REVscene - Vancouver Automotive Forum

CorneringArtist · 07-07-2011, 04:00 PM

So I got a random fucking text saying that I had "registered" for some music service called BipMusic, and they had charged 29.95 for registering. I instantly smelt bullshit, and entered their "stop number" to cut myself from the service. HOWEVER, the stop number wound up texting me 20 times saying I had "transferred" 5 dollars to my OneBip account, which I never registered for either. I DID call Fido and they said to text STOP to the transfer number, and it stopped. Now I'm worried that I'm going to get a massive bill next month for something I never bought into. Fido mentioned the transfer number was for "social media gaming",which is bullshit since I never play those Farmville-type games.

I'm not sure if the Fido rep carried it out, but he claimed he put a note on my account saying something about the spam. Has anyone EVER seen a similar scam appear in their inboxes? Will Fido waive any charges incurred, and for that matter, has anyone ever heard of this fucking company (it's a supposed PayPal on phone thing).

Fail me if you want, but I never wanted to buy into this shit, and this is the first time I've ever felt genuinely scammed. I merely followed instructions, but somehow it bit me in the ass (probably the bait). If anyone can offer advice, it's greatly appreciated.

Leetastic · 07-07-2011, 05:39 PM

It is a scam, they are spamming texts to a majority of my friends too. Just ignore it.

JordanLee · 07-07-2011, 11:45 PM

You shouldn't have replied in the first place. Just leave it and call it a day. They can't just charge you by saying you "Signed Up". Signed up with what? They don't even have a credit card on file. I believe they can however charge you when you text THEM. Hence American Idol voting fees etc.

CorneringArtist · 07-08-2011, 08:28 AM

They FLOODED my inbox with 5-dollar charges after what was supposed to be a "STOP" text.

Whatever the case, if Fido refuses to waive the charges even though I replied (which is shit because the initial text said to text "stop" to x number, yet opened the gates for charges), I'm switching providers.

BillyBishop · 07-08-2011, 12:10 PM

Got something similar in April.

Just checked my April online bill: I wasn't charged for anything.

photo (2).PNG

RacingMetro92 · 08-09-2011, 11:23 AM

Well, I'm connected to CorneringArtist's account because I'm his brother we just got nailed on our bill for onebip charges of 105.00. Fido still wont do shit, so where do we go from here?

shenmecar · 08-09-2011, 12:58 PM

give onebip a call and bitch the fuck out of them.

RacingMetro92 · 08-09-2011, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shenmecar

give onebip a call and bitch the fuck out of them.

Tried, all I get is "our customer service reps are all busy, please leave a message" not even a chance to hold on the line. And their site is full of spelling mistakes too.

CRS · 08-09-2011, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Form>Function

Tried, all I get is "our customer service reps are all busy, please leave a message" not even a chance to hold on the line. And their site is full of spelling mistakes too.

Have you tried speaking to a manager at Fido instead of the CSRs?

Explain the entire situation and tell them how displeased you are with them and considering switching and they may drop the charges. But this is only a guess, I have not had this issue before.

parm104 · 08-09-2011, 06:30 PM

Spam and spyware is accessible though almost any device that has access to the internet. However, mostly they are enabled after a user allows it, whether intentionally or not.

If you hadn't responded at all, I wonder if you'd be in this mess. "STOP" is usually to prevent further messages being sent when you actually put your number in one of those survey-style prize ads. You didn't recall giving your number out, so you shouldn't have replied at all...Should've called FIDO right away at that point...

RacingMetro92 · 08-09-2011, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CRS

Have you tried speaking to a manager at Fido instead of the CSRs?

Explain the entire situation and tell them how displeased you are with them and considering switching and they may drop the charges. But this is only a guess, I have not had this issue before.

I got through to retentions and they knocked off 50 bucks off our bill. Still on the hook for 120, but better than nothing. I guess the threat of leaving worked.

