers when
no such partnership existed, such as in advertisements, giving Defendants unwarranted legitimacy
and credibility, misleading consumers to sign up.

“Moreover, by claiming certain wireless networks such as Verizon were partners when they were not, consumers who lived in areas where only Verizon plans worked were especially inclined to sign up for Defendants’ services under the belief they would receive service from Verizon.”

The lawsuit noted that Verizon conducted an undercover operation, having its employees buy Nomad Internet services and products as regular consumers.

“Defendants falsely represented that they are a legitimate internet reseller tied to reputable
companies and that consumers will receive unlimited internet service by subscribing to
Defendants’ service.

“However, they were not, and when internet service providers discovered their SIM cards were being used for more data than for which they agreed; and/or in geographic regions different than what was represented by Defendants, the internet service providers notified Defendants that they were breaching the Terms of Service.

“When no action was taken by Defendants, the internet service providers proceeded to limit the amount of data transmitted to the SIM cards, a practice known as throttling.”

And that is when the consumer complaints started to roll in.

“Upon the substantial slow-down in internet speeds, consumers contacted Defendants,
assuming they own or have some degree of control over the internet service. Of course, because
Defendants do not own or control the equipment, Defendants did nothing except tell the consumers
to return the SIM cards along with the routers in which they were delivered.

“Sometimes, Defendants would send the consumer a new SIM card and router.37
Oftentimes, the SIM card sent to a complaining consumer was a SIM card that had already been
throttled, resulting in equally poor speeds

“Despite the poor service provided, Defendants charged consumers full price, often charged
consumers for equipment that was never delivered, or charged consumers multiple times.

“When consumers attempted to cancel, they were either told they must first return the
equipment—despite the consumers often never having received the product in the first place—or
were told they had successfully canceled their subscription, only to later be charged by Defendants
again.”

There is much more in the lawsuit.

But all that was presented to the court and as a result, a temporary injunction was granted that prohibits the company from selling telecommunicatuons services “without authorization or a contractual agreement with a network or service provider.”

Our experience with Nomad Internet

In December 2022, Nomad Internet CEO Jaden Garza contacted me to tell me that his company had a new and special partnership arrangement with Verizon Wireless to sell high-speed, unlimited and unthrottled Internet to rural and mobile customers. He sent us a review unit to try out.

We tried it for four months, from December-March and found the product did work.

In February, Garza asked to be one of our sponsors, running ads on the blog and podcast. Based on our experience with the product, and his claimed partnership with Verizon, we thought it was a worthwhile source of high-speed Internet for RVers.

But then we started receiving complaints from his customers.

Why we ended our relationship with Nomad

When we started to receive emails and complaints about Nomad Internet from disgruntled customers, I forwarded them to the company.

Garza, and service manager Robyn Weber, were responsive at first when I sent them the complaints we were getting. They promised to reach out and resolve the problems of those complaining. They even had their service people answer reader questions and complaints on our YouTube and Facebook forums.

Garza explained the complaints by saying that like many startups, Nomad Internet experienced the highs and lows of rapid growth after they started marketing to RV travelers in mid-2022. Garza conceded they could not scale customer service as fast as their earlier customers needed, which created a reputation problem.

Since then, Garza claimed Nomad Internet had become partners with Verizon and that his customer service department had grown. He said Nomad Internet added a new team of trainers, supervisors, chat, email, and phone operators over the last few months. He said the company had equipped them with all of the tools and resources to quickly identify and resolve all customer concerns.

He repeatedly cited the claimed relationship with Verizon. claiming that if Nomad Internet was really a disreputable company, there's no way Verizon would have partnered with him.

But the complaints kept coming from my readers and many noted specific examples or cited questionable legal issues and past allegations of fraud involving Garza in a previous business.

When I asked him about them, he first denied them.

Then I found more evidence that indicated that he seemed to have used a different name in the past and was charged in a criminal fraud case. I confronted him with that and asked him to clarify.

He stopped replying to my questions after that.

My last communication from him was in early April. He said that he has “taken a step in to (sic) a different position, and Robyn is now CEO of Nomad.”

Ultimately, I decided, there was just too much drama. And too many disgruntled customers.

I learned I am not alone. Other YouTube creators have also dropped the company as a sponsor for similar reasons.

While the modem worked and we had good results using the service, the number of complaints I received about the company and the questionable past of Garza that he never explained, made it clear to me that we could no longer be associated with the company.

