Unauthorized Cell Phone Charges? You’re Not Alone!
Were you charged on your wireless cell phone bill for mobile content subscriptions or services (i.e., ringtones, games, joke a day messages, premium text messaging services, SMS text alerts, horoscopes, etc.) that you never authorized, ordered nor wanted (nor ever received)?
If you were, you are definitely not alone. Thousands of cell phone subscribers have shared their stories and experiences about this emerging problem facing cell phone customers and users nationwide. And they are not happy.
Mystery Charges? Phantom Billings?
Cell phone users have complained about mysterious or phantom charges appearing on their cell phone bills and accounts out of the blue, charges they claim were never authorized, for mobile content services and subscriptions they never heard of, from mobile content companies and merchants they often never knew existed, and for products they never wanted nor ever even received. These customers are upset, and rightly so.
They claim that money has literally been stolen away from them by their mobile telephone carriers and wireless service providers, from billing agents and billing aggregators and the mobile content providers or merchants, all of whom share in such premium SMS content revenues.
The “Third Party Charge” Wild Goose Chase
Cell phone customers say that when they call to complain (if they are lucky enough to find contact information and are able to actually speak to a human — a rarity) they are usually told that they simply must have authorized it. Ya right. They then are sent on a wild goose chase from carrier, to billing aggregator and to content provider, each of whom blame the other for the unauthorized third party charges.
Sometimes credits or refunds are given, usually weeks or months later — after persistent calls, complaints and customer threats — and then typically only partially, with the customer getting credits and refunds for only a small portion of the unauthorized charges. Of course, the customer will have spent considerable and valuable time uncovering, understanding and disputing the fraudulent charges.
The Cancellation | Un-Subscription Problem
Unfortunately, the charges are typically recurring (renewing each week, month, etc.), so the cycle repeats, unless the customer is lucky (and persistent enough) to be able to cancel or unsubscribe from the mobile content subscription that the cell phone customer was never subscribed to in the first place. Ironic, isn’t it?
The cell phone customers say that they are told to send an outgoing or reply text message (which typically costs them more money) to the content provider’s five (5) digit short code with words like stop, end, cancel, quit, unsubscribe, etc. Some users have reported getting more unauthorized charges (and more SMS text spam) after doing so. Others have reported being told that they were never subscribed to such services (well why were they being charged then?).
Some users are told that before they can cancel they need to provide their cell phone numbers and other personal information (addresses, etc.) to the billing aggregators and agents and mobile content providers — the same companies that charged them for products and services without authorization or permission (or spammed them with SMS text messages, etc.).
Tip of the Iceberg?
And these are just some of the stories we have heard…
If you were you charged on your wireless cell phone bill for mobile content subscriptions or services (i.e., ringtones, games, joke a day messages, premium text messaging services, SMS text alerts, horoscopes, etc.) that you never authorized, ordered or received, remember this:
You are not alone!
If you haven’t been hit yet with these unauthorized charges, god bless you (though, please keep your fingers crossed). If you are like everyone else and haven’t shared your story yet, please do so below.
–Report Unauthorized Cell Phone Charges–
Thumbplay added to my ATT cell phone bill when i HAVE NEVER USED nor ordered it.
March 16th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
My son’s cellphone has been hit by both Dada and Blinko. In both cases he had no idea he was subscribing to something – he thought the PIN they texted him was just to enable him to view available ringers. In both cases it took phone calls to both Sprint and Dada or Blinko to get the $10/month billings to stop.
April 4th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
How do I unsubscribe on my verizon phone from this not wanted service.
April 9th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
I recently noticed a charge from Thumbplay on my Verizon bill, after looking further into it, this has been going on since Nov. 2007. A charge of $9.99 a month from a company I have never heard of, charging me for a service I never authorized. Who knows how long this has really been going on? I contacted Verizon, they credited me for 1 month (last month) then they put a block on my phone so this won’t happen again. How does this happen to people?
