Comments on: Unauthorized Cell Phone Charges? You’re Not Alone!

By: Harlene Willard

Harlene Willard — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:07:36 +0000

I CALLED VERIZON WIRELESS AND THEY PUT A BLOCK ON THIRD PARTY PREMIUM TEST MESSAGING. WISH I HAD KNOWN THAT SOONER

By: Riley

Riley — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:11:53 +0000

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.

By: Kevin Dufour

Kevin Dufour — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:09:09 +0000

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.

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:29:52 +0000

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!

By: Cherie Smullen

Cherie Smullen — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:16:16 +0000

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.

By: 11 Ways Wireless Providers Screw You Over

11 Ways Wireless Providers Screw You Over — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:31:54 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: Johnnie M. Jefferson

Johnnie M. Jefferson — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:28:50 +0000

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!

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:15:08 +0000

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.

By: ELVIRA

ELVIRA — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:03:26 +0000

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

By: Diana Seavey

Diana Seavey — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:12:04 +0000

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.

By: Nancy Andreasen

Nancy Andreasen — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:18:02 +0000

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.

By: sheri conover

sheri conover — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:32:47 +0000

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.

By: Corinne

Corinne — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:42:57 +0000

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.

By: enrico

enrico — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:07:52 +0000

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

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:59:11 +0000

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.

By: chris sheldrick

chris sheldrick — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:39:59 +0000

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.

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:55:40 +0000

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!

By: Cheryl Hunter

Cheryl Hunter — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:18:22 +0000

Charged on Sprint bill 9.99 per month unauthorized

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:36:19 +0000

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.

By: Cyndi

Cyndi — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:16:15 +0000

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.