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johnray's profile

Mentor

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29 Messages

Saturday, January 21st, 2012 7:01 PM

At&t let a third party charge me $9.99 without my consent

I got a spam SMS from 31850 asking me to sign up for some quiz, I just ignored it, I've always heard not to reply 'STOP' to spamers because then they know your number is real and being spammers they don't care what you reply. I've seen messages on this board where people reply 'STOP' and it does no good.

 

Anyway, I just got my bill and AT&T let this "third party" (it's in quotes because they have to be in cahoots with at&t for this to happen) charge me $9.99 for their subscription. I don't have time to deal with it now but I'll probably have to take time out of my day monday call At&t.

 

I usually don't get upset over stuff but I can't believe that AT&T lets someone sign me up for a  $9.99 a month charge without consent, without a password or pin or an email or anything.

 

By the way, you are all now signed up for my subscription service.  Please read this sentence to confirm.

 

Tutor

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1 Message

12 years ago

This happened to me.  I did not authorize the charge in any way, I'm a software engineer so I am well aware of how technology works.  I did not do anything, I simply got a SMS saying I had already signed up when in fact I had not.  AT&T did not believe me but still removed the charge.

 

It basically seems like some third party people are faking authorizations.  I don't think it's AT&T's fault really, they are just the billing party in this scenario.  But they do need to take note of fraudulent companies and block their charges.

 

On a side note, 4 other people at my work had the exact same charge, same story as me... just got an SMS saying they had signed up when they had not.

Tutor

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2 Messages

12 years ago

My AT&T phone bill was charge of $9.99 for Words/Definitions ale, provider: Mobile Plus, Inc..

and I NEVER sent or received a text or accepted ANYTHING.

Teacher

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5 Messages

12 years ago

I don't believe for a minute the victim-blaming nonsense that people somehow authorized this. My spouse and I have both started getting crap like this delivered to our phones at different times, and neither of us has ever downloaded ringtones or wallpapers for our phones, or anything else like that. These people are spammers. Spammers lie. Spammers ALWAYS lie. They claim you authorized stuff, and they'll happily offer made-up proof. (I once had a spammer claim that a signup occurred from a particular IP address. That address was a laser printer.) So no, it's not the case that everyone who gets one of these signed up without noticing.

Former Community Manager

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5.2K Messages

12 years ago

I'm sorry that you were charged by a spammer. Please take a look at this information regarding purchase blocker: http://forums.att.com/t5/Wireless-Billing/3rd-Party-Subscriptions-amp-Purchase-Blocker/td-p/3095123

Teacher

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5 Messages

12 years ago

Wingrider, just a thought:

 

All it takes is *one* example of a charge being added which was genuinely without any kind of user permission, and you are wrong.  No number of cases where there was some kind of user permission proves that it never happens without user permission.

 

Furthermore, we started getting these on a phone, many months after getting the phone, when it had NEVER been used for anything but communication with one other person on the same account.  That number is not given out or used in any way.  No downloads of ringtones, etcetera.

 

In short:  You're engaging in utterly ridiculous, over-the-top, victim-blaming.  What you've got going here is a cognitive error common to all humans called the "just world fallacy"; the belief that it is ALWAYS the case that people are somehow culpable when bad things happen to them.  You can't accept that the spammers might just be getting away with something, so you come up with this theory that there must actually be some kind of permission happening.

 

But it's not the case.  Yes, there are many tricky ways people can get "authorization", but that doesn't mean that every time they start billing, they used one of those.  There are dozens of ways that people can scam stores out of stuff.  That doesn't mean that there's no such thing as shoplifting.

 

The billing system allows third parties to start billing people without permission.  AT&T has *confirmed* that this is the case, and that there are cases in which the third parties do not actually have permission.  The "forward to 7726" thing exists partially because it helps cell phone networks track the spammers and disable their short code accounts.

