Help, I’m being gouged for spam text messages
November 25 2009 by Ellen Roseman
Check your cellphone bills for pricey text message charges. Short-code messages, as they’re called, usually have a string of numbers followed by a name like Premium Text Trivia.
I did a column last week and asked readers to send stories. You’ll find a bunch below.
The CBC has done a few television news items lately, here and here and here.
You get lured in by doing an online contest, which asks you for your cellphone number. You then receive — by text — a PIN number. Once you enter that PIN number on the website, you’ve subscribed.
Here’s a link to the $12.3 million (U.S.) settlement of a class action by m-Qube Inc., one of the biggest offenders. The lawsuit alleged there were not adequate safeguards in place to ensure that customers were only billed for services they agreed to purchase.
In Canada, the wireless companies insist that it’s not their problem. They blame customers for giving away cellphone numbers without reading the fine print.
But when reading these comments, watch for a pattern. Those who make noise often get refunds or freebies to compensate for the unauthorized text messages.
LG
Nov 26 2009
We have a similar story. My daughter,a recent unemployed university graduate who is writing her entrance examination for acceptance to McMaster University for her Master’s degree, started getting billed for text messages.
These were text messages she didn’t want nor remember signing up for. The cost of these messages is ridiculous!
The first month’s bill (September) showed a cost of $33.75 for 27 messages. The last bill (October) charged us $37.50 for 30 messages.
The carrier is Rogers. Because my daughter is unemployed, my wife has the account in her name and the bill comes to my wife.
When my wife questioned my daughter as to the text charges, my daughter indicated she had no idea why they were being sent, she had no idea how they got started and worse …. she had no idea how to STOP them.
My wife contacted Rogers right away and was told they were just passing the charges along and had no control over them. The agent did say they were aware of the problem and had other complaints.
The Rogers representative said my daughter should text the word “STOP” in reply to the messages. My daughter did this and when the second bill came in with a similar charge we contacted Rogers again. Rogers said the charge could be an “overlap” of charges but my daughter may still be “enrolled” with the companies who are involved.
Apparently, there are two they know about and who are doing this. A website for one and a telephone number for the other was provided by Rogers.
We were told to visit the website http://www.verisign.com/m-qube/ and go to the Frequently Asked Questions, find the “Stop Messages and Billing” and fill out the form and submit it. Similarly, we were told to call 1-866-257-4586 and respond to the prompts.
We have done all we were asked to do and are now awaiting our next bill in December. As far as we’re concerned, this is at best bad business practices and at worst illegal.
In just two months, we’ve had to pay over $70 for a ridiculous and exorbitant service which we didn’t want, didn’t know how we got involved in or were tricked into accepting and had no idea how to terminate it!
If it wasn’t for the help of our phone carrier, who I believe wasn’t obligated to provide us with the information necessary to terminate the service, we would still be wondering what to do next!!
MG
Nov 26 2009
Today, I looked over my cell phone bill (Bell Mobility) and there was a new heading called “Events” with a new entry: “TXT MSG Short Code Programs Received”.
Under this was the explanation: “Premium and short code messages can be 3rd party alerts, content, or text messages interacting with contests and promotions that require an additional fee in order to subscribe/participate. These may be billed at a premium rate and/or outside your text messaging bundle.”
The reason this so resonates with me is a problem my sister and brother-in-law recently had with multiple unsolicited text messages they received at a cost of almost $3 each. Their carrier, Rogers, refused to reverse the charges and instead offered them (after multiple complaints) additional monthly minutes.
It appears that just like the phone scams where telephone customers would receive messages to call “per-minute” telephone exchanges and then be kept on the phone to pump up the bill, mobile phone customers are now being victimized by the same sort of telecommunications criminals.
This is like being called “collect” but having no way to refuse the call because the text messages can go into your phone without your having to give consent.
Disabling the text messaging feature on your phone appears
to be the only way to stop this. What protection do consumers have?
I have removed the text message service from my cell phone and will advise my brother to do the same. And, I have educated myself a little more about these types of charges.
I think I would advise EVERYONE who does not currently use texting as part of their cell phone routine to call their service provider and have it disabled from their features list.
JI
Nov 26 2009
I have had a few bogus $10 charges put on my Rogers bill purporting to be requests for subscriptions to ringtone/download companies.
