Test your brain age - con

[Angel]

Also put in a claim at the bank as the bank misled me with the sms they sent me.  Don't know if I will be successful.  Won't know if you don't try.  Still waiting for them to get back to me.  Now I don't trust ANYBODY. Very expensive lesson learned.

[PhilipV]

Angel did you report it as stolen? As that is exactly what it is. Insurance?

[scotty]

An sms is merely a notice that movement has taken place on your account.

 

Always make sure that funds reflect as available balance which is the sum of cleared funds and not current balance which can include uncleared funds. If in doubt go to an ATM and look what the available balance relects on your slip, if a cheque deposit has been used the it wont be included in available balance until such time as the funds have been cleared.  

[Old school]

Dont take checks. Simple. Always wait for any EFT money to show in the bank before giving a product- it slows down the operation BUT it saves you! There's alot of scammers and there's alot of honest people you can still trust just keep to safer processes on money transfers.

[scotty]

Another hint find out which bank the buyer uses. For people claiming to have paid  using EFT's, EFT's from one bank to a diff bank never reflect the same day unless the person making the transfer is willing to pay an extra premium which 99% they not, so if someone banks at a diff bank and makes a payment and that payment reflect same day you can be certain that he has made a payment at your bank using a cheque.  

scotty2009-05-09 15:00:27

[Angel]

Yes, did report it as stolen.  Went to Police and explained situation.  Constable Moloi said they first need the original cheque from the bank before he can open a case.  Bank said they would mail it to me, and that could take weeks.  Said he could do nothing for me.  Luckily Captian Strydom heard my dillema and he said he'd help.  Took my statement and opened a case of theft. 

[Christopher Brunsdon]

 

TickyD' date=' 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.

 

 

[/quote']

 

Nice article, one of the few correct ones about the industry. These articles are important as they educate the end user. Those fines do add up, I complained about spamming and it took 7 months to get it resolved, the offending company was fined R10'000 - not a lot but they got a dozen such fines in the same month.

 

I find many queries are resolved by just explaining how SMS subscriptions work. Not all companies our out there to screw customers, but there are enough to continue giving the SMS industry a bad name. But when in doubt contact you network and not your service provider, the networks are the ones who the agreements between them and the WASPS.

 

[Jules]

Just an update on this scheme: iTouch has been fined R50 000 by the regulator. It has also been instructed to suspend the brain age scheme until such time as it complies with Waspa's code of conduct.

 

 

 

For the full story, click here.

 

 

 

I am also looking into an SMS that MTN recently sent its subscribers. It says: ?MTN is giving away thousands of handsets, 87 Mini PCs, 14 Toyota Fortuners, and 1 House Bond of R1 000 000! Text "15" to 37187 (R7.5/SMS) and start winning...?

 

 

 

This promotion is actually a ?quiz?. Once you?ve replied, MTN sends you a question and you have to reply (at R7.50) and then they send you ANOTHER question etc.

 

 

 

Anyone been caught out by this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Christopher Brunsdon]

 

Jules, this one is currently at WASPA and I suspect it may even end in court if the Lottery board gets involved. There are a couple of WASPA rules being tested with this competition from MTN and will be interesting to see the outcome.

 

As its is handset and not billing based different rules apply, but the promo message many no entice people to enter - this is then deemed as a lottery by some, hence the reason that the Lottery board may step in (this is just an assumption for now).

 

cbrunsdon2009-06-08 08:33:23

[Jules]

Chris, as I understand it MTN is not a member of Waspa and hence the regulator does not have jurisdiction in this case.

 

 

 

I have asked MTN for an official response on this one.

 

 

 

I'd love to know how much money MTN has already made out of this little campaign.

[Nialls101]

 

Chris' date=' as I understand it MTN is not a member of Waspa and hence the regulator does not have jurisdiction in this case.

 

 

 

I have asked MTN for an official response on this one.

 

 

 

I'd love to know how much money MTN has already made out of this little campaign. [/quote']Sasha Martinengo was complaining about wasting R75 on the MTN competition/quiz/scam. He warned his listeners not to enter.

[IanJ]

Another one that annoys me are the ones primarily run by radio stations where you have to send an sms to register for a competition to win some prize. The sms costs you R2 to enter or some similar amount. A radio station with 500,000 listeners will probably get 50000 entries and they run it quite a few times a day. Assuming they collect only R0,50 per sms you do the maths.

 

The same scheme is used by a certain radio station for a loyalty programme. There you have to send an sms to claim your "points" and another sms to burn them again to have a chance of winning a prize. So they score double.

 

[Tankman]

Not all of these sms companies use the word "stop" as their magic word to unsubscribe.

 

Have a read at the fine print (if you can) next time a TV ad is on:  to unsubscribe sms HX38BN to 38565.

 

I strongly feel that the regulators should ban any ad from TV where the instructions are not clearly displayed.  Which is normally the case, the fine print are shown so small and quickly you can never read it.

 

This is not a honest way of doing business, how do these people sleep at night and why are they still being allowed to operate in this manner??

[Christopher Brunsdon]

 

Chris' date=' as I understand it MTN is not a member of Waspa and hence the regulator does not have jurisdiction in this case.

 

 

 

I have asked MTN for an official response on this one.

 

 

 

I'd love to know how much money MTN has already made out of this little campaign. [/quote']

 

Actually MTN is working through their WASP devision Airborne to run the campaign. This is offering consumers limited protection as the reply MTs (SMS) are all WASPA compliant.

 

Its a legal minefield here, our company is one of the industries largest WASPS and I'm kept in the loop on the legal status of our customers and their campaigns. If the law finds that MTN is percieved to be a lottery or even percieved to be competition to the national lottery, it will lead to a very interesting law suite.

 

One of our clients went that way, legally the people trying to stop them could not until something happened and they had to shut down immediatly (nothing bad but just a legal loophole to their advantage got closed).

 

[Christopher Brunsdon]

 

Not all of these sms companies use the word "stop" as their magic word to unsubscribe.

 

Have a read at the fine print (if you can) next time a TV ad is on:  to unsubscribe sms HX38BN to 38565.

 

I strongly feel that the regulators should ban any ad from TV where the instructions are not clearly displayed.  Which is normally the case' date=' the fine print are shown so small and quickly you can never read it.

 

This is not a honest way of doing business, how do these people sleep at night and why are they still being allowed to operate in this manner??

[/quote']

 

Agree.

 

For now only warnings have been sent out to media companies about their contraventions. While the industry has remained self-regulated it is creating a situation where the public will force legislation. We all know that in Africa legislation is a two-edged sword.

 

[KlapperKnop]

What happens if someone else put in your celll number? will you still get charge or is the 1st sms a confirmation sms that the cell subscriber accepts the cost?