Skydeck Blog - Latest Comments in Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

quios — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:36:09 -0000

Hi Folks,

For those who are told to contact Quios for SJAMobile charges, please read the following.

Quios is in no way responsible for any SJAMobile charges, yet, people are being told by their cellphone carrier(s) to contact us for resolution.

We believe the reason for this confusion is that SJAMobile uses an aggregator to send messages to your carrier and this aggregator might (accidentally) be giving your carrier the wrong contact information for SJAMobile, so when you call to complain, your carrier tells you to contact to the wrong people.

Please direct complaints to SJAMobile or their aggregator.

Thank You

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

eviewithatt — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:21:34 -0000

At&t customer here.... This morning I started my day with a call to them. This is the 3rd month since I reported "Quios Alerts/23907" which charges me a whopping $10.64 additional to my monthly bill! I have not ordered or agreed to this billing! I first reported this to At&t in May and they have credited my bill each month after. They also added a "block" in May. So why does it continue?? Results of today are, a credit to my account (again), checked to see if "block" was in place (it was), an appology (thank you) and they added an allert for At&t if it comes on again. At this time they will turn it over to their "special" team to investigate and take care of it and I will not have to be involved anymore! Next month will tell if this really happens. Go At&t, after 3 month they are on the ball, or are they?

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Doc — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:36:57 -0000

I must have an old phone, because JSA Mobile just hit with two charges for $9.99 each. I submitted a refund request, and am anticipating (?) a refund in 6 weeks. I have as yet been unable to get the billing removed by T-Mobile, but I will keep trying

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Jen — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:11:56 -0000

2 months in a row, my son's phone and my husband's. Its upto $9.99 each time. Sprint has blocked the "third party that we are not affiliated with" and removed the charges. I would agree that Sprint is VERY difficult to work with. Hint...tell them you are extremely irritated and are going to leave and you want to talk to someone in RETENTION....if they cant give you what you want, leave. The others who work overseas can do nothing, the only ones who can help and make a REAL change are in retention. Its worth the time....

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Sprint Employee — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:34:04 -0000

I work for Sprint and see this all the time. We have a tool called PMG Messaging that lets us pull up all 3rd party messaging that are charged via text. We have the options to block all short codes such as these, opt out or just block one. We also have the option to request a refund so don't let a rep tell you they can't. I work in the chat division so you may get better results chatting in. As for why these charges appear??? I still have no clue

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Giftguy73 — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:29:32 -0000

For those of you receiving those charges on your bill, I hate to say it but until you speak with the right CS rep, you pretty much stand the chance of going around and around. I am a rep for one the companies mentioned on here. To stop this issue from happening over and over again, unfortunately you have to catch it the first time. The regulations for these SMS does not help the consumer. If you see a text with the sender as numbers simply reply back to it with either the word "cancel" "unsubscribe" or "stop". I get these calls weekly and most people I spoke to already erased the text. All I can do is issue a credit and transfer them to Tech Support. I am still looking for ways to stop this from happening. It only happened once to me so I add my cell number to the national Do not call list.

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

nicholas roon — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:51:57 -0000

Rcvd bill from at&t for mobile phone and found charge
for 9.99. Immediately called CS and objected to the
charge, since I had not used or authorized SJAMOBILE
for any services. According to CS will receive a
credit for 9.99 on next bill and they will block any
further attempts by sjamobile to charge me.I can't
understand why the bums are allowed to do this. Guess
there is no oversight by FCC.

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Dave — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:24:33 -0000

I blocked my Sprint account last month. Sure enough they changed from TM to Games and hit me again this month. Sprint has issued instant credit both times (less than 5 min on phone) Today the Sprint CS person said it takes 2 mo billing cycle for the block to take affect so I "should" be OK now. You have to know that the scum in CO and DE are probably in Niger or somewhere. Seems the US Government can tap our lines but do nothing about these pigs.

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Robert — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 16:26:11 -0000

Add me to the list. My story is the same as the dozens of others here, and who knows how many thousands more. This is outrageous. The carriers must know what is going on. Obviously they play along because they must be getting a rake off on all those 9.99 charges. This should be turned over to the regulatory authorities so they can put a stop to a blatant fraud.

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Stacy — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:17:13 -0000

I have AT&T and just found this on my phone as well. There charging me 19.99 for this and I never heard of it till I found this site about it. I am going to call AT&T tomorrow so I hope something is done

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Holly Jones — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:31:45 -0000

I left a comment on here in October about SJA charges on my Sprint bill that I did NOT in any how sign up for. I was charged 3 months in a row $19.99. When I called Sprint they said there was nothing they could do. I was pissed and took the advice of others from this site and filed a FCC complaint. Yesterday I rec'd a call from someone at Sprint regarding the FCC complaint and they have finally refunded my money or at least gave me a credit for the full amount of $59.97. I would advise everyone to do this. It worked for me anyways. Good Luck!!