I know they’re bogus because I NEVER ORDERED THEM. They have appeared on two different cell phone accounts.
What makes me suspicious is that, if I call to complain, they immediately agree to refund the money. (Or part of the money: $10 goes to them, $3 to Rogers; I have to get the $10 back before I can get the $3.)
I wonder if normal humans, who don’t scrutinize their cell bills, are just throwing money away on charges like these?
So far, Jamster has promised me a $30 cheque (three months worth), as has Motime. But then a Jamster charge appeared on my latest Rogers bill – after they had told me they had cancelled my (nonexistent) subscription.
So today, Rogers themselves gave me a rebate on that one.
Again, the most suspicious thing is that they’re so apparently willing to refund charges.
One set of charges was on my son’s cell phone, and so you could imagine there’s always a little doubt as to whether he really didn’t text them a pin number, but one was on my phone and I know absolutely I didn’t sign up. It was out-and-out fraud.
Rogers CSR
Nov 26 2009
My husband and I both provide customer care for Rogers wireless. These messages are the bane of our existence.
As you can imagine, we get many irate customers wanting to know what these charges are and blaming Rogers for the charges.
We do our best to explain that these charges are NOT from Rogers, but from a third party company. There are customers who do knowingly subscribe to them and have to stop the messages by replying to one of the texts they received and typing “stop” or “stop all.”
In my experience, the customer usually receives an almost immediate response that their subscription has been cancelled.
What customers have to realize is that blocking incoming text messages(or all texting) does NOT stop the charges, as technically they have subscribed (albeit unknowingly) to the service.
Rogers cannot refund the charges, as the agreement was between the customer and the third party and Rogers is billed for those charges whether the customer pays or not.
As far as I’m concerned, these companies are walking a very fine line legally.
I have had senior citizens call with charges of over $30 per month for these messages and no idea where they came from.
We do work with the customers on a case by case basis and educate them on how to stop the messages and it is noted on their account. If they continue to get charged, they are then responsible.
As agents, we have access to information regarding the origin of these texts and can help the customers contact those companies themselves.
I have heard of some customers who did get refunds from the other company, although I don’t know which ones they were dealing with.
I understand some customers wanting wireless companies to take responsibility for these services, but they need to understand it’s the customer’s responsibility and Rogers just provides the access to a product.
It is unfortunate that these companies such as VeriSign take advantage of this privilege.
FF
Nov 26 2009
Check out the following site below. Their “phishing” tactic, unlike others that steal bank or credit card info, steals money by using your cell phone number without authorization.
http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/fanbox.com
They know that cellular service providers will not lift a finger to get your money back. They fooled me by allowing me to “un”check the option to receive text messages, then sent them and charged me anyway.
Needless to say, I did not get my money back (nearly $27 when I was a “poor” student trying to cover tuition).
I registered on the sms.ac website because they offered a service where I could send a free text message to a friend. I specifically unchecked options to “send me my horoscope” and “send me sports trivia” since I did not care to receive these messages.
The catch was that my cell number was required to register and use their “free” service.
I paid close attention to their terms of use (along with any other website I visit). There was nothing that led me to believe I would be charged for a “service” to which I never subscribed. I am definitely not one of those people who just clicks “yes” to terms without reading them.
I started to receive sports trivia messages without warning. I thought these were advertisements. I did not have to pay for incoming text messages at the time, so I ignored them.
When I received a bill for an extra $17, I immediately calld Bell, my service provider at the time, and explained that I did not authorize those charges. It took a lot of work to get a response from Bell, and when I did, they just said I have to take it up with the company providing the service, and there was nothing they could do.
I asked them to block text messages from that company and they said the only way was to remove text services altogether, so I could no longer send or receive text messages.
I went through the terms of service on the http://sms.ac website and tried to contact the company through every means I could find, but I never received a response.
I continued trying to contact them for about two weeks rather than canceling my account, since I was worried it would be even harder to get my money back if my account no longer existed.
I finally cancelled my account after no responce since I continued receiving text messages, but not before racking up another $10 on my next cell phone bill.
The worst part is that I could not just refuse to pay it. Bell would charge me interest if I did that.
