freeze mobil charge

I have a $9.99 charge on my sons phone for some kind of premium text service
that sprint claims they have nothing to do with. They gave me a toll free
number to call this scam company and all I get is a recording. My son tells
me that texed him something but he did not sign up for anything. How the
heck do I get out of what I consider a fraudulent charge?

Thanks,
Brian in MI

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› See More: freeze mobil charge

In <[email protected]> "Brian" <[email protected]> writes:

>I have a $9.99 charge on my sons phone for some kind of premium text service
>that sprint claims they have nothing to do with. They gave me a toll free
>number to call this scam company and all I get is a recording. My son tells
>me that texed him something but he did not sign up for anything. How the
>heck do I get out of what I consider a fraudulent charge?

Don't waste your time fighting with teh third party sleazdroid.

Send off a letter to your State's Attorney General
complaining about this "cramming". Most of them are well
aware of this garbage.


--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
[email protected]
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

Thanks I just did! I finally got thru to this joke of a company and they
told me they blocked the number but will not refund the charge!

"danny burstein" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In <[email protected]> "Brian"
> <[email protected]> writes:
>
>>I have a $9.99 charge on my sons phone for some kind of premium text
>>service
>>that sprint claims they have nothing to do with. They gave me a toll free
>>number to call this scam company and all I get is a recording. My son
>>tells
>>me that texed him something but he did not sign up for anything. How the
>>heck do I get out of what I consider a fraudulent charge?
>
> Don't waste your time fighting with teh third party sleazdroid.
>
> Send off a letter to your State's Attorney General
> complaining about this "cramming". Most of them are well
> aware of this garbage.
>
>
> --
> _____________________________________________________
> Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
> [email protected]
> [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

At 07 Mar 2007 09:58:35 -0500 Brian wrote:
> I have a $9.99 charge on my sons phone for some kind of premium text
service
> that sprint claims they have nothing to do with. They gave me a toll
free
> number to call this scam company and all I get is a recording. My son
tells
> me that texed him something but he did not sign up for anything. How
the
> heck do I get out of what I consider a fraudulent charge?

I suspect very strongly that your son signed up for a "free" ringtone or
game download from some pop-up ad on his PC which the fine print
explained was actually a "free trial" of a recurring subscription service.

Check the texts on his phone to see if you can figure out what website it
came from and try cancelling online.

If you have no luck, contact Sprint and get the info from them- they can
play the innocent "it wasn't us, it's a separate company" if they like,
but if they're letting this company bill through their billing system (as
opposed to charging you separately on your credit card) Sprint should
have their contact details (and they're getting a cut!)

Sure, companies like this are often slimy, but your son might need a
lesson in reading fine print before he clicks on things.

At 07 Mar 2007 10:32:21 -0500 Brian wrote:
> Thanks I just did! I finally got thru to this joke of a company and
they
> told me they blocked the number but will not refund the charge!

Great job!

If you're satisfied your son didn't actually subscribe to this garbage,
and you want to make a stand on principle, you probably can pay your
Sprint bill minus this $10 charge, and include a note with the bill
explaining you didn't authorize this charge, you're not paying it, etc.
etc.

Usually, at least on landline service, the phone company can't force you
to pay third party charges or shut off your service for not paying them.
Instead, Sprint would stiff these guys their $10 and force them to come
after you directly to collect. Given the typical sleazoid nature of
these "click and collect" outfits, I doubt they'd really exert any effort
to come after you.

Of course, an easier and hope ully more long-term character-building
exersize might be just to the collect the ten-spot from your son and tell
him to be careful what he clicks on in the future! Even without
collecting the $10, it might be time for a quick refresher course in
internet safety- our kids haven't developed the life-lesson battle-scars
we may have acquired over the years and therefore might lack the "scam-
detection" radar we take for granted! ;-)

Called Sprint today and the Rep removed the charge after I told her that
freeze mobil or ringtone.com would agree to block the number bit would not
remove the charge.
I told my son and daughter to be careful about these text things!

Thanks for the replies,
Brian
"Todd Allcock" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> At 07 Mar 2007 09:58:35 -0500 Brian wrote:
>> I have a $9.99 charge on my sons phone for some kind of premium text
> service
>> that sprint claims they have nothing to do with. They gave me a toll
> free
>> number to call this scam company and all I get is a recording. My son
> tells
>> me that texed him something but he did not sign up for anything. How
> the
>> heck do I get out of what I consider a fraudulent charge?
>
> I suspect very strongly that your son signed up for a "free" ringtone or
> game download from some pop-up ad on his PC which the fine print
> explained was actually a "free trial" of a recurring subscription service.
>
> Check the texts on his phone to see if you can figure out what website it
> came from and try cancelling online.
>
> If you have no luck, contact Sprint and get the info from them- they can
> play the innocent "it wasn't us, it's a separate company" if they like,
> but if they're letting this company bill through their billing system (as
> opposed to charging you separately on your credit card) Sprint should
> have their contact details (and they're getting a cut!)
>
> Sure, companies like this are often slimy, but your son might need a
> lesson in reading fine print before he clicks on things.
>
>