13 posts tagged “spread mobile”
Back in August I got stung for the second time by Spread Media/Spread Mobile and their pals mBlox. I had never chosen to do business with either company. However, that didn't matter - they had my mobile number from somewhere and were able to repeatedly take money from my account.
Spread and mBlox got done early in 2008 for doing this to a bunch of folk, they sat out their short bar from providing such "services" and then did it again later in the year. Un-frigging-believable eh?
No doubt the guy behind Spread will launch another company and team up with mBlox again. I can almost guarentee it. There's nothing to stop 'em. The law and the regulators would appear to be on their side. mBlox's PR just don't get it either, they joked about me kicking up such a fuss. Well, wouldn't you if you had money stolen from you? Okay a few quid here and there isn't the same as having your house ransacked but the principles the same.
Oh well. Not much can be done. None of the UK mobile operators are interested in stamping this fraud and abuse of their customers out. My operator, H3G (aka 3UK or 3 Mobile) made it clear that I was on my own and 'good luck getting your money back' (not a direct quote, but not far off). The police, politicians, consumer organisations and industry regulators - not one of them in the least bit interested in stopping this abuse and bringing the culprits to justice.
Poor old Florian Demuth, Customer Services Advisor at PhonepayPlus. I gave the poor fellow quite a hard time last year regarding the times I was scammed by unsolicited reverse-rate SMS cowboys. Firstly I recorded every conversation and, to comply with the law, told him as such. Secondly I ranted and er, ranted, about the whole sordid industry his organisation supposedly 'regulated'.
He did quite well sticking to the script but you could tell he was holding back from saying some things. There was always a slight hint that, deep down, he loathed the industry and was clearly not in the right job (which, amongst other things includes defending the indefensible).
Anyway, with all this talk about PhonepayPlus at the moment, I came across an interview in the regulator's own newsletter where the chappie (which, I must admit, until now I thought was a lady!) admitted the following:
The vast majority of complaints are related to reverse-charged text messages consumers state to be unsolicited.
That's right folks, the vast majority of complaints are because people have been charged for something they never asked for! No amount of 'educating the customer' will help in this matter. In many (I'd wager, most) of these cases the company responsible will have deliberately chosen to steal money from mobile subscriber's accounts in what would, in any other industry, be classed as theft or fraud.
I spent many months, sent many emails, made many calls, posted dozens upon dozens of stories related to the theft from my account and only after all of that, the company responsible, mBlox*, finally gave me a cheque for £10. I wonder how much they've pocketted through fellow victims not knowing or giving up trying to get the money stolen recovered?
Of course, in the premium rate industry, those that work for the regulator also work for the companies responsible! It's that cosy, and the rewards are great.
*mBlox helped Spread Media carry out this fraud. mBlox may claim that it had nothing to do with them, they were just the conduit (or some such thing) but this was far from the first time the two companies worked together and ended up doing the same thing.
The guy behind this is known as being a bit shifty*. He's sent out a bucket load of unsolicited crap and charged folk on the receiving end for the privilege (including moi). He's been ticked off by the regulator before but keeps coming back, 'cos the regulator doesn't give a damn.
The joker has the cheek to run a site that claims to put a stop to what his other companies do. Crazy that, isn't it? Well let's see what PhonepayPlus have to say about it (yeah, I like wasting time!)
*Did I forget to say he sent me a 'goodwill' check that bounced?
Yesterday I received a letter from my bank and enclosed with it a returned cheque. The cheque that Spread Media gave me bounced (as I suspected). David Shepard's Spread Media and Spread Mobile have already shut up shop and it looks like it's just a matter of time before his other worthy enterprises do the same.
Despite him still having my money, he's not a very good scamster! I mean all that effort, for what? Although it must be great scamming people when you don't need to trick them, just send premium rate messages to a bunch of random numbers and hey presto. The likes of mBlox make it possible.
Anyway, Hotwire PR and mBlox, you wanna help me get my money back and give me some answers while you're at it? Cheers guys. As for PhonepayPlus... don't get me started!
David Geoffrey Shepard (BA, BA hons) was born on the 20th of February 1970 in what was then a troubled Johannesburg. At some stage of his life 'G' (as he liked to be called by his chums) left South Africa, possibly when apartheid ended and Nelson Mandela took over. It was after he graduated from St Benedict's College in the affluent town of Bedfordview in 1987 anyway. No one knows for certain as it all happened in the last century - a time before computers and filling cabinets.
Update: Long lost documents have surfaced that can shed some light on those missing early years...
He went to a couple of universities in South Africa (1990-1998) before moving to the UK and continuing his studies at a community college in Oxford (2000-2001)
For more than a decade G has lived in the historic English city of Oxford. Whilst there he has philosophised, created art, designed webs and sent out (and charged for) a whole host of unsolicited adult content to those British folk silly enough to use mobile telephonical devices.
While David isn't building a vast business empire spanning numerous websites, online shops, ventures and logo designing, he has been busy giving back to the community with his tireless work for Oxford Brookes University (where he uses a computer or something).