I now subscribe to the “Web of Trust” service, and I just found that they have a lot of complaints that the site uses “phishing”
http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/fanbox.com
CS
Nov 26 2009
Thank you for your article. My wife was in the midst of this scam when she asked me for some help about entering her PIN and quickly recalled your column.
My wife said that this was at http://www.about.com, which is a site we regulary use when planning trips to New York City. We have found this site very reliable and trustworthy. We have now had to rethink our trust in this site.
See links below.
Mobile phone quiz scam:
http://gonyc.about.com/od/discountbroadway/Discount_Broadway_Tickets_How_to_get_Discounts_on_Broadway_Tickets.htm
JL
Nov 26 2009
I, also, took the IQ test (!!!) on, I think, the Washington Post website and entered my cell phone number.
I then started receiving regular messages about tests that I could take, which I ignored and deleted.
When I received my next phone bill, I noticed 4 text message charges for $8 ($2 each).
As I don’t have a text message service on my phone, I was puzzled by these charges and called Rogers to query them. They explained how they might have originated.
I said that as I didn’t subscribe to text messaging, how could I receive them and why could I be charged? After some discussion, they kindly reversed the charges.
When I asked how I could stop these messages that I didn’t want (I didn’t know where they were coming from and I could see them continuing indefinitely), I was told to enter the code that came with the messages and then enter STOP (typed on the keypad).
Sure enough, the messages stopped. I did receive a couple more charges on my next bill (presumably charged before my discussion with Rogers), which I paid, not wanting to waste any more time on the phone on this subject.
I didn’t see any mention in your articles about the STOP command, so I thought it might be useful information.
RS
Nov 26 2009
We were shocked to see a $120 charge on our cell phone bill. We had given the cell phone to our 15 year old son to use in case of an emergency. He must have signed up for one of these services to receive these $2 per message charges on the phone bill.
I contacted Bell customer service, which refused to remove the charges from my phone bill. Bell Canada is billing on behalf of a third party called MacBook Trivia Service, number 88588.
We never authorized Bell to bill us on behalf of third parties. Bell has so far “helped” only by disabling text messaging on the cell phone. Now my son can’t use the text messaging feature in case of an emergency.
Bell asked us to contact the text messaging service directly. Our cell phone is on a preauthorized payment plan, so they have taken the money anyway, leaving us with no recourse.
We have only authorized Bell to charge us for the cell phone charges that are incurred by Bell and never authorized for any third parties. This activity is illegal and unauthorized in the first place.
We contacted the company responsible for putting on these charges and confronted them with two facts: 1. Our son is a minor and 2. Our son says that he sent a text message with STOP right after the first message.
The company has cited privacy laws in Canada preventing them from verifying the age of the party at the other end of the phone. That is a veiled attempt to justify this theft.
On the second point, they have produced logs from their server, but we have no means to verify they are authentic. Nor do we have any record of text messages, as the cell phone instruments retain only the last 10 or 15 messages.
They have offered to refund $10 out of the $120 charges and are now saying that we should have contacted them earlier, well, we would definitely have done so, had we known that we would be robbed!
Such illegal activity does not have any place in a civilized world and we are willing to pursue the matter till the Government takes some action in stopping this.
We contacted CRTC with this complaint and they have given us the contact information for CCTS, the same as in your article. We will be contacting them with all the details today.
To us this is not only a matter of $120, it a a matter of principle. The end result has been a permanent loss of messaging service on our son’s cell phone.
We are with you in keeping up this good work.
Marc Goodman
Nov 28 2009
Hello Ellen, thank you for including my e-mail in this blog about the premium text messaging scams. I think I got off lightly not having incurred any charges (or so I think; I better wait for my next bill).
For every phone user who might have inadvertently or accidentally incurred these charges “knowingly”, there seem to be just as many who did nothing to activate the premium text message service. And, without an investigation by the CRTC of these operators’ practices, these scammers will continue to skirt the law with the canard “we’re registered with the CRTC and it’s perfectly legal”.
What I can’t understand is why the phone companies themselves don’t launch a class-action lawsuit against these scammers to recoup the loss of income from cancelled text message services and/or the tying up of their CSRs’ time dealing with irate and flustered customers.
