5 posts tagged “fraud”
PhonepayPlus or, as I like to call them PeePeePlus, are in the news again. The regulator in charge of cleaning up a dirty industry is attempting to clean up it's own act but, quite frankly, is not going nearly far enough. The funny thing being that no one thinks they're doing a good job - whether they're in the industry or just unwitting helpless victims of it.
So, without much further ado, some recent news stories across the interweb that my Google News found for me...
The Register: PhonepayPlus gets stern on pricey premium raters
If I can steal some quotes from PeePeePlus that The Reg has um, quoted:
some companies have adopted practices which are leading to increased consumer complaints
The consumer cannot be charged until they have confirmed their subscription by replying to that text
There are many innovative, useful and fun services available to consumers via their mobiles
A majority of industry respondents were sceptical of the need for subscription services to seek active consumer confirmation, on the grounds that this could cause consumer confusion and adversely affect sales
Good to see PeePeePlus pussy-footing around what those companies they regulate get up to. Those 'practices' that these companies have adopted would be, in any properly regulated industry, illegal. Very few premium rate services are run in a fair and honest way. And, very few are offering a worthy service.
Common sense and best business practice would've suggested consumers should only get a service that they've opted in for. Had this been the case last year, Spread Media LTD wouldn't have been able to steal money from me and thousands of others.
And of course the industry doesn't want any measure that will lead to scam artists and rogue businesses earning any less. The big 'legit' aggregators/service providers make way too much money from them to truly want the industry cleaned up. Just look at how the world's largest mobile transaction network, mBlox, keeps teaming up with folk they know to be scamming the public. They don't care that innocent parties have had money effectively stolen from them and they don't care that they pocket part of the proceeds of such scams. Just look at how much time and effort I had to put in before mBlox compensated me with the grand sum of £10!
IntoMobile: UK: New measures issued for Mobile phone services’ marketing and payment
Mobile Entertainment: PhonepayPlus hits back at criticism
..and another nugget from M.E.: Could the new PhonepayPlus rules be flawed?
Oh and that's not a 'is it flawed for consumers?' but a 'is it flawed for the grubby companies in this grubby industry of ours?' by the looks of things.
The author of this article admits that the wife got sent an unsolicited text and they were happy enough to just send 'STOP' back. It looks like neither the author, nor his wife, actually checked their bills. Had they done, they'd have realised why people aren't happy with the industry and why there's a need for, at the very least, the measures PeePeePlus have now put in place. In my mind, from my experierence and that of other victims I've heard about, these measures are too little too late. This industry needs a full overhaul!
...and yesterday, and possibly the day before (heck, I should've just said 'week'!)
Mobile Industry Review PhonepayPlus: The dinner lady of the UK mobile industry
CBBC Tough new rules for phone pests
Mobile Entertainment PhonepayPlus 'Why we had to act against abuses'
and Mobile Entertainment again... New rules for UK mobile providers
And if you want expert analysis, well placed cynicism, some laughs and lots of dirt undug I wholeheartedly recommend The Scream's 'General Telco' forum here
This could quite possibly turn out to be the best day ever! Why? Er, did you not see the title of this post of mine? I've won half a million dollars from Nokia! It's still sinking in, I can hardly believe it... You know what? I don't believe it! Why the fudge would Nokia UK run a promotion from Thailand and give me US dollars as a prize? Why would they make it look so amateurish?
Why? Because they wouldn't. It is quite clearly a scam. Fortunately it's done so badly that only a complete and utter idiot would fall for it and, really, is that such a bad thing? It's Darwin but with money and not your life (now I'm singing Adam Ant in my head... nooooo!)
Just in case you're a complete moron, I've usefully highlighted a few things that seem amiss, such as really bad grammar (I know, pot and kettle!) and how the UK NOKIA PROMOTER is based in Thailand for some unknown reason. Of course, with outsourcing, big companies do locate whole swathes of their people all over the world - but they never make us dial a foreign number to talk to their foreign call centre!
Only a single CONGRATULATION from Mr Moore then? I guess he has to conserve them as, from a quick Google, I discovered I was far from alone in winning the 500k!
Now let's look at the WHOIS for nokiawebonline...
...and now for what nokiawebonline.com looks like:
I just wonder how many people fall for this kinda thing. It clearly jumps out to me as a scam, however others have clearly been taken in - at least judging from what I've read online about this (some accounts are from two years ago, so it's been going on a while too!)
You've gotta love the interweb and folk like del hombre 'El Gringo' over at The Scream's forums. He not only dug deep, but presented the evidence well.
I thoroughly recommend checking it out: Mobile Privacy Service: £1.50 con to use TPS - That's the service run by scammers who themselves send out unsolicited crap (mostly of an 'adult' nature and often without any indication it's a premium message from a company, not a person).
Whilst I leave the fellas at mBlox, Hotwire PR and McGrath/Power alone for the time being as I'm focusing my attention on Jamba/Jamster.
My latest mobile bill has three texts to the shortcode number 88888. As you can see from the scan below, these were all supposedly sent around 2.10am on July 31st (I presume my network, 3, considers a day begins and ends at 6am - so in reality this would be the 1st August).
Still with me? Good. Okay, here we go...
I went to Mobile Geeks of London on the 31st July* (not in the least bit geeky FWIW) and caught the train home afterwards. It was the last train and was a sloooow train. If I remember correctly, it took well over an hour. As usual, I walked from the station to my flat - that's another 30 odd minutes. And I had a phone that didn't have that much juice in it nor was I carrying a spare battery.
Why is any of that of relevance? Glad you asked! Because I had barely any battery life left on my phone I didn't want to waste it. I even sent a text to my mum to say that I'd be turning it off (I never turn it off - so wanted to put her mind at ease in the unlikely event anyone tried to ring me at 1am and couldn't get hold of me!) I then turned it off. Once I was on the train and found a power outlet I turned it back on and left it to charge. Would it really make sense for me to text 88888 in order to get myself some Crazy Frog wallpapers or crapola ringtones?
Now for Exhibits 'A' and 'B'... (for those eagle-eyed readers, I sent these on my laptop - not my phone!)
So I ask you fine people of the jury this, would I - someone that never ever feels the need for paying £1.50 for a picture of an ugly "frog" - decide to text the accused not once, but three times? And when my phone had barely any juice, when I wanted to be able to use it if necessary, on a late night train journey, then walk, home?
Funny thing, I was supposed to have texted 88888 at around 2am on another morning a few months earlier... (NB also 79998 - I think that one's genuine but can't be certain as it's not listed on PP+'s number checker and 68888 which certainly isn't genuine!)
As you may have read from my previous post, Jamba/Jamster were telling me my issue was with 3, and 3 were telling me my issue was with Jamba. I even entered pleading/begging mode with the 3 CS guy, something along the lines of, I just want to know who is at fault, who can help me and I don't want to be passed the buck any more. Of course that got me nowhere other than the usual script. He did say there was no way my phone/SIM could be cloned or my account remotely accessed - so I had to have sent those messages.
Jamba on the other hand say that they received "my" texts but didn't send me anything back. That got me thinking (yes, I know - that's dangerous!) if Jamba received these texts surely they were meant to provide a service? Or do they just receive a mass of presumably blank text messages at 2am that their computers log and don't act upon?
I'm tired already! Got to wind down... (although I may give Jamba another call, globalisation has its benefits sometimes!)
*How's this for a twist..? That T-shirt I'm wearing in the picture has 888 written on it!
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