April 15th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Received a $9.99 premium service billing for Red Fish Alerts on my Verizon bill. To Verizon’s credit, the on-hold wait time was VERY short, the rep VERY courteous and the resolution VERY fast. Now I ask the question….why the %&*% did Verizon allow it to happen in the first place?!
April 28th, 2008 at 10:43 am
charged 9.99 on verizon bill for ‘premium texting’. called Verizon who state it was 3rd part – said I ordered on phone – NOT – dada.net sent a txt msg to ME – I replied STOP!!!! Tried to cancel 5 times via my phone but dada kept replying ‘unable to process your requeset’. I want to know how and why Verizon (or any other cell company)takes bogus charges from these companies to put on MY bill – why does it go to Verizon – what ‘deal’ does verizon and these bogus companies have? I just don’t get how this happens?? AND there are no laws to protect us.
May 19th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
paying 9.99 a month for something I didn`t use
June 5th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Being billed 9.99 for something I didn`t use
June 5th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
I was billed $9.99 a month for 4 months by New Motion Inc. Bid4Prizes. I called AT&T and they removed 2 montsh worth of charges but would not credit me back the rest. Also They wouldn’t credit me back for the $5 late payment charge which I wouldn’t have incurred if they had not allowed this other company to bill me for something I didn’t authorize.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:16 am
My cell phone bill has the wrong dates of when calls were made. The calls were made but a few weeks earlier and a different billing period. Company advised they have never heard of this before. Am I getting scammed somehow and has then been heard of before? Thanks, ebbdeel@comcast.net
June 26th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Never subscribed, keep getting their texts to my cell! No clue how I got on this screwy thing! Praying it stops (have responded with STOP to 26706 and received text back saying I’ve canceled).
July 7th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Called Sprint – they are blocking content from enmob.com from now on and are applying for refund on my behalf (keeping fingers crossed). Good thing I caught it right away – charged me 9.99 this month for something I never subscribed to! Unbelievable that they can get away with this!
July 7th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Sprint now just told me they actually charged me for two 9.99 services and two 2.99 services this month! Sheesh!
July 7th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
WHAT THE HELL
July 7th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
called thumbplay who said my mom (who barely reads english and doesn’t know how to text) went to thumbplay and texted the confirmation. checked bill and 0 texts were sent/received on mom’s phone. i smell a rat.
July 15th, 2008 at 12:28 am
Please let me know how I can joing the class action law suit because T-Mobile will not refund $100. in charges.
July 27th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I just received my Sprint Bill and had $29.00 in unauthorized charges from Emexus. I am so angry and I know how sprint is so there is really no point in holding forever to get no satisfaction as far as a credit to my phonebill for this. If there is a class action on this I would love to participate.
July 31st, 2008 at 4:11 pm
i have a verizon phone and i was wondering why i was missing minutes when i just had bought minutes from my phone and if this continues it wont be pretty for that website i tried stopping it but it just send me another txt now my minutes are gone thanks assholes
August 2nd, 2008 at 5:34 am
I started receiving daily horoscopes and monthy charges of 19.99 from m-cube appeared on my AT & T bill. When I called AT&T they removed the charges and blocked activity by the provider.
August 7th, 2008 at 8:57 am
We are on a family plan, and I did not notice the extra charges on my son’s phone right off, so for about six months they charged his # 20.00 extra and then I added my daughter in July, and wondered why it was so much more than expected–the next month it was even MORE — I spent two hours contacting Alltel and asking them to remove these and they said they were legitimate third-party charges and my children must have “let someone else play with their phone” since they insist they had no idea about all this. They promised they would block further charges from different vendors, but their hands were tied as to blocking the ones already on there. I had a supervisor walk my children through the process of removing this access from the third parties already charging. It took about twenty minutes for my son, and they never did find the third-party on my daughter’s phone. Still, Alltel says they can’t do anything for us–no refund, even though they couldn’t find the third-party service on my 13-year-old phone! At best this is deceptive, at worst, Alltel is in bed with and engaged in wholesale defrauding of minors. I have the Alltel supervisor’s name and ID. I intend to send a registered letter to Alltel to complain, but I wish someone more powerful would take them on. They basically thumb their noses at us and they know we’ll pay, because it’s not worth it.