If the cell phone companies make “nothing” out of the premium text messages collected on behalf of a third-party, I really don’t understand their business relationship. But, if they are acting as paid agents by billing, collecting and remitting funds to these third-party companies, then they too are complicit in this scam and should be subject to the same prohibitions and/or financial penalties as meted out by the courts for fraudulent practices.
When the cell phone companies stop billing, collecting and remitting on behalf of ANY third-party provider, then and only then will the possibility of this type of scam diminish and we can get back the use of our cell phones for their primary purpose: communication.
If there are any class-action law firms out there who want to take this on, please let me know; just don’t text message me. Thank you.
DC
Nov 30 2009
I recently have been a victim of this scam. I was receiving these “quiz” texts as well and thought nothing of it until I saw my Koodo bill.
I never replied back – I just erased these annoying texts.
The thing is that I never did any online quizzes or gave out my cell phone number to any website. I firmly stand by my statement.
I contacted the company, Skill 2 Thrill at 1-866-670-0126, and was told that they do not handle billing inquiries over the phone and will not let me speak to a manager. (Very strange for any company that considers itself upright and outstanding.)
All billing inquiries had to be done by email. I tried this method and received an email back from them stating that they had sent me a text with a PIN and I had to go to the website to register. They gave me the date and the time this supposed text was sent to me.
I confirmed with Koodo (twice with 2 different customer reps) that I had never received a text from this company on Sept. 19th, as “Skill 2 Thrill” had stated to me. The first text I ever received was a premium text with a $2 charge.
I was also told by Koodo that they receive these premium text charge complaints multiple times daily.
As far as I can see, this company found my number somewhere (I won’t speculate on how they received this number) and started billing without me entering a PIN (as confirmed by Koodo).
This is plain and simple fraud! Koodo won’t reverse the charges.
I suggested to Koodo that it should notify clients if premium text messages show up on their account. This would help protect clients, as well as stem the profits going to these unscrupulous companies. I doubt this will happen.
PS
Nov 30 2009
I loved your article about web tests that trigger pricey messages, because I recently fell for one these “tests” that was operating right off of the Rogers Yahoo! website as sidebar advertising on my email viewer.
I sent a complaint to Rogers about the disreputable practices occurring on their website. (See below.)
I’m not trying to get compensation from either Rogers or Bell Mobility (there’s only about $10-$14 at stake, including the Bell bill not yet received), but I do want these two companies to take greater responsibility for disreputable practices happening through their services.
Strictly speaking, Bell Mobility should be forced to refund the fraudulent charges. It was only your article, Ellen, that clearly stated the legal requirement for the “double opt-in” prior to billing premium rates for messages (certainly no one at Bell mentioned it to me).
The bill originating company had zero opt-in from me since no such question was ever asked, other than to request my cell phone number at the end of the web test.
F.Y.I. the exact text of the message reads:
INBOX message 886-88
“This is your chance to win a Vaio! Question: A bonzai is a small what? A) tree B) dog ($2cad/pzzl) Text A or B to 88688!”
I never replied and deleted all but the last such message.
————————————————————
My message, sent Nov. 12, 2009:
I have a complaint against Rogers Yahoo! for allowing a predatory agent to advertise on your website. I filled out a survey that was posted in the Rogers Yahoo! advertising sidebar to my mail view.
At the conclusion of the survey, I was asked for my cell phone number. After that, I began receiving text messages twice per week asking me to answer a question for my chance to win something.
On my cellphone bill these messages show up as “TXT MSG - Short Code Programs” for $2 each. I’ve had 6-8 such messages in the last 3 weeks.
Bell Mobility advised me that the messages originated from a company named “IMPACT MOBILE”, so this is the name of the company allowed to use your website.
Bell Mobility further advised that future messages could be blocked but the charges could not be reversed, because they represented charges to Bell Mobility from IMPACT MOBILE.
In other words, IMPACT MOBILE has set it up so that they can make money just for sending out text messages to their victims, with no service provided and no control by me. Bell had to teach me their code to block such messages in the future.
IMPACT MOBILE’s operating method is completely unethical bordering on fraud — I was having a service (in this case a non-service) foisted on me without my consent and being billed exorbitant amounts of money for it; do this to enough people and they make a pretty penny. And it’s all done operating off of your Rogers Yahoo! website.