 

Please stop trying to make excuses for scammers.  Yes, purchase block is a good idea, but the fundamental problem is that the cell phone networks will accept charges without any sort of confirmation, and that scammers abuse this by charging for things without any kind of permission.  That really does happen, and even if you were actually able to provide links and support for your claims that often there is a trick involved whereby they "got permission", that doesn't even begin to prove that it doesn't.

 

And you're quite right that a purchase PIN would solve the problem.  So would simply requiring a response text saying "ACCEPT" in response to all "subscription" services.  The problem is that you can get signed up through inaction.  If any sort of action were required, AT&T (and other carriers) could check their logs for whether the user had sent ACCEPT, and they would not have this problem.

Teacher

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21 Messages

12 years ago

I completely understand why johnray is upset by this. The EXACT same thing happened to me. It was one MSG right after the other & like johnray, I NEVER give my #, email, or other personal info out. I definitely don't purchase anything like apps, music, or anything for my phone anywhere else but from apple, & I never agreed to be charged a monthly fee - no matter how small the print. I did get purchase blocker, yet I still get the crazy short code text msg's with stupid facts, etc. but I make darn sure I forward whatever I can to AT&T before I delete them and I DO NOT respond to them. As you said, I don't want them to know they reached a valid #!! These people are SCUM & it isn't the first time it's happened to us. They got my husband for $19.99 a month for, get this, HORISCOPES!!! HA! My husband doesn't read that malarchy even when it's next to the funnies - where it belongs! Boy was he PO'd!! And I know for sure he never signed up for that!! Holy smokes did they peg the wrong person for a sucker! TWICE!! I'm with ya and believe you 100% that it was nothing you did to ask to be cyber-assaulted by these crooks! I hope someone puts a stop to them, because it sounds like we both have better things to do than take out AT&T's trash!!

Tutor

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1 Message

12 years ago

Another victim am I.  I don't care how big this company is, they do not have to right to charge me for something they have absolutely no proof I authorized.  The onus is on THEM to prove this was authorized by me.  How many times I heard today "....third party vendor....blah, blah, blah."        "......third party vendor....blah, blah, blah."  

 

It is not this third party vendor who billed me, it was AT&T.  My bill shows the contact for this service is:  www.att.com/mobilepurchases.  The bill shows it is a month AT&T Monthly Subscription charge.  It does not say it is a third party vendor charge subscription.  

 

When did AT&T become an emiment domain service?  

 

 

 

Contributor

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1 Message

12 years ago

What ever happened to "fair practices"? Obviously these 3rd party companies don't have to provide proof to start billing you. Nor do they have to provide it after they bill you. All I hear, is that "you somehow, some where, signed up for this service". It's an old scam. AT&T knows about it and has known about it. They (AT&T) update their end user agreements on a regular basis. AT&T sends out texts if your in the top 5% of high data users on your "unlimited" data plan. But they can't send you a text confirming a charge that's about to appear on your next bill. Give me a break.

Former Community Manager

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5.2K Messages

12 years ago

I understand your frustration and I'm sorry that you were billed by a third party without your authorization. 

 

The link that you provided is given to you as a means to review and manage your mobile purchases. 

 

If you have not already, please ensure a purchase blocker is applied to your line so you do not have this situation in the future. 

 

 

Teacher

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7 Messages

12 years ago

@wingrider01

{keep it courteous}  at&t's practice of permitting 3rd parties to bill us consumers is wrong.  Why do you defend it?  

When there are thousands of people who all see subscriptions for $9.99 or $19.99 or whatever without knowledge of this, and who did not sign up for these scams, there's something wrong.

I'm sure at&t is making money off this disgusting scam.  That's why they permit it.

Whether people are unintentionally clicking a link or not, it doesn't matter.  What matters is it's happening to thousands of people and at&t knows it and let's it happen.  And for many years now.

 

You know it's wrong so quit defending this practice.  Scum will not prevail.

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