August 30th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I was billed from at@t wireless for mobile to mobile minutes that was suppose to be free. They charged me 119.00, said i went over my minutes. when i received the bill i called them they said they were going to straighten it out, but never did. i was being charged overage for mobile to mobile minutes that was suppose to be free.
September 8th, 2008 at 9:28 am
emexus still keep texting me dare not turn my phone on how do you stop them. i have text stop to 5 numbers that i got of this page but it did not work help?
September 11th, 2008 at 8:25 am
I suddenly started to receive text messages from Predicto and Sendme inc. I just deleted them and thought nothing of it till this month I two $9.99 charges are on my AT@T bill. When I called ATT they told me that i must have subscribed and I have to pay. I’m not going to pay even if they cut off my service – I won’t pay..
October 14th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
keep receiving text messages from +27831000113 which take R5.00 everyday, how do i stop this? It is expensive and annoying.
from South Africa
October 24th, 2008 at 8:40 am
I noticed charges on two phone numbers in my account. One for Bid4Prizes $9.99 the other for some entertainment group $19.99 and $9.99. These charges have been going on for 5 months. Shame on me for not noticing.
I called AT&T, they reversed 2 months worth, blocked all downloads for free and gave me no hassle at all.
The people at these scam unauthorized places should be ashamed of themselves, but I am more ashamed of myself not checking over my bill even when I noticed it went up. My mother who noted ever long distance call she made and double checked it with her bill each month, is rolling over in her grave right now knowing I allowed this to happen for 5 months.
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:04 pm
The beat goes on. I just found 4 months of charges and Sprint telling me they will “request” a refund from the third party service – no guarantees. Here is a way correct your issues going fwd. 1) Get the 800/877/866 nbrs from your carrier and call each number and get your phone number removed from service. 2) Ask your carrier to BLOCK ALL SHORT CODE SMS TEXTs – that will prevent any new service from coming into your phones. I hope someone calls Better Business Bureau as this is a SHADY business practice !!!!
November 28th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Someone needs to plug this gaping security hole! Verizon says that they have proof that text messages were sent/received authorizing these “premium text messaging services”, when in fact we never sent or received anything. Yet that’s where their knowledge supposedly ends. They claim they do not have information about the companies submitting the charges, and have no control over them. They further claim that they are legally required to pass along these charges. If this is in fact true, we need legislation passed requiring any of these so called “service providers” to register with the cell phone companies, just like they do with charge cards. They would have to submit all of their information and become “approved vendors.” Cell phone co.’s could then have full recourse to reverse charges, and start a fraud investigation – just like with charge cards. It simply is not right that a cell phone co. that I have a contractual obligation with can pass along a charge to me for a third party that they supposedly do not not have any contractual obligation with. Make these companies accountable by law to to cell phone providers!
As it stands now, Verizon gave me a “one-time courtesy adjustment”, removing it from my bill, so I don’t have to pay it. They do, however, so in the end it affects everybody’s price for service. More importantly, though, THESE PEOPLE ARE GETTING AWAY WITH STEALING MONEY, and must be stopped!
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:09 pm
My son got scammed too. I wrote down all my research here: http://www.viewpoints.com/IQ-Test-of-IQ-Quiz-Online-Scam-review-8e091
Maybe that will have some info that will help others. I hope so.
I think we are getting our money back. I will wait and see and not hold my breath.
December 31st, 2008 at 3:16 pm
This is pure and simple FRAUD! I just found the charge on my US Cellular phone bill.
I am contacting the billing dept. next will be the Better Business Bureau and anyone else I can think of.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Charged on Sprint bill 9.99 per month unauthorized
February 18th, 2009 at 11:18 am
I finaly received a REFUND from PredictoMobile for two months of unauthorized charges on my U.S. Cellular phone bill.