I expect Rogers Yahoo! to bar such business practices from being associated with their websites. Please take action to permanently prevent IMPACT MOBILE (or any other name they may use) from ever dealing with the public through Rogers Yahoo!
————————————————————————————
Ashleigh Blackmore, Rogers spokeswoman:
Thanks for the opportunity to weigh in. Rogers is a member of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association’s Mobile Content Committee, which oversees and implements short code (text messaging) requirements and guidelines. All vendors that we work with are held to these standards.
Customers who are unsure of the cost of premium text messaging should contact their carrier prior to opting in.
————————————————————————————
PS response:
Rogers is being too cute here. What Rogers has managed to imply here is that
(1) for this vendor, they didn’t enforce the rules of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association’s Mobile Content Committee,
or (2) those rules are so permissive as to offer little protection to the public or the reputations of legitimate operators.
I’ve read your blog and I find the situation described there outrageous. A CBC link talked about needing 17 mouse clicks to get to the terms and conditions, i.e. cost, associated with signing up for a service.
That doesn’t even remotely qualify as “disclosure” in my book! Neither does using very fine or faint print somewhere in the vicinity of a ‘click here’ button to receive some information.
If the CRTC truly creates rules that make such practices legally acceptable, all I can say is SHAME ON THEM. Are they trying to become the next public enemy?
We all know how legitimate business transactions look: If you want to send me Star articles for $2 each, or weather forecasts, or stock quotes, or whatever (i.e. all real services), then the ad would say “click here to receive your articles for only $2 each”, all in equally large font size.
————————————————————————————
PS again:
Hi Ellen, here’s the final wrap-up from Bell. They called me back on Dec. 2nd to advise me that my account had been credited for the $10 in charges from Impact Mobile.
Further, they would credit me additional charges for the bill not yet published. These corrections will show up on my next statement, Jan. 2nd. My sense was that Bell would recoup the money from the vendor.
Bell gets good marks for following through on this issue. Thanks.
Adrian
Dec 6 2009
This is just a ploy by the Cell Phone companies to get you to subscribe to their add-on optional text packages. which will cost you $5 to $10 more/month in addition to your regular cell bill.
You can actually call your cell provider & ask them to BLOCK incoming text messages to your phone. The problem with this is thst along with SPAM text messages, ALL other incoming texts from your friends & family will also be blocked.
Adrian
Dec 6 2009
Why don’t BELL, ROGERS and TELUS put a warning in BOLD letters on their websites or in their phone bills warning people about this SCAM?
I understand that cell phone companies are not responsible for these third party charges, but it’s their duty to inform their customers of any possible phishing or text scams.
dd
Dec 17 2009
spam for money, what a great business! Can’t believe the big telcoms are working together with these despicable companies to rob from their customers. Actually the telcoms are no better than those cheating companies. Are these legal at all? Rogers blamed I give my phone number on internet. But as somebody mentioned earlier, we didn’t authorized Rogers to collect money for third party from cell phone bill. Wish some legal actions can take place to stop this. I didn’t get my money back for this month after I threatened to cancel my number with Rogers. Obvious Rogers get a big profit from this as a \middle man\.
LN
Dec 17 2009
I had a bad experience with Bell Mobility. I pay an extra $5 a month for a 500 text message bundle.
I usually use under the 500, but this last bill, I went over by a few hundred texts (I apparently have a better social life now!!).
The next text bundle up from mine is a 2,500 text package, and costs $10 a month (an additional $5 from what I pay).
I was under the impression that if I used more than 500 text messages, Bell would simply upgrade me to the higher package and charge me the additional $5.
I know that they do this for their internet packages. Use more than your bundle and they simply bump you up to the next one.
However, for text messages, they charged me 15 cents for each extra text, so my bill was $40 higher than normal, and was quite a shock.
When I called Bell, the customer service rep told me that I used too many texts and that was my own fault (which I suppose is true).
He gave me a number I could use to help check the number of texts I had sent each month to keep an eye on my usage.
I asked why they could not set up an automatic reminder once I had used the 500 text limit. He said they don’t do that. I said that would be much more helpful to me, but the idea seemed ridiculous to Bell.
