Test your brain age - con

[TrickyD]

Every now and then you will see a little quiz block on THE HUB web page saying "Test your brain age" Don't attemt to answer it. It is a con where *-***** ask you to sms a number to them and you expect an answer to the quiz, but instead you are subscribing to them at R10 per day until you cancel. The challenge is you only find out you have been conned when you get your monthly bill and then it is a mission to find out who is billing you for what, because you are actually getting nothing. If anyone needs to know the name of the company, PM me. I lost over R900.00 before I tracked them down. Their reply is "did'nt you read the fine print?"

[RABUBI]

Yup. was also almost scammed (not realy a scam, they are just f*cking scaly) like that a while ago for an IQ test. I unsubscribed after a day, read the fine print by accident.

[Minion]

Excellent add placement though...

 

 

[Angel]

Count yourselve lucky.  I lost R32000 in a con about 2 weeks ago!

[Christopher Brunsdon]

I work for a SMS aggregation company and deal everyday with mobile subscription service complaints. What I will advice all hubbers is that nothing is free. Never enter your number on websites, even non-South African ones.

 

The industry is heavily regulated by WASPA council and members do get hefty fines for abuse, the end consumer is still held responsible for subscription management. The only real protection is against companies that trick you into subscription services and companies that do no make it easy and obvious how to unsubscribe.

 

We had lots of problems with the above systems where anybody can enter in a random number and that number would be billed. These guys now need to first send a confirmation message detailing the cost of the service.

 

Another thing to beaware of is WAP services, these are WAP sites that you just need to click on "download content" and you get billed. There are confirmation processes required but once you have accepted this you get billed.

 

If you everget a subscription message that you did not subscribe too, immediatley reply with the keyword "STOP" to have it terminated. Then speak to your service provider. There is a website that lists who owns what number but not all WASP members have callcenters to deal with the queries.

 

[Skye]

 

Count yourselve lucky.  I lost R32000 in a con about 2 weeks ago!

 

Man that is hectic. How did they nab you

 

[TrickyD]

Just to clear up any confusion, the daily R10 deductions are made on your cellphone account and in my case neither Nashua Mobile or Vodacom could stop them. In fact Nashua Mobile could not even tell me who was doing the deductions.

[Christopher Brunsdon]

 

I have a lot of problems with Nashua Mobile as they refer a lot of consumers to us and expect our company to resolve the issue even though it was none of our clients involved. What they do is see an aggregators number on the bill and immediately assume that the other numbers billed was also company x.

 

Vodacom VAS callcenter can see exactly which WASP billed you - I know, I've sat with them to see how their system works.

 

EDIT: Nashua Mobile is a virtual network and if we try and bill a number we give the request to Vodacom. Vodacom can see on their records within a few minutes of the transaction what happened.

 

cbrunsdon2009-05-08 11:36:52

[Angel]

Man that is hectic. How did they nab you

 

My problem, I'm too trusting.  Age old scheme.  Advertized my car, guy calls and interested.  Made the payment into my bank account on the Saturday morning, just before 11.  Got the sms from the bank that the money was paid in and it's available.  Released the car that afternoon.  Monday afternoon get another sms from the bank, money reversed.  Guy used a stolen cheque.  Result: car gone, bank balance minus R32000.00.

 

Always thought that this would never happen to me, but these people are good.  They know exactly how to treat you and soften you up.  Still mad with myself that I got caught like this.

[Hog_]

Okay, I'm sorry if this seems crude, but if you're stupid enough to put your cellphone number into an ad that claims it's going to 'test your brain age', you probably deserve to be scammed. Also, the banner ad clearly says "R10 day". Then, once you click through to the website, it says in the big bar on top that it costs R10 per day, as well as in the copy at the bottom, and you have to opt in to the service.

 

Sorry you got scammed, but you did it to yourself.

 

 

 

[Jules]

TickyD, did they SMS you a code and did you enter it? If they didn't, PM me. Maybe I can help you.

 

 

 

I wrote an article on this crowd recently. You can read it here.

 

 

 

I'd strongly recommend that you complain to Waspa. It has the ability to fine operators like this. Not that it has much effect on their modus operandi: it's just too profitable. You can take a look at Waspa's complaints archive here. You will see that iTouch has had to pay numerous fines.

 

 

 

 

[Joe Low]

Of course you're right Hog; but the guy is putting this up as a warning and prepared to admit he got conned so I think he's doing folk a service.

 

I did something similar on an IQ test on Facebook - which is pretty ironic R60 and 6 sms's later, with the promise of that every day until I sent the magic word for it to stop.

 

We're human, we mess up, we need protecting from ourselves....and scammers.

[TrickyD]

Okay' date=' I'm sorry if this seems crude, but if you're stupid enough to put your cellphone number into an ad that claims it's going to 'test your brain age', you probably deserve to be scammed. Also, the banner ad clearly says "R10 day". Then, once you click through to the website, it says in the big bar on top that it costs R10 per day, as well as in the copy at the bottom, and you have to opt in to the service.

Sorry you got scammed, but you did it to yourself.


[/quote']

Defending your own business?

[Jules]

Joe's right. It takes courage to concede you failed the brain age test!

 

 

 

Hog has a point but it also takes two to tango. Just because you left your car door open, doesn't mean the crooks were entitled to take your radio.

 

 

 

 

[Hog_]

 

Okay' date=' I'm sorry if this seems crude, but if you're stupid enough to put your cellphone number into an ad that claims it's going to 'test your brain age', you probably deserve to be scammed. Also, the banner ad clearly says "R10 day". Then, once you click through to the website, it says in the big bar on top that it costs R10 per day, as well as in the copy at the bottom, and you have to opt in to the service.

 

Sorry you got scammed, but you did it to yourself.

 

 

[/quote']

Defending your own business?

 

Nah, I make my money the hard way. Wish I thought of it first though!

 

 

 

[gremlin]

Man that is hectic. How did they nab you

 

My problem' date=' I'm too trusting.  Age old scheme.  Advertized my car, guy calls and interested.  Made the payment into my bank account on the Saturday morning, just before 11.  Got the sms from the bank that the money was paid in and it's available.  Released the car that afternoon.  Monday afternoon get another sms from the bank, money reversed.  Guy used a stolen cheque.  Result: car gone, bank balance minus R32000.00.

 

Always thought that this would never happen to me, but these people are good.  They know exactly how to treat you and soften you up.  Still mad with myself that I got caught like this.

[/quote']

 

My couson had the same problem, Sold his Nirvara to a guy, he personaly phoned the bankto confirm the money is in the bank ant cant be reversed and that it was not a cheque payment. The bank said the money is there and that it was an EFT payment. End of the month the banked called him and asked why he did not make his installment payment where he told them it was settled. They then told him its not and the payment that was made was reversed. Ended up it was a cheque payment and not a EFT. Bank messed up and after a lot of fighting as they had the recordings luckely his account got settled and Nedbank gave the oak wo have the car a big Chrismas gift.