ShowMama

Sorry this is so long, but it really happened to me and I want to warn everyone I can. - ShowMama

My cell bill this month was about $20.00 higher than usual, so I thought I'd check our usage. There were two charges on my bill for $9.99 each for "monthly subscriptions". One was for "entertainment alerts" and the other was for "love genie tips alerts". One of the charges was made in February only, but the other one had been charged in January and February, so I had already lost another $9.99 that I hadn't noticed. I had never authorized a subscription to either of these services, but I did remember receiving text messages from those services which I thought were just random texts. So, I looked into how these charges could have been placed on my phone bill.

When these texts came into my phone, I was unable to tell who they were from so I opened them. When I saw what they were, I just deleted the message. Now, what I have found out is that when you receive one of these texts, you have to reply with the word "stop" or "decline" or something, within 24 hours or they will place a charge on your phone, hence my two "subscriptions". I had no way of knowing about replying to stop the charges, and this really happened without any authorization from me. How dare they do such a thing!!!! But they did!

I looked on line and found a website for "love genie tips" and a phone number was provided. I called that number and reached a third-party service for un-subscribing. When I told him I wanted to stop the subscription and also get a refund on my charges, I was given no opposition whatsoever. With my cell phone number he could look in his system and see that I had been charged twice for this service. He un-subscribed me and told me that a refund check for both charges would be mailed to me within one week. All I had to do was give him my address. That simple. I'm sure this scammer offered the refund and un-subscribing so readily to prevent any legal action, knowing what they were doing is wrong.

The other service had a website actually listed on my bill, but it was not a working site when I tried to find it. Searching on line only lead me to sites where people have complained about being scammed on their phone bills. So, I called my carrier, AT&T, and asked for their help. The AT&T rep was able to stop the "subscription" and will also give me a refund for the one charge that was made to my bill in February (but they can only go back 60 days, so I lucked out). She also told me about a FREE service to block purchases through my cell phone number. This has to be placed on my number by AT&T and they will issue me a PIN number that must be used if I ever do want to make a purchase of any type over my phone. I don't actually do any shopping with my phone, but I know a lot of people do. It might be a pain to remember that PIN number if you want to make a purchase over the phone, but at least no purchases (or subscriptions) can be charged to your phone without that number. You can bet I'm having that service added.

This sort of thing makes me SO ANGRY! To think that someone has the ability to send a text to my phone number and then start charging me a monthly fee just because I don't respond is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever come across. This is somewhat like those book clubs where you will be sent the next month's selection if you don't cancel it, but at least on those you have to initiate the books being sent in the first place. Here, you don't have to do anything except have a cell phone. No initiation, no request, no nothing!

I was lucky enough to catch it and stop it before it got worse, and hopefully will receive the refunds I've been promised. So, please check your bills to see if you have received this kind of text messages and make sure you aren't being scammed too.

Sweeterthanwine

Thank you for the heads up. Will be checking my cell phone bill more closely.

bakermom

I had the same thing happen, but 3mos. of charges were remove from mine. Verizon recommended i check my next bill in case another had gone thru before they caught it.
there was a news story on our local station recently about this. Those "junk" texts come in with the charge attached. It is recommended you text"STOP" back instead of just deleting like many of us do. Of the 4 lines on our cell bill, only one had these charges. Verizon put a block on all lines for us. I had noticed the bill was a bit higher but really didn't look close because i knew one DD was making a lot of calls due to job search. her phone was not the one with the charges though. the customer service guy told me he had the charges on his phone too.
How this can be legal is beyond me.

AshleyR

Wow, glad we only use pre-paid phones. Cheaper and will never have to deal with this!

Mellina

I had the same thing happen to me. I just called Sprint and told them to block all texts. They did. We had a news program about this type of scam also. It is just a shame what people will do for money. Always try and hurt the poor folks over and over.

Nanamoms

I have received a text or 2 like this. I hesitate to reply with Stop because I was afraid it would actually activate something!! I will be watching my phone bill to see if I'm charged. Thanks for heads up!

bakermom

Nanamoms, we think that is how the charge got on DDs phone. she was deleting them because she was afraid to open in case it would activate something.

sweetana3

This is a huge and nationwide scam. Pass the word around to everyone you talk to. Blame Congress for allowing third party billing thru your phone bills (ha, for your convenience). Blame the phone companies for their greed in passing thru these false charges. Neither the phone company or the billing company will be able to prove any of these charges. In some cases forged info has been passed off.

Do not let either company off the hook. They will try everything to get you off the phone. We got all reversed and demanded proof which they could not provide. The phone company themselves needs to prove all charges and make them go back as far as charges found. Demand proof of balance and do not let them try to pass you off to the billing company who is a scam.

Report it to the FTC and your Congressman. You can google search and find that this is all over and millions are being scammed for millions of dollars.

I am just furious about how easy these companies and Congress has made scamming us all.

Caswews

YIKES !!I thought putting your cell/landline on the Donotcall.gov would protect us from this .. UGH !! I did have the scam about winning a 1,000.00 Wal Mart card go through our town recently .. I will for sure put in stop but we were told not to answer it as they would have our information if we did .. interesting

buslady

Yikes! What will they think of next. Absolutely exasperating that this can actually be allowed. We do not have ATT, we use a local company that covers the thumb area quite well and reasonably priced. I am going to talk to them and find out of this is possible on our system. Thanks for the heads up!!!!!