I mentioned that for internet, Bell will simply upgrade your package once you have gone above the monthly limit, instead of charging huge amounts for overuse. He said this was true, and I asked why they couldn’t or wouldn’t do this for cell phone text messages. He seemed to think that was out of the question.
At the end of our conversation, I asked if he could submit the above two points to Bell as customer suggestions.
I thought I would pass this on, as I had little success in having my bill reduced and also felt that the suggestions I made fell on deaf ears. I have no idea if they were actually submitted, and don’t know how to go any further with this.
I was very disappointed with the billing, and also the disinterest in customer feedback and frustration.
David H
Jan 18 2010
One of the posts said that they understand that the phone companies are not responsible for third party charges practiced by these services, such as Motime.ca.
Why not? If I advocate hate or make unacceptable use of the service, they have the right (maybe even the duty ) to intercept. stop and report my activities (I think this is in the fine print of my agreement).
If i started to send out “illegal” materials, they would have me blocked in a week (i would say instantly but let’s give the big guys a chance to move). Especially if it was offensive to Rogers or Bell.
Where in the process do these companies provide information for Rogers or Bell (is this not like an application for services?) to send them the money that Rogers and Bell collect? Is it not possible that the contract terms include the review by the carriers of the service?
Although I don’t do the beating, am I not responsible if I pay the hitman?
CC
Jan 20 2010
I also received a charge for a service that I did not sign up for from motime.ca on my latest cell phone bill.
motime.ca says that when you try to download their content, you enter in your cell phone number and then they send you a text message with a pin, which you enter on their site and that activates it; I did no such thing.
I don’t give my number out at all either and I certainly don’t take quizzes and surveys online that require that information. When I called Bell Customer Service they implied that I must have accidentally clicked on something for the subscription to start.
I asked if there was a way to put something on my account to prevent third party billing and they just said there wasn’t and cited their third party billing policy.
I think this is outrageous. I have my cell phone for occasional and emergency use only and now I have to monitor it for text messages that tell me to text STOP to a number if I don’t want a service I never signed up for in the first place.
I have also put in a complaint to the CCTS about this. It might not be the phone companies who are doing the underhanded dealings, but I think it’s time they take some responsibility and protect their customers or at least provide measures to do so.
lily
Jan 30 2010
I face the same problem as all of you. I receive the link from one of my friends, and I don’t know that it is not sent by my friend, it is sent by the virus, so I click and it is a contest.
I am so stupid to input my mobile phone. and then I receive the text message almost every day, the same text which is “This is your chance to win a Wii-pack! Question: The Mona Lisa is a? A) Painting B) Sculpture ($2 CADpzzl) Text A or B to 88688).”
Then I misunderstand that only I reply the message, it will charge me $2, so I never reply and just delete the message. Although it is boring to receive this message every day, I don’t know how to deal with it.
Today I receive the mobile phone bill, OMG, there is $20 CAD for the “Short Code programs”. I check the detailed bill list, all $20 are for those text message from 88688. I send an email to Bell to find the solution. BUt I don’t remember which website that I input my mobile phone number, and I don’t know how to stop this scam. Who can help me?
lily
Jan 30 2010
I finally find the website, it is http://www.zemgo.com/.
How silly I am, and what a trick of it, I send the STOP to 88688, and now I unsubscribe it. I receive a text message, ” You have been successfully unsubscribed! You will receive no more messages from this service. Thank you for playing and have a nice day!”
OMG! I lost at least $30, what a pity and how silly I am.
JJ
Feb 10 2010
I just received a bill for an extra $60. I found out that these were texts from a company called ZEMGO.
I am with Solo Mobile. I did not sigh up for any websites. I have only ever given my phone number to friends and family.
I get texts from the #88688. It made me furious getting those texts. I can’t pay for the extra charge now. Isn’t this illegal?
Sam
Feb 11 2010
Today… like everyone else I put my cell number out there.. with motime.ca.
I realize I likely made a huge mistake, so I go back to the site and find a 800 # to call for help.
Austin tells me that it is cancelled, but I will still pay them via Bell Mobility.
Now I am told that just giving them my # I have entered into a contract!
I have gotten nothing from them and he says I will pay them $10.00 on my current bill.