After COUNTLESS emails with US Cell customer service and PredictoMobile I demanded a copy of the log files showing I signed up to their service and copys of the text log files showing I replied “yes” two times. After that request I was contacted by PredictoMobile for my correct address to mail a refund check! I Informed US Cellular about the refund PROVING I never subscribed!
Note: US Cellular never replied. In my opinion they are in bed with this Scamming Company. I had already blocked all subscriptions on my FIVE lines w/o my permission as was told that did not include Premium Texting Service, I now have Premium Texting Service blocked. If any one hears of a Class Action Law Suit, PLEASE let me know. If we all stand together, we can stop this FRAUD!
February 18th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
the same thing is happening to my daughter .she no sooner adds minutes to a prepaid phone and this lovemeter takes them write off. virgin mobile will not do a thing and she is out $50.oo hard earn money . you have no way to contact them either.I turned in to bbb and the attorny general .something needs to be done.
February 24th, 2009 at 11:39 am
The last two months I’ve been charged $30 for six text messages sent to me from a third party. I spoke to Soul three times but still not resolved. How can they charge me for the messages some one sent to me? I deleted the messages with out read them but was still charged. The operater from Soul told me that it’s my problem because I shared my phone number to other people. She said if I don’t pay for it I’ll be charged $11 for late payment on top of the $30. I paid for the calls I made. I’m not going to pay for the text messages some third party sent to me. How can a phone company working together with those people to ripe of their customers? I’m not going to pay no matter what.
March 10th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Lisa, If by 3rd party you mean some business (not a friend of yours) and you don’t have a business relationship with the sender, then their text messages are illegal according to the TPCA. Call your service provider and ask them once more to remove these charges. If they refuse, let them know that you intend to report the incident to the FCC: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/tcpa.html
March 17th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
I feel Sprint is using predatory, inappropriate and illegal business practices that target and take advantage of minors. Sprint is trying to charge me for text messages sent to my phone that I did not authorize. I have repeatedly contacted Sprint to dispute the charges. Sprint has a relationship with CellFish, as a third party provider. CellFish sent text messages to my daughter’s cell phone, each with a charge of $1.99. My daughter is a minor – age 15. She was not aware that by accepting the text message, she was accepting a $1.99 charge for each message. CellFish repeatedly sent text messages to her phone – up to 64 in one day. The CellFish website posts under their terms and conditions that a parent or guardian must agree to the terms and conditions. I did not agree to any relationship with CellFish and will not assume responsibility for charges I did not authorize.
I have been a Sprint customer for over ten years. I have repeatedly contacted both CellFish and Sprint to resolve this issue, to no satisfaction. The CellFish and other unauthorized third party charges appeared on my November and December bills. I contacted Sprint on November 24, 2008 and disputed the charges. I was told to contact the provider. I did so immediately, multiple times via phone and e-mail with no reply whatsoever. I contacted Sprint on December 17 and was told that they would process a credit.
I contacted SPRINT again on December 31. Their customer service department said they would process the charge backs and I stayed on the phone with her for almost three hours as she meticulously typed in each of the 250 disputed claims. When I called back on January 13, I was told that adjustments were not applied to my account. I called again on February 4th and was told again the credits would be processed.
I have put in multiple hours trying to resolve this with Sprint. I never authorized the third party charges and have worked diligently with Sprint and their business partner CellFish to get them reversed. I believe SPRINT has an obligation to its customers to not allow highly questionable third party providers to run up unauthorized charges on an account. Sprint is obligated to protect its customers from companies that are using very inappropriate and questionable business practices – and are targeting minors.
Since I have not received appropriate satisfaction from Sprint, I have cancelled my account. I do not feel I have any further obligation to SPRINT and will not pay the third party charges or any early cancellation fees. I have filed a complaint with the Minnesota Attorney General’s office and am reviewing legal action against Sprint. I think there is a very good case to make that Sprint is using predatory, unethical and illegal business practices by allowing third party charges on cell phones.