As well as the good times, there have been hard times for David. But all throughout his friends and colleagues have been there to help him, to support him. One such fellow was Mark Henstone, he once worked with David at Spread Media but moved on to mBlox (where he is now a Strategic Account Man-jester or something) Unfortunately all the help in the world couldn't save huge swathes of G's online portfolio, with recent casualties including Spread Media, M-Pimp Limited (clearly pimping ain't easy) and Szassy Mobile.
No matter what ups and downs David has, he never loses sight of his true gift to the world, that being his art...
His work is reminiscent of what Claire, the chick on Six Feet Under slung together created whilst trying to impress her talentless peers and that creepy professor guy. One picture even reminds me of Mika Miro's later works (nah, just kidding - Joan Miro was talented!)
More will be written on David in the future, he is the man of the moment and there's still plenty to be said. In the meantime, sit back check out his art (click images for the full size) and finally David, it's over to you...
Philosopher, Artist, Web Designer, Silver Plaque Installer... A versatile copywriter and creative marketer accomplished in both print and web publishing... with wide-ranging experience in positions demanding high levels of interpersonal and verbal communication skills.
As I have neither the time nor the will to look into all of mBlox's misdeeds I'll just focus on the ones involving Spread Media Limited. Get in and buckle up...
The infraction back in September didn't, as far as I know, affect me. It didn't seem to affect anyone by the looks of things. Or did it? Well no member of the public complained, but that's not the whole story...
Let's look at September 7th 2007 first (key points):
- A member of the Executive received an unsolicited text message
- they (the Executive member) had not at any time participated in a reverse billed SMS service and that the message had been totally unsolicited
- ...the breaches that had occurred, particularly illegality which is considered as always causing consumer harm...
- The information provider stated they had purchased the opt in list from a 3rd party and that this party informed them that the mobile number in question had opted in when making a one-off payment for a ringtone/logo in January 2004. No other evidence was presented to support this
- INAPPROPRIATE PROMOTION: UPHELD
- The Executive believed the description of cost as “150p 2 rcv” was not a sufficiently clear format
- Despite no further messages being sent by the user to confirm details, two further chargeable messages were sent to the mobile phone number
- The Executive found that consumers were being charged for operational and instructional messages prior to accessing the service
- The Executive found that the promotional text message failed to display the identity of the information provider or their relevant contact details
- The information provider stated it had tightened its internal procedures, ensuring contact details are now included in marketing messages and ensuring all marketing messages have Director approval before they are sent out
The result was they got away with it (a formal reprimand and a £500 fine, I kid ye not!) Why? Because no member of the public made a complaint. That's not to say no one got ripped off - folk probably knew it wasn't worth all the time and hassle to get a couple of quid back. If you look at how many hours I've spent and I'm still out of pocket, can you blame people for not complaining? It's kinda like when some money goes missing from a wallet or purse. Maybe there's a couple of pounds in there, you leave it on the bar, turn around for a second and although it's still there, the coins have gone. Do you report it to the Police? No. You know they can't/won't do anything, so what's the point wasting your time? It's a small amount, you put it down to experience and then you move on.
Now let's look at June 19th 2008:
- “the Executive” received 90 complaints about a text chat promotion service, 17 of which formed the basis of its initial investigations.
- Complainants reported that they had received unsolicited chargeable promotional SMS messages
- The information provider confirmed that the service allowed for billed introductory chat messages to be sent at a cost of £1.50
- ...the information provider stated that it had bought a data list from an external supplier
- The Tribunal noted the high volume of consumer complaints (90 in total) which included the evidence of a former employee of the Executive and concluded that the information provider had failed to provide any satisfactory evidence of consumer consent to receive such messages
- Recipients of the unsolicited reverse billed SMS were misled as to the nature of the message
- The content of the messages was misleading. They suggested that the recipient has been contacted following a referral from another person advising that the recipient was “a lot of fun”
- The Executive considered that the sending of unsolicited chargeable SMS took advantage of the inability of the consumer to block reverse-billed SMS
- operating a service in such a way that consumers were billed without their consent or knowledge, the information provider had taken unfair advantage of this circumstance
- The Tribunal concluded that the service had been promoted in a wholly inappropriate fashion. It was a chat service which was sexual in nature, and had been promoted to a married man and to a business mobile phone, which had caused problems for both recipients
- The Tribunal’s initial assessment was that, overall, the breaches taken together were very serious
- The information provider appeared to have been reckless
- The service caused material consumer harm
- the Tribunal considered a previous case against the information provider in September 2007, in which the circumstances and breaches were markedly similar to this case. The Tribunal was particularly concerned that in this case the seriousness of the breach had escalated from that of the previous case, suggesting that the earlier formal reprimand and fine had either been ignored or had little impact.
Oh, there's way more and I could've been more concise but hey - there's only so many hours in the day! So, what do you think readers? If you were mBlox, would you have worked with Spread Media again? Even the dodgy regulator stated the whole thing stunk. Doesn't sound like mBlox cared, does it?