I thought our consumer laws gave us three business days to change our minds. I had phoned them in less than 4 hours.
I phone Bell and am told yes I will be charged and changing my # won’t help.
What the heck!
I asked for a confirmation to be sent to an email address.
I also ask where he is and he is in India! Geez what a racket, this cell phone is gone at the end of the contract I am thinking now.
Strange I get a cell for safety and security and look what happens a different treat!
Thanks for listening!
madr
Feb 19 2010
Motime.ca does not even follow their own rules. Their website says that you have to enter the PIN before your number becomes subscribed.
I received the PIN but did not enter it. They still subscribed my phone number!
FG
Feb 26 2010
I have met the same situation. Frankly, I’ve never seen such a company like Rogers. Let me tell you why.
I was charged $13 in one short message. I asked Rogers and was told that I or someone else had subscribed to the service. This was nothing to do with Rogers and I had to send a STOP message.
But I am definitely sure that I didn’t subscribe to this service. It’s Rogers’ fault.
I followed the information they sent to me and checked the website (Motime.ca). This website needs two messages to subscribe the service. One is your cell phone number and another is your PIN. This is common sense.
Why I don’t like Rogers is because someone else in the same situation may think that their children had subscribed to the service. If their children deny this, this may cause misunderstanding between parents and children. In fact, usually, children don’t know the PIN and can’t subscribe to this kind of services.
If this kind of service just needs your cell phone number (I don’t think so), it is also Rogers’ fault. When you use your cell phone, your phone number will spread. Anyone can use your number to do bad things to you. Rogers should ban this kind of service, if this situation is true.
Let me tell you another story of mine. I am using a Pay As You Go plan of Rogers. One day, I bought a 40$ card. The card showed the expiration time is one year. When I bought, I found on the bill that the expiration time was only one month.
I asked them what happened. They told me that when I bought, the card had been activated and I had one year to start using it. That is the meaning of one year expiration time. But when you started, you just had one month to use it. Moreover, since you had activated the card (you bought), you could not return it. See, this is the sale strategy of Rogers!
Zarin Kassim
Feb 27 2010
Pay as you go service - unwanted wireless text message. I had a problem with messages sent by Zemgo and all my pay as you go charges were being eaten up by those messages, which I now understand are premium messages. Don’t recall subscribing to this service.
As I was using my work BB, I wasn’t using my pay as you go until one day when I had to make a call and found no money in my account.
Had to call Rogers several times to get to the right department. A lady asked me to type STOP (in caps) and the messages would stop, but I only got another message/question to the STOP message.
I called again. A second rep suggested STOP ALL (in caps) and this time I got a message saying that I have been unsubscribed. I hope that I have been unsubscribed.
Here is the message from 88688: “This is your choice to win a Macbook, Question: which planet is red? (a) Mars (b)earth. Text A or B to 88688 ($2/pzzl).”
These messages have eating my subscription amount for the past few months.
Rogers says they are unable to stop or block these messages when I ask them.
Unsubscribe via phone
Mar 12 2010
Check out the website so you can unsubscribe from 88688 text messages: http://www.zemgo.com/ca-en/contact_ca.html
Contact
If you have any questions you can email us at info@zemgo.com or call us at 1-877-777-3891.
Chris
Mar 17 2010
Same story. Called Bell Aliant and managed to have them suck up the charges. Problem is, the first bill was for $40 and it’s rising. The only thing I could do was disable the texting feature on my phone, a feature I use quite legitimately all the time.
I don’t understand how this is legal. It bugs me that the only way I can protect myself is to cut myself off from a service I use all the time. It’s as if I were charged every time a telemarketer call my home phone or a spammer sent me an email. Not sure why this is any different.
I get why Bell and Rogers go along with it. I’m sure they skim a little off the top. What I can’t understand is how it gets the CRTC seal of approval. I think they need a wake up call or maybe a few thousand short code text messages on the subject. That might get their attention.
Chris
Mar 17 2010
With apologies for the typos in above.
Daniel
Apr 28 2010
Today we looked at my wife’s telephone bill and saw $22 for 11 messages from “84040 Premium Text Trivia-For Info Call 1-866-257-4586″ which is “skill2thrill”.
Must be a law for this text scam.