March 20th, 2009 at 10:42 am
I had just signed up on Facebook, where I had found a friend I hadn’t seen in 20-some years. I was so excited that my anti-bovine detector failed to work. I stupidly responded to a prompt that said someone was looking for me. I had a fleeting idea to plug in my landline into the field, but didn’t. Dumb decision. Started getting moronic texts about how to flirt. Checked my bill — whoa, I’m getting billed for this junk? (Only I didn’t say junk.) Luckily, I got the patron saint of customers when I called the helpline at AT&T. I wish I got this woman’s name because she took my case personally, even got someone else to help out when she wasn’t finding out enough quickly enough. She waived the charges immediately.
I guess it is personal for her – she’s the one who has to deal with rabid customers who are blaming the provider for the mess. I admit that it crossed my mind until I learned about the subscription fee.
I hope the evil people who concocted this corrupt scheme find themselves disabled by a flood of idiotic textmessages.
March 24th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I activated phone service with Cricket Phone Company on July 2008. I had a hard time remembering to pay the bill so I decided to set the account up on auto-bill pay. The first month that I had it on auto-bill pay the bill didn’t come out of the account, so 2 days after the bill was due they shut the phone off for non payment (December 2008). I was discussed that they kept turning the phone off (wasn’t the first time, and I always had to go into the store to have it turned back on) so I decided to just not turn it back on and DID NOT ASK for it to be turned on again. I didn’t receive a statement so I assumed that my service was disconnected. I didn’t look at my checking account until a few months later and realized they were still taking the bill out of my account. They not only took out for the month that the phone was shut off but they also had charged me to turn it back on. The real clincher here was I didn’t know that I was being billed or that the phone was on again because I never received a statement. When I ask the representative why I hadn’t received a statement I was told that I had cancelled my paper billing. WRONG!!! As I told him I would not have cancelled the paper billing because I have a business and I need the bill for income tax purposes. He could not provide me with WHO it was that supposedly cancelled the paper billing. I told him if I HAD received a statement I would have known what they were doing. He said even though the phone was off, that the automatic billing was still on the account, and it was still being billed. Someone at their office is very smart and maybe they have done this before. I still say that someone at their office shut off my paper billing in order to keep me from knowing about the billing from my account, I would not have shut off the paper billing in a million years. They managed to cheated me out of about $300.00.
March 27th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Incident = I had two pre paid cell phones for my children ages 12 and 13. On March 2, 2009 I called Virgin Mobile to top up and I asked the rep to STOP auto top ups form the phones and she said she would. April, May and June 2009 we were billed almost $2,119 in charges that NEVER showed up in the payment history online at virginmobile.com! In the payment history the charges were only for the 6.95 month charge and occasional $20.00 top up and each month saying we needed to top up MORE. My bank statements continued to show debits sometimes 10 per day. After many attempts to speak to a Live Agent at Virgin mobile over several weeks, and dozens of hang up by the reps, I was told that my request in March to disable auto top ups was not processed because the account manager said they tried but that because I had a card on file to cover the monthly $6.95 charge they could not disable handset top ups but they never told me that at the time I called they said it was taken care of and
a card would have to be used with V key code to top up! Consequently it was march after I called that the charges began mounting up. I don’t know what happened to the phones (one was lost at school and I didn’t know about it) , or how we can prove we didn’t make the calls and we didn’t authorize payments but Virgin Mobile has a $49,95 unlimited plan and Virgin Mobile should have at least alerted me by email that these excessive charges were being billed and allowed me to switch over but the payment history on their website did not show all these excessive payments which was over $944.00 in one month and 44 top ups in one month. I’ am filing a dispute with Visa and anywhere else I can! This type of billing is abusive and each charge should have had to have my personal authorization and a pass code prior to topping up more minutes. The method used by Virgin mobile to pay for minutes is flawed and buyers beware the online records are inaccurate., also no paper bills are ever sent and difficult to retrieve past records. Customer Service with Virgin mobile is deliberately poor, including rude reps that actually disconnect or feign bad phone connection no matter what phone you call back on. When calling customer Service it is almost impossible to speak to a live person and the auto speaker does not allow for the caller to ask for live agent in a normal fashion. Virgin Mobile appears to make it very difficult to get customer service on purpose and refuse to make any adjustments.
