ureadit

My usual time for reviewing my bills occurs on Sunday afternoons. That’s when my wife knows to leave me alone because I turn into a grouch during that hour. Last Sunday, however, I had to involve her in the process a bit. I noticed a charge on her cell phone bill that was from a company called “SendMe.” The charge was for $9.99, and I had no idea what it was. Neither did my wife.

So I called T-Mobile and asked the representative about it. She explained that we had been subscribed to a monthly gaming service that operates through cell phone text messages. I told the representative that this was a fraudulent charge, and could she please remove the amount from the bill. She was very gracious and removed the charge, as requested. Furthermore, she gave me instructions on how I could “unsubscribe” from SendMe by sending a text message to them, using the word "STOP".

I passed along the instructions to my wife, and she promptly sent the text message. About 10 seconds later, we received a response text message on her phone. The message was from SendMe, and it said that the account had been canceled, and they were sorry to see us go.

Then my wife remembered something.

About two weeks prior, she was applying online for a job, and in doing so, she filled out a form. Within the form, she was asked to enter her mobile phone number. She entered the number, thinking that this was a legitimate request. Another window popped up and asked her to confirm, and she said yes.

The result? She was subscribed to SendMe, a sort of gaming site that works through the mobile phone text system. SendMe apparently asks questions online, and if you answer these questions correctly, your name is entered into some sort of lottery, and you can win money. What was not clear to her at the time, however, was that SendMe charges $9.99 per month to be a member. Furthermore, SendMe never sent a confirmation message to her mobile phone. She had no idea that she’d subscribed to a service.

After we successfully unsubscribed, I went to the PC and entered the words “SendMe” and “Scam” into Google’s search engine. Instantly, my screen filled with complaints from individuals who have apparently fallen for the same trick. In some cases, people complained about being charged multiple times in a month.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice . . .

Today, I wanted to send a text message with a URL address to my son’s phone. Because the URL address was a difficult combination of letters and numbers (it was a YouTube address), I decided it was easier to just send the message directly from my PC using an online mobile texting service. I wasn’t paying close attention when I did this; I thought I was on an AT&T website, but somehow I had landed on a site that only looked like AT&T, but was something altogether different. It said I could send a text message for free. I thought that was a fair price, so I loaded the YouTube URL address into the form and hit the “Send” button. The form bounced back and asked for my mobile cell phone number. I was in a hurry to get to a meeting, so I didn’t read all the fine print on the page. I just put the number into the form and hit send. Then the web site asked me to enter a special PIN number that was to be sent to my mobile phone. I thought it was a reasonable request, as it would confirm that I was not attempting to SPAM my son’s phone.

My phone buzzed. I opened it and scrolled to the bottom of a long message. There, at the bottom, was the magic PIN number. I took that PIN number and entered it into the form on my PC. I then hit the “Send” button again, and presumably, the message was sent to my son’s phone.

But then something strange happened. My phone buzzed again. I looked at the text message and realized that I’d just been subscribed to another gaming service. This particular service was called “CelebSquares.” It informed me that I was being charged $9.99 per month.

Blood rushed to my face.

Needless to say, I was late for my meeting. I picked up the phone, called CelebSquares directly and talked to a representative. In fact, I talked to two representatives. The first one canceled my account and assured me that I had not been charged. I called back again and talked to a different representative and asked her to double-check and ensure that I was not charged.

Bottom line: Don’t participate in any online contests that involve your mobile phone. I may be overreacting, but I also advise against casting a vote for any live TV shows that asks you to participate with your cell phone. There are just too many scammers out there that will take your text message as carte blanche to pilfer your bank account through your phone bill.

Best,

Dan

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