The answer from Fido was “there is nothing we can do - you have to pay.” Fido has to be held responsible for not protecting its patrons and if it can’t protect them, it must be shut down. Simple and effective.
JK
May 6 2010
I have received a bill for premimum text messages, which would be fair under some conditions, such as either of:
a) the user of the phone had acutally subscribed to the premium text message.
b) If the bill said who the company or short code was that sent the premimum message. Given the lack of detail, it is impossible to either agree or disagree with the bill.
No one would accept anonymous credit card charges or anonymous long distance charges.
We denied subscribing to any premium service, and so far the response is “you must have, and you must pay”. In what environment other than cell phones would this be allowed?
I am not the only person who has experienced this. See
http://redtape.msnbc.com/2007/02/premium_text_me.html
I ran a google search on “premium text scams’, and there were 415,000 hits. It seems clear that people are being billed for services they have not asked for, and that no Canadian carriers at this time allow one to block premium text messages.
There are a huge number of cell phones in children’s hands, but the bills go to their parents. These children are easily duped by unscrupulous premium text message service providers.
At this time, the cell phone companies seem to have no interest in consumer rights. They get a portion of the proceeds from all premium text messages and, therefore, are siding with their financial interest.
It has come to my attention that Canada and its cell phone companies are lagging behind Australia and the United States in protecting customers from predatory use of “premium text messages”.
Australia has passed a bill to allow customers to block all incoming premium text messages. This facilitiy is overdue in 2010 for Canada.
Verizon in the U.S. has voluntarily offered it to their customers, either to offer a competitive advantage or to forestall legislation that might be more restrictive.
I see it as very important that parents be allowed to block such features from their children’s phones. I hear tales of some children unknowingly running up a bill into the thousands or supposedly as much as $10,000, in one case of a mentally incompetent 18 year old. (I’m assuming this person had a guardian who would greatly appreciate blocking such calls from the start.)
I wonder if it’s time for some Canadian class action suits.
Dana Bujak
May 29 2010
I feel that I was tricked in to this crap! I’m 37 yrs old, not 16 yrs old. I text them after a trivia text saying stop sending me this stuff. I was told they received this and chose to do nothing, except to keep sending me this stuff.
The 1st guy says there’s no one else to talk to, that he was it….? I get another guy “steve #2665″ (so he says) who says there’s no one else…..now I have 2 guys who say there’s no one else??? How can there be no one else if I have talked to 2 different guys???? omg!!
This makes ROGERS look bad because it shows up on the bill from them. It looks like they approve them to scam people. I’m not happy.
Mauricio
Jun 22 2010
Hi, I got the same problem. My wife just put the number in this trivia, later we have some messages, but I NEVER confirmed or reply, as the website says.
I got a bill of 44$ and FIDO don’t do anything about it. I have to send the stop msg but still, I would like to know if there is any legal action to take against this scams.
William Reid
Jun 29 2010
Oh, man. I just got through dealing with Rogers over ZEMGO.COM. We have been paying Premium Text messaging for about $16.25 a month since September 2009. That’s $160.25 !!
Rogers refunded us $30 for three months, but still this is remarkable. I am a sophisticated person. I also work in the marketing field. I can’t believe I got caught up in this scam. I had no idea! How do we get our money back??
Bridget
Jul 21 2010
I signed up on Facebook for local coupons, I think, that required you to give a cell number to get the coupons, even though they asked for your email address.
I was wondering why they required my cell number, but even though I put it on there and then erased it, how did it stay?
How can motime.ca get my number through a party on FB? I don’t even post my cell number on FB. This required signing up on certain advertisements. Is the only avenue that my cell number would have been divulged.
Stupid coupons that still have never made it to my inbox… FB advertisers, liars?? Who can answer this???
Some stupid ad costs me $13 automatically and doesn’t even give what you want.
Don’t sign up for Free Coupons Vancouver site, they still haven’t provided anything. Scammers…yuck.
And FIDO wouldn’t even let me speak with a representative, even though they were still open for an hour and a half…
Amy
Aug 16 2010
It is pretty simple to unsubscribe to the “88988″ Text messages. I just called the 1-877 # below and entered my phone number to unsubscribe. I received a text message back within 1 minute to verify.
1-877-777-3891.