Damage Resulting = as a result of these unauthorized charges we could lose our home or car since these charges were in excess of $2,000. I have been so stressed out I have become physically sick from it. I have no way to recover the money as yet and consequently cannot pay our monthly bills.
7 top ups in one day at $21.95 and $27.95 each.
I called Virgin Mobile USA 6 times on June 13, 2009. Each time I called Virgin Mobile, I had an extremely difficult time getting a live Representative and each time I did begin speaking with a Representative I was told they could not hear me or they disconnected me. The last time I called I spoke with Jackie at Virgin Mobile and Jackie told me after checking my records that she saw that I called on march 2, 2009 to make a $20.00 Top p and I had requested that both the Virgin Mobile phones would not allow auto top ups from the handset phone but that later the floor manager over rode the request without me being notified. It is ironic that from the time I called on march 2, 2009 to date, the top ups began automatically. The live agent at Virgin Mobile said the I had authorized the top up from the handset and I did not! I was never notified of these excessive top ups as a responsible phone company would do to see if the phones were stolen or if I would like to switch to the company’s unlimited $49.95 plan. No calls or messages were sent tome to notify me that my request to not allow handset top up was over ridden No responsible adult would have authorized all of these top ups especially since a unlimited plan was available. I have no problem paying the $49.95 monthly unlimited plan as a point of recourse with Virgin Mobile but I absolutely have a problem with being charged over $2,000 for the same minutes I did not authorize. I could not even speak to a live agent without my V Code password, so why would Virgin Mobile allow top ups without the same security feature? This is an abusive and usury method of hijacking ones bank account and I fell it is a disastrous policy for consumers.
June 15th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
I agree. Virgin Mobile are a bunch of scammers. They refuse to honor what they say. Their offers are not to be believed (the $15 dollar every 90 days top up thing wasa joke. YOu have to figure out a way to talk to a live adviser and be sneaky about it – you tell them you need “troubleshooting” and then say “something else” and they will connect you to a live advisor pretty fast. But, when you get the live advisors they alltell yousomething different or lie about services. they also won’t let you speak to a supervisor if you ask. virgin mobile is not good at all. you cannot even understand what advisors say ’cause they don’t speak english first. anyway, I agree. something needs to be done about virgin’s terrible service and unauthorized charging – that’s against the law by the way. this company needs to be sued or shut down or something
July 12th, 2009 at 1:03 am
My daughter (age 14) fell prey to the IQQuiz on facebook and had to put in her cell number at the end to get the results of the test. Cleverly disguised on a page was the disclaimers that looked like advertisements, so they are easily overlooked. Especially by a 14y/o. The terms state that you must be 18, but there was no validation of age. They obviously target minors who don;t know any better and have ties to the wireless carriers to get the subscription tacked on to the wireless bill with no questions asked. I’m waiting for the class action suit, should be coming soon I suspect.
August 5th, 2009 at 6:15 am
This” Horoscope Alerts has been added to my cell phone bill, which I never used or ordered it, can you remove it from my cell phone bill of $9.99,SAP!!!!!!! THANK YOU!
September 24th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
[...] existed, and for products they never wanted nor ever even received.” Making matters worse, ClassActionConnect has found that wireless companies are generally apathetic and unhelpful when their customers call [...]
November 5th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Atrinisic Inc/New Motion/Mobile Sidewalk – this company has been billing 9.99 for over two years. They claim that my senior citizen parents subscribed to their ringtone/phone game svc (sounds real plausible) first over the internet and then by texting them – my parents don’t have a clue how to text. I never check their part of the bill b/c they RARELY use their phone – I guess this is what this company hopes for in order for their thieving to be successful.