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Crystal — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:27:00 -0000

I recently got my bill and had a 9.99 charge on it also...i did not subscribe to this. i work for a wireless carrier and see these problems everyday. although, the carriers are good about stopping the charges and refunding the charges it is a hassle that we dont need to worry about. I was also subscribed to another charge i did not subscribe for that they didn't speak english and cursed at me while on the phone trying to tell them to stop charging me. Also, becareful when giving your phone number out when applying for things because it isn't secure...

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Candace — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:05:04 -0000

I was recently charged 19.99 by GOLIVEMOB. I have AT&T wireless. They don't know how or why the charge appeared but removed it. They are trying to track down the source. Fraud via email has now turned into FRAUD via cell phone.

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Poco Zocko — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:48:31 -0000

New Cancel Number 97000
If you are trying to cancel service, please text STOP to the short code 97000

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Trent T — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:32:01 -0000

I had the same thing happen. Called Sprint and they said they will request a refund for me. They blocked the company from billing me in the future. I texted STOP to the number. I will see what happens.

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Christina — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:07:10 -0000

I had a problem with SJA in August. I submitted a request for a 'no questions asked' refund with SJA when it occurred. I FINALLY received my refund check last week. I guess perseverance pays off!

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Helmut — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:32:56 -0000

I am also a Sprint customer. I had the same experiece with a $19.99 SJA Mobile Alerts charge come up in my bill. This is highway robbery! The sprint rep was slightly helpful, but said there was nothing she could do. She did block the service and put in a "unsubscribe and refund" request in for me. I also filed one on SJA's website. We will see what happens.

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

allyson — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 08:50:41 -0000

I am a Sprint customer. I just had the same experience as most others who posted here... out of nowhere a 19.95 additional charge two months in a row to SJA alerts. This came on a phone line we don't even use so there is no way that we even opened the text message. The sprint rep I talked to told me there was nothing she could do.

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Joe — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:11:28 -0000

I work for a major cell phone company. The messages are called premium text messages. If you put a block on the premium text message, which can be done by calling into customer service or by the carriers website, This will block premium text messages. However, you will still see one more month of charges, so you need to unsibscribe first and then issue a block. I had this premium text message signed up for to my aircard modem! I do not even play games and do not need this silly service. When I called the 1-800 number that is provided, just like I tell my customers to do, the email address provided was not even a real address. Someone needs to do something about these companies. Because this is wrong. The vast majority of people do not sign up these texts. The premium texts are from a third party vendor and the phone carrier is not supposed to issue credits for these charges. Sometimes I will issue a credit for someone who is elderly or does not have access to the internet, just as a courtesy. I, as a customer service rep, will get in trouble if someone finds out I have been giving credits for premium text messages.

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Donald — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:25:13 -0000

I just got my AT&T wireless bill, and it had one bill item from "GOLIVEMOB", a credit from them same day (I called AT&T first, and then also texted "STOP"). Then this bill had the SJAMOBILE charge. All for $19.99 each. AT&T gave no hassle about backing off the charge, but this is our time wasted in response. They told me (both times) that nothing could be done to block.
Thanks for the info.

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

BEVERLY TENN — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:45:40 -0000

SAME THING! I WAS CHARGED 19.99 FOR THE LAST 2 MONTHS. SPRINT DID TAKE IT OFF BUT IT PISSES ME OFF THAT WHOEVER THIS COMPANY IS WAS ALLOWED TO DO THIS US.

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Joan — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:01:37 -0000

I too got my Sprint bill Friday. Noticed the charge was $20.00 more than usual.
I contacted Sprint this morning, very nice lady, blocked everything, including all text capabilities (husband and I don't text at all anyway) took me about 15 minutes but they were great Thanks Sprint

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Linde — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:11:14 -0000

I'm not getting any services, never ordered any services and yet, some one is charging me for services- joke alert on alltel service, and game tips. Near as I can tell, joke alert is SJA, and they are still charging me after I text STOP! The only major problem is that I can't even file a small claims suit against them since thier address is NOT posted on their website. It only says that they are located in Colorado- but there is no street address. If anyone has SJA mobiles street address please respond.

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Scott Combs — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:06:08 -0000

I too wanted to beat my child for subscribing to something, but this website saved her from a beating, plus she insisted that she did not subscribe to anything. So I called Sprint and they refunded the last three months charges and blocked the short code's so that this wont happen again. Got to say that Sprint really helped out and worked with me on this. THANKS SPRINT. Resolved in 15 minutes.

Re: Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2

Paul — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:54:15 -0000

Glad to see this page pop up in Google...!

I just noticed this charge on one of my phones (for the past 4 months, argh). Called my carrier, ATT Wireless, and they removed the charge and said they'd issue a refund.

Thanks for the info on this page, to help me understand this scam.