I watched a thing on CTV tonight (A Steele on your Side piece) where some guy had the same problem about premium text services. Difference between this situation and his was that he signed up for it by registering twice, while we did not. A text form Onebip popped up on my brothers phone saying that we were charged 5 bucks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parm104

Spam and spyware is accessible though almost any device that has access to the internet. However, mostly they are enabled after a user allows it, whether intentionally or not.

If you hadn't responded at all, I wonder if you'd be in this mess. "STOP" is usually to prevent further messages being sent when you actually put your number in one of those survey-style prize ads. You didn't recall giving your number out, so you shouldn't have replied at all...Should've called FIDO right away at that point...

Here's the thing, my brother did text STOP to them after calling Fido telling him to text STOP...but only to get like 17 more texts after the fact; its ridiculous that we're still on the hook for those charges.

He didn't give out his number to ANYONE or anything, but we still got hit up for the charges which is ridiculous.

Berzerker · 08-09-2011, 07:22 PM

I wouldn't settle for anything less than full refund. Especially if you called and talked to a Fido rep right when it happened.

Berz out.

dangonay · 08-09-2011, 07:47 PM

I had a similar thing happen with Rogers. Had $150 in text message billing on my wife's phone. She was getting daily "facts" and she had no idea what they were for. Turns out she put her number into an online survey and clicked accept which signed her up to the service.

I complained to Rogers and said since it was on a web page, anyone could have put her number in as a stupid joke. They agreed and immediately refunded the entire amount.

Responding to a text is a little different, but I still think for a first-time occurrence they should give a full refund.

The big problem is that the phone companies also get a percentage of this money. They don;t just collect from you and pass 100% along to the company sending the texts. So they are partly at fault for allowing this type of abuse to work on their networks.

This is the argument I'd use.

CorneringArtist · 08-09-2011, 08:55 PM

Personally I was fine with them waiving my bill this month, but the least they could have done was cover a bit of the text scam bill. I'm thinking the money went to some little shits in Europe and Asia looking to fund their MMORPG fixes.

parm104 · 08-09-2011, 08:58 PM

CTV British Columbia - 'Premium' texts costs man nearly $600 - CTV News

I wrote the first comment, under the name "Mike Jones." That's how I feel overall about the situation. I'm not going to be disrespectful and say that you guys were careless as this doesn't seem to be the case with you. However, a lot of people who complain about this stuff ARE plain and simple, careless and naive. This creates a sense of numbness for cell phone carriers and they are no longer remorseful for people who actually do get scammed. If people who were careless didn't try to put the blame on their cell phone carrier each time, perhaps the carrier would be a little more compassionate towards your situation.

CorneringArtist · 08-09-2011, 09:02 PM

Point taken, putting your number out on the Internet is asking to get you reamed up the ass.

Thing is, there was NOTHING attached to how I got the texts, I'm not stupid enough to "Win a free iPad, send number here" or "input your number to find your ultimate crush". It was a bait and switch text, saying I had "Subscribed" to a service, saying to text "STOP" to a certain number, which led to the flood.

dangonay · 08-09-2011, 09:58 PM

Saw that CTV article. I call BS on the comments made by the Wireless Comm Ass. In my wife's case I went back to the websites she visited and found the offending one. You don't have to sign up twice - one click does it. And although they do mention receiving text messages, they're very vague about the number and cost. And, of course, it's definitely not posted up anywhere obvious. Maybe it requires two steps now, but when it happened to us it sure didn't.

Not only that, but there's no verification. Using this website I could have used the phone numbers of all my friends and signed them up. How can you legally sign up for something without proving your identity?

I LOL'd when they said it's ethical. So charging someone $20 for a stupid text message saying something like "Did you know honeybees pollenate flowers?" is ethical? This association basically sticks up for providers while pretending to help consumers.

And seriously, can anyone think of any single valid reason why someone would EVER want to pay money to receive some random fact as a text? Or that ANY type of text message would actually be worth paying for? If you can, I'll buy you a beer.