December 14th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I got my money refunded from PredictoMobile, ask for the log files showing you subscribed over the Internet and the texting log files. They coulod not produce them because I never subscribed. I received a refund check in about a week. We all need to stand up against the FRAUD companys.
If anyone knows a Legislator..tell them to Introduce a Bill making these actions punisable by law!
December 14th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
CellFish/Cell Flirt, Starts out as 1 or 2 charges for $9.99 per month collected by verizon. This month 8 “Premium” text messages. Wife did the Facebook IQ test. Apparently that enrolled her in a continuing service. Texting stop did not help. Verizon would not refund. They must earn some money by collecting for the scam artists. They are in it just as deep as the scam and have no finacial incentive to stop the scam or refund the charges. Criminal.
December 21st, 2009 at 3:09 pm
I started getting random text messages from Thumbplay about special offers. Knowing how to deal with this kind of thing i replied ‘stop’ but each time it sent me the same message about bonus ringtones. It took about 15 times before i got annoyed, called them, and cursed at the person on the phone. The text messages stopped alltogether.
December 30th, 2009 at 8:11 am
I CALLED VERIZON WIRELESS AND THEY PUT A BLOCK ON THIRD PARTY PREMIUM TEST MESSAGING. WISH I HAD KNOWN THAT SOONER
March 10th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
The FPS game, Crossfire, had a way to earn free game money (normally gained by using real money) and it was to do these surveys. I did some and they required cell phone numbers. I was charged $9.99 each site and i was FURIOUS! “Cellfish” and “Media Breakaway” are almost IMPOSSIBLE to contact! I had canceled the other subscriptions but these two in particular just didn’t have any phone numbers and Media Breakaway’s number was totally unreached. Can anybody help me unsubscribe to them? By the way, I do not remember the email addresses that I had entered (which was my fault but there has to be another way to unsubscribe).
April 23rd, 2010 at 8:59 pm
OMG! I called T-Mobile today to add a new line, and realized they have been charging me a text messaging plan $4.99 on my grandfather’s line for THREE YEARS, who doesn’t speaks English and uses the oldest version phone!!!
I was so Furious! that I asked the representative how was it ever possible for my grandfather to get this plan added. She said I must added on the website, I told her I don’t know how to do that .. even at this point! She told me at the beginning that it would be very easy to add the plan, maybe i clicked something without knowing. I told her If I sign up something, I would need to agree on a contract, and I’ve never done that online before, don’t even know how to.. I ask her to go through the process with me online, and in the end realize I could not do that online.
Then she said you must have added the plan on the phone. She told me that anyone can add any plan on their own phone without my ( the person responsible for the billing) knowledge. I could not even see that on the bills!!!!!
I ask her the same to go through the process of adding a plan on the phone with me, and we end up with a dead end as well, the phone said I cannot add such plan from the phone!
I still cannot believe I paid over 150 dollar over the last three years without knowing what it was! It was not shown on the bill, because I can only see the activities on my phone but not anyone else’s line on my family plan!!!
I totally support this class action and I will provide as much information and support as I can! Please email me for more info!
May 2nd, 2010 at 4:17 am
Other than the unauthorized text plan they charged me for three years ( mentioned above) , which we never used a single text message on that line for three years.
I also have been receiving unwanted text messages to tell me the only way to stop is to text ‘stop’, I did, but it did not stop~ instead I received more texting back saying “thank you” and other unwanted comments. I still get them sometimes
May 2nd, 2010 at 4:22 am
I just got two months of $9.99 thumbplay charges on my Verizon bill and it took three phone calls to get it removed, assuming that it is removed. I sent a text to 48000 saying ‘stop’ and that hopefully stops the issue. This is just plain fraud. I will be working to stop it.
August 22nd, 2010 at 11:46 am