App-slammed!

[dreamshark]

Yesterday I got 3 unsolicited text messages from something calling itself "Calc IQ" welcoming me to "Trivia Alerts."  This essential service sends you 3 pointless "trivia messages" per month for the trifling charge of $9.99.  And you don't even have to sign up - they do it for you!  I checked my Pay As You Go balance, and sure enough, $10 had just disappeared.

So I got to spend 15 minutes this morning traversing customer service Voice Mail Hell to get the charge reversed.  I also got a "purchase block" on my account, which requires me to verify any purchases online with a special new PIN #.  This setup should, of course, be the default.  But until you get slammed once you don't even realize it's an option. When I got my purchase PIN# email it was identifed as "Parental Control."  Which suggests that they probably wouldn't even offer this blocking feature if it weren't for the ongoing hysteria about children being corrupted by online smut. Yay for hysteria.

Apparently if you don't have this feature turned on, any 3rd party that feels like it can simply add a charge to your bill without asking you. I'm surprised I haven't had this happen sooner. Oh well, all's well that ends well. I still got charged $.60 for the text messages, but it didn't seem worth arguing about getting those charges reversed.  Besides, I did learn how to defend myself if I'm ever attacked by an alligator.

Comments

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

That's appalling!

What phone do you have? I don't think I have a 'Pay As You Go' account. Or do I?

[pyffe.livejournal.com]

I have a Virgin Mobile pay as you go. Which is yours? You have me wondering now!

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I have AT&T Pay As You Go. However, from a little quick googling I can see that this occurs across all carriers and plans. I mentioned it to a friend at work who has an iPhone on a regular AT&T monthly plan (not PayGo) and she discovered that the exact same creeps had slammed her account as well. Maybe they are running through contiguous blocks of iPhone numbers.

This kind of thing has been happening for years with landline phones, usually sneaky changes to long-distance plans without the customer's consent or knowledge. This business with the "trivia service" seems to be a new twist to extend the scam to texting.

So check your phone bills.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

A couple of years ago, my phone service was switched. I didn't even notice until the bill came. I was "slammed". I called both Qwest, who let it happen, and the company. Both offered tepid apologies and the new company said it would look into its rep.

The major upshot: I didn't have to pay for the nearly-month of new service, and Qwest didn't charge me either. So several hours on the phone saved me a little money. I'm trying to keep the same phone # that I've had for 25+ years, and succeeded, but Qwest gave me a different account number, so I'm not sure if they'll recognize my loyalty (the rep promised to put it in the notes).

You're right, of course: Security should be the default. Too many businesses thrive on their customer's lack of attention. I'm not going to look it up, but not too long ago it came out that something like 60% of AOL's profits came from older customers still paying for dial-up they didn't need.

[buttonlass.livejournal.com]

We had something incredibly similar happen at work to our business account. Because our business is small I sit next to our accountant and heard all of it. Someone at some point had signed us up for help with "publicity listings" which charged our account as a third party somewhere around 50 dollars a month. No one at our business did this, it was all done by the third party, and the phone company never checked. When the accountant called the scammers they claimed our current VP had done it, before he worked there. It was amazing. I can't believe this is legal.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's actually legal; it's just that there are no penalties. If/when the slammed customer notices the additions to their bill it is not usually difficult to get the phone company to reverse the billing. However, there don't seem to be any consequences for either the phone company or the sleazy third-party-services beyond the few minutes that the phone company rep has to spend on the phone with the irate customer. If there were a fine involved, I'm sure the phone company would be able to devise a procedure that would keep this from happening.