Scam Warning

[scheherazade_79]

Just thought I'd pass on a word of warning to you guys, because it happened to me, cost quite a lot and raised my normally comatose blood pressure for the first time in months.

I registered as a new customer for something or other about a month ago. It wasn't anything to do with porn, rampant lesbian sex or anything else I wouldn't want people knowing about, but when they asked for my number I gave them an old mobile number, which I only ever use for the free monthly minutes. It's the only phone I have that's really there for my convenience - when I want to call someone I turn it on, when I don't want to be disturbed I turn it off. So far it's worked as a great way of avoiding bullshit marketing calls - or so I thought.

Recently I noticed I was getting spam text message, telling me to go to a certain website to claim my winning voucher number, or text STOP to stop any more messages being sent. I didn't text stop, because I knew it would probably end up being a premium rate number, which would cost me a bomb to get in contact with, so I did the adult thing and just ignored these messages.

When I got my phone bill, though, I was in for a bit of a surprise. In all, I'd been sent around 30 messages, one for each day of the month, and for RECEIVING each one I'd been charged £1.50 (around $3 US)!

I checked it out online and it's started to happen quite a lot. There are even firms out there who advertise that you can make a profit through sending people premium rate SMS. The only way you can stop receiving them is to send the STOP message that they tell you to.

So I guess the moral of that one is fairly straightforward - when you sign up for anything on the internet and they want a phone number, don't give them a number for a mobile phone.

 

[snooper]

... So I guess the moral of that one is fairly straightforward - when you sign up for anything on the internet and they want a phone number, don't give them a number for a mobile phone.

SImpler than that - don't give them any information they don't need. For example, if you want to join a site to read stories, and they demand an email address, give them one reserved for such purposes. I have one which automatically deletes all incoming messages unread which I use for such sites. If you want to get messages from people (as I do on here) then you can always change it to a real address.