The wireless providers are in bed with these guys because they make money on it. They know it's shady, but they're not going to put a stop to it when it's making them cash. If they didn't offer the ability for a company to charge a person for a text (and have the tracking/billing system in place they they would have had to develop), then these scams would never happen.

I'd LOVE for a provider to explain the benefits of such a system and if they have ANY clients that use it for something legitimate.

EDITED: Damn, comments are closed for the story. Too bad, I was going to ask the providers to show a legitimate use for this feature.

Psykopathik · 08-09-2011, 10:13 PM

at this point id say remove the charges or i'm leaving your network, and nothing less will be satisfactory.

there's no legal fucking way this should happen. you type NO/STOP. they charge you? where the hell does your provider think you are? Bizzarro world?

RacingMetro92 · 08-09-2011, 10:30 PM

I would have negotiated for more but I didn't want to lose the offer on the table. Then again, it's my first time dealing with a situation like this.

We're already planning on moving over to Rogers with no ECF because of a clause in our contract that allows us to move over there because we've been with Fido for a year. I Plan to take advantage of their new student plans and get that new Samsung smartphone. Hopefully Rogers>Fido

babas · 08-10-2011, 03:34 AM

Try calling OneBip again until you reach a rep and demand a refund. Don't let them off the hook so easily. I absolutely hate these premium services and how these companies choose to run their business. When you call your carrier and they adjust the charges, OneBip still gets money and isn't affected at all.

RacingMetro92 · 08-10-2011, 08:36 AM

So I just got a reply via email form Onebip and they gave me this

Quote:

Mirjana Vesic, Aug-10 09:58 (CEST):

Dear Customer,

Thanks for your email. In order to answer your request please provide us more details:
- Mobile phone number;

Best Regards,

Onebip Support Team

I ain't giving them shit

, I don't want them to scam me again

Psykopathik · 08-10-2011, 08:54 AM

so what happens if you are pay as you go/prepaid? the usey up your minutes? its not like they can charge you.

cant you call credit card company and dispute the charge?

RacingMetro92 · 08-10-2011, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turbo E

so what happens if you are pay as you go/prepaid? the usey up your minutes? its not like they can charge you.

cant you call credit card company and dispute the charge?

I think that's how it works, because when you buy $10...I'm assuming that those scam sites can take like $1 if that's what their service costs. I'm not prepaid.

And no I can't call my credit card company because my credit card isn't connected to this. I don't have a pre-authorization, I pay my bill when I see it every month to avoid shit like this.

RacingMetro92 · 08-11-2011, 09:17 AM

Another reply...

Quote:

Dear Customer,

Thanks for your email. We are not able to block and blacklist your mobile phone number if you don't provide us with it.

Onebip is a mobile payment service. Onebip make able to complete online payments by using the mobile phone credit. The value of the purchases is debited to your mobile phone bill or deducted from your credit if you use a pay-as-you go card.

To activate Onebip user needs to complete an online registration process and a mobile phone verification process. This process can be completed only by having access to the mobile phone. In fact to verify the mobile phone number Onebip requires to send a text message (an sms) with a specific activation keyword. This guarantees that the person who have activated the service is the owner of the mobile phone. Only after the mobile phone verification process is completed, user can start to pay online using Onebip.

This means that the person who has completed payments without your permission had access to your mobile phone and sent message authorizing payments.

Best Regards, Team
Onebip Support

I don't know where this rep gets away by saying that...so unless another person in the world has the EXACT same number as my brother then that's bullshit. We have no verification code, only a spam of texts saying we dumped money into some bullshit account. This shit just spells lawsuit.

Psykopathik · 08-11-2011, 09:28 AM

ill bet their activation keyword was "stop"

how does "stop" translate into "OK charge me $10"?

BTW have you entered in your phone number online anywhere that WASN'T an online store?