So I completely ended our sponsorship arrangement.

Here is a video I did at the time that explains the above:

That video was made before the actions taken by the Texas Attorney General.

Now that Texas officials are trying to untangle the financial mess, we hope they are now able to recover money for those scammed by the Garza's deceptive schemes.

Mike Wendland

Published on 2023-04-20

Mike Wendland is a multiple Emmy-award-winning Journalist, Podcaster, YouTuber, and Blogger, who has traveled with his wife, Jennifer, all over North America in an RV, sharing adventures and reviewing RV, Camping, Outdoor, Travel and Tech Gear for the past 12 years. They are leading industry experts in RV living and have written 18 travel books.

10 Responses to “BREAKING NEWS! Nomad Internet accused of $75 million scam by Texas Attorney General”

June 26, 2023at5:02 pm, James Morgan said:

I got hit the first time last year ,was down about 2 months. I upgraded through them because I couldn’t find another provider. The new one went down end of May same thing wouldn’t connect but my phone was also acting up which is why I took so long troubleshooting it the first time also, took it up to where I knew there was signal. Didn’t work, got online and ordered Starlink. In the process of cancelling and will warn everyone to stay away from that company. Starlink is awesome so far, much faster than the cell router.

Reply

May 24, 2023at1:59 pm, Carolyn Cavanaugh said:

I had Nomad Internet for a month and cancelled it within the 30 day refund period as it did not get signal were I am at. I am still being billed for monthly service 2 months later, numerous emails to support to correct and cancel and phones calls to support to correct billing and cancel. I have file a complaint with the BBB and will be with the FTC. DO NOT GO WITH NOMAD INTERNET.

Reply

May 24, 2023at9:27 am, Heather Powell said:

Thanks for the thorough update. What did you move to after you stopped using Nomad? Thanks

Reply

May 21, 2023at7:36 pm, Kerstin Spires said:

We ordered the Nomad Raptor and after all of the drama with Mr. Garza and NOT being able to reach customer service, had our credit card company refund us the charge for the equipment. All of a sudden we receive what is called a “Cube.” We did not order this device and never received an prior notice other than we were receiving a shipment from them. We are not going to do business with this deceptive company, nor activate the equipment. If we are charged for anything, we will notify our credit card company and the TX AG.

Reply

May 02, 2023at6:38 pm, Ken Hunerdosse said:

I too was taken by Nomad. The Inseego device (raptor) was ‘backordered’ from Feb 5th until the beginning of April. Once I received it, it would not connect to the cloud. After weeks of trying to contact them to refund/return I finally got them to authorize. The sent me an email with information and instructions for returning. And, then they will issue refund. It appears that I will bear the cost of the return. At this point I doubt I will see any monies refunded. Should I contact TX AG? This was a lot of money to me. I’m open to suggestions.

Reply

May 04, 2023at12:35 pm, Team RV Lifestyle said:

So sorry this happened to you, Ken. Absolutely contact the Texas AG. Team RV Lifestyle

Reply

March 18, 2023at7:42 am, Marian Research said:

Do your research. The “owner” Josh/Jayden Garza was convicted and imprisoned for crypto fraud after fbi investigation. Now his wife is listed as the owner of this new company and developer of the app. They resell Verizon sims cards and are NOT a partner with Verizon.

Reply

March 17, 2023at8:09 pm, David Spradlin said:

By far the worst customer service! Took over three weeks to get a return authorization to send back in a defective device. They were still was billed twice for a account that I could not use. Finally after two more weeks was refunded for one bill. Received a email stating that my account was to be canceled in three days. Three days later my checking account was billed, not for the previous amount but more! I did not agree to the new amount and was not notified of the new pricing.

Reply

March 09, 2023at1:14 pm, Vicki Ross said:

Their customer service is as bad as ever. I just want to log this for future users.

I’ve had Nomad Legend ($149) for 18 months. I went through no service at all through the Dec/Jan reorganization. I had reservations about giving them more money to get the Nomad Air, but after reading about your affiliation, I took a chance.

I received an email in Jan stating, “that for my patience not to worry about sending back equipment.” Now, I’m getting billed for 3 different plans ($149, $99, $109. Support says I have to return equipment (their policy changed) to cancel the old plans.

My customer history is gone, so I guess they want me to have faith they’ll be responsible this time.

Reply

March 06, 2023at10:35 am, Ed Fogle said:

Left unsaid is which mobile network the Nomad uses. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile?

Reply

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