I apologise for any typos and formatting issues. I just wanted to get this post out there ASAP.
Upon their suggestion I rang them. I got nowhere. I emailed. Didn't get a reply. I'm in exactly the same position as last week and the week before.
I've wasted more time and effort and still haven't got my money back or had my questions answered. Most people would give up by now, it's only a few quid. Move on. Did that last time and look what happened!
mBlox keep telling me that they're just the provider of the numbers and transactions. That my beef is really with the service provider...
No mBlox, my beef is with YOU and YOUR CLIENT. That's right, both of you. You want to know why? Well let's have a look at who PhonepayPlus fingers...
mBlox are leaving me high and dry. They were foolish to continue doing business with David Shepard's Spread Media (aka Spread Mobile). Me? My culpability extends to being foolish enough to own a mobile phone and expect to only be billed for services which I've asked for.
mBlox, you're the world's largest mobile transaction network - right? Y'all seem to be doing well, no? You've taken a keen interest in my blog, so I'm guessing you don't like the bad publicity. Why don't you just give me my money back as a goodwill gesture (if for no other reason)? It amounts to less than £10! Seriously, we're talking a tiny amount.
Hmm...
I think I've hit on why they won't do that. They'll be opening the floodgates for others. I guess the games are going to continue then. BTW you do realise that your investors, clients, and potential partners are all dropping by here, don't you? They tend to be interested only in my posts about mBlox, nothing else.
Just got off the phone to customer services after I finally received the email I was promised yesterday. It wasn't very fruitful so I've just fired an email back. I had my hopes up yesterday when speaking to the guy from Hotwire PR. It looked like things were going to be resolved and I'd have my questions answered. Oh well!
At least they're finally facing the fact that many of their clients are dodgy and they have to do something about it (or at least appear to be doing something about it). See my previous post for more detail on their new 'mBlox Detect' dodgy billing detecting system. Preventative measures are better than cures, but never mind...
Most people would've given up hope of getting back a few quid and just write it off - but not me! Does make you wonder how much mBlox and their clients make from dodgy billing. And do mBlox inform regulators, operators, networks or end users if they detect something dodgy if phone customers haven't noticed/complained?
Hey Kia (opps, typo - I don't think you're a subsidiary of auto maker Hyundai)...
Let's start again, shall we. Good afternoon Kai, I'm glad you're reading. Any chance you can update me on the progress of my refund, the full details of your client Spread Media and such like? If you would, that'd be great.
Cheers from merry old England,
Anthony
*DISCLAIMER: I should say that this message is what started me off this time. A completely different message from mBlox/Spread Media pissed me off last time.
Hey Kai Kugler,
I figured there's no point emailing you as you guys don't really read those. However I do know you guys do read my blog, so here's an open letter to you. First of all here's what you said to me on the 2nd of September (my boldness!):
Dear Sir,
I understand that you recently had cause for complaint regarding a mobile service operated by one of mBlox's clients on the short code 84566.
mBlox, through our own internal audits and monitoring, recognised that there was an issue with this service over the weekend and we have consequently suspended this service. Furthermore, we have demanded that our client refund all those affected. This refund process, for the full value of the charges plus an additional goodwill payment, is underway and you should be contacted in the course of the next 2-3 days, though probably much sooner.
mBlox takes consumer care very seriously and we move swiftly to assist consumers with complaints that come to our attention. We can be contacted directly through our consumer support pages at http://www.mblox.com/support/questions/form.php or via phone - our local support numbers are also listed on this page.
To clarify: mBlox is a telecommunications aggregator that provides infrastructure between SMS (Short Message Service) content providers and mobile phone operators. You can find more information at http://www.mblox.com.
Many differing companies use our network to deliver content to
customers. This content could be ringtones, wallpaper, screensavers,
games, chat services, premium text or other kinds of content that are
available and consumable on a mobile phone.Should you continue to experience any issues, please do not hesitate to contact us.
With kind regards,Kai Kugler
mBlox Customer Care
So, um I wasn't contacted by your client and it's been tricky getting to talk to him (it would appear to be a one man business and he doesn't give out his number). At least one person who got the message from 84566 did get a text message telling them about the issue and a number to call. However I didn't, and I don't expect to. Why? Because I kicked up a fuss about this fraud and won't stop because of a measly goodwill payment (and really, how many people are going to be offered that?)
How about you guys give me my money back as according to the UK regulator's site it's you that's responsible for the service. Maybe as you guys do business with the company in question, you could contact Spread Media (said company) and get David Shepard to cough up the dough. Maybe you could also give me his contact details while you're at it.
I'm a bit fed up with the blame game. I want answers and I want my money back. I want a promise that you won't ever bill me for a "service" I've never asked for ever again. If you do so again, I want assurances that you will pay a fine directly to me out of mBlox's own coffers. I don't give a crap who is the service provider - Your company's the one that's making it possible for the fraudsters, your company's the one that continues to do business with known rogue operators.
Do the right thing and sort this out.
Thanks,
Anthony
Fresh-Plastic.com
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