New Mobile Phone Scam

[Valve Bounce]

I received my mobile phone bill and found five charges for Premium SMS Messages totalling $22.75. When I told OPTUS that these were unsolicited messages for which I am being charged through OPTUS, they told me to send a message to this particular number with the text stop. However, OPTUS refused to cancell these charges on my bill, even though it apprears they were well aware of the scam.

After much discussion and several more phone calls, I finally reached this guy in OPTUS who told me that he will block my numbers from all future Premium SMS Messages. He himself as well as his brother had also been similarly scammed.

I would suggest members, particulary those in Australia, to contact their mobile phone provider and instruct them to block all such messages from their mobile phone number(s).

[steve_spackman]

I received my mobile phone bill and found five charges for Premium SMS Messages totalling $22.75. When I told OPTUS that these were unsolicited messages for which I am being charged through OPTUS, they told me to send a message to this particular number with the text stop. However, OPTUS refused to cancell these charges on my bill, even though it apprears they were well aware of the scam.

After much discussion and several more phone calls, I finally reached this guy in OPTUS who told me that he will block my numbers from all future Premium SMS Messages. He himself as well as his brother had also been similarly scammed.

I would suggest members, particulary those in Australia, to contact their mobile phone provider and instruct them to block all such messages from their mobile phone number(s).

http://www.ripoffreport.com/

[Mark]

Same old story. The usual thing is they get kiddies to text a number to get what they think is one ringtone, and they proceed to send them one a day and charge them like £1 a go for it.

[Jag_Warrior]

A financial show detailed something similar happening in the U.S. today. A lot of scam companies are sending out spam texts to cell phones in the U.S. When people complain to their cell providers, most are told that there's nothing the cell company can do. The financial guru said it's not that there's nothing they can do, there's nothing they will do: they're making money from the text messages being sent/received.

I hate text messaging to begin with - why have a phone if I'm going to type instead of talk?! So it really sets me off when I receive a spam text message.

[Valve Bounce]

No doubt about it - the mobile phone providers are very well aware of these scams, which they deny are scams. One fellow from OPTUS even told me the number to ring to complain, and when I said I already tried that and nobody answers the phone there, he said he was willing to call them to ask them to call me. Now, in my book, the phone company are in collusion with the scammers as this will bring them enormous revenue. I am contemplating contacting the TV stations Current Affairs Program about this scam.

[Mark]

It was the same situation with the rouge dialer thing a little while back. The phone companies refused to do anything because they were making money out of it. To me that meant they were an accessory to theft and just as guilty as the scammers themselves.