App store and unsolicited text messages?

logicpro7 said:

Myself and my wife both have uk iPhones and both have downloaded some of the free Apps from itunes.


Now since we have done this we have both received unsolicited text messages from two different premium rate companies.

My wife is on o2 paygo and got charged £5 from one company a few days ago then yesterday i got a text from another company text number 89811

Never before have we received anything like this and it seems strange that since we have downloaded a few free Apps that this has occurred.


Has anyone else received any of these, if so please reply with what Apps you have downloaded and what text number sent you the message.

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There are hundreds of ways marketers may have gotten your cell phone number. I get those occasionally, usually only once. Started long before I started getting apps from the App Store.

I'd say it's just a coincidence.

Edit: See further down my post.

Check the 02 website for a fix.

Main info:

Hi,

I had a similar problem not so long ago. In the end, the company were able to tell me exactly what happened, how many texts I'd received and refund me the total cost.

Head to http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/ and you can check the number the texts are coming from, and then can contact the owner and start from there.

Post by quiksilver84
hey, the quick way is to send STOP back to the number that text you, failing that, if you call customer services, they can usually give you the details of the company thats texting you, you can call them and verbally get them to remove you from there database.

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EDIT: Here's the info you want

SOMEONE would have signed you up.. you have to go through multiple answers to actually GET signed up for these.. have you ever given a teenager your phone to use or play with??

read this:

teenage racks up $10000 in texts

lindsayanng said:

SOMEONE would have signed you up.. you have to go through multiple answers to actually GET signed up for these.. have you ever given a teenager your phone to use or play with??

read this:

teenage racks up $10000 in texts

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have you ever given a teenager your phone to use or play with??

To be fair, some MRUsers might be cheesed off with that comment. Your Grandmother could do it by accident, a very small child or a friend playing a prank.

EDIT: And no, this usually happens when you sign up a new contract, your number gets sold.

but a company can not send "premium" texts without you actually asking for it, and then confirming it. They can not jsut SEND you a $2.00 text, and for a grandma to text the work "hot guys" (or whatever) to 23221 (or whatever) is a little unlikely.. but if you gave the phone to a teen or young adult who saw an ad for a horoscope, just dial ***** and type the work FUTURE, it is VERY likely.. then when you do that, you get a response text that says "are you sure, type YES or NO"

its not an accidental.

The only texts a company can send you are non-premium "advertisement" type texts, but not actual premium texts, which cost more money than the regular text charge.

lindsayanng said:

but a company can not send "premium" texts without you actually asking for it, and then confirming it. They can not jsut SEND you a $2.00 text, and for a grandma to text the work "hot guys" (or whatever) to 23221 (or whatever) is a little unlikely.. but if you gave the phone to a teen or young adult who saw an ad for a horoscope, just dial ***** and type the work FUTURE, it is VERY likely.. then when you do that, you get a response text that says "are you sure, type YES or NO"

its not an accidental.

The only texts a company can send you are non-premium "advertisement" type texts, but not actual premium texts, which cost more money than the regular text charge.

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It happens a lot here in England. When you sign a contract, they can pass your/our information to BlueChip Clients, who will then sell them for X amount money. Most common types of recognition or consolidated spam would be a sales person ringing you up a week after purchasing your contract, they are only linked in one way with the contract provider: they are a BCC of theirs and will offer insurance on their 'behalf', even though it isn't directly concerned to (02) for example.

I forgot to also add that 1 in three calls will charge you for the inbound call.

i understand the selling of phone numbers, it happens a lot over here in the states too. the thing is, premium texts are ALWAYS something you have to sign up for. It would be illegal otherwise.. but a regual advertisement text is not.. if i read correctly, the OP was getting premium texts, not just an advertisement text.

lindsayanng said:

i understand the selling of phone numbers, it happens a lot over here in the states too. the thing is, premium texts are ALWAYS something you have to sign up for. It would be illegal otherwise.. but a regual advertisement text is not.. if i read correctly, the OP was getting premium texts, not just an advertisement text.

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Unfortunately this just isn't true. It happens all the time, I will try and find some links...

EDIT:
Found it! Its called "cramming" and getting fancy text messages aren't the only thing involved a lot of times. If you google "unauthorized cell services" you will get a bunch of hits about cramming. Here are a few links.

all of those that you mention require SOME sort of activation. It means that they lure you in thinking you are getting 5 free ringtons and THEN they automatically sign you up to their monthly billing.. it happens when you try to sign up for something and they sign you up for something MORE. but then again, anything is possible.. either way.. its one of those subscibe companies and you better cancel it ASAP

Relief from email-to-sms spam

Here in the states, AT&T has a great SMS-alias scheme, so the user can bar all or some email-to-SMS messages which do not use the alias. At the config page, the user can tell the system to honor only AliasName[AT]txt.att.net, while barring the numerical addy 1231231234[AT]txt.att.net. The config page also has an ALLOW list and a BLOCK list for more precise fine-tuning. Example: I use ToodleDo, and want their SMS alerts --- so I entered my alias addy instead of the numerical sms addy on the relevant toodleDo config page. At the special AT&T site, I also added ToodleDo.com and att.net to my ALLOW list. Result: any web-based sms coming to my numerical sms addy is always blocked; but if it's addressed to my alias, it gets in.

In a nutshell, spammers typically use roulette-style programs-- machine-gunning gazillions of numerical combos, eventually hitting paydirt. Just about all of such spam originates via the email-to-SMS gateway. Thus, AT&T's alias system lives solely to handle such email-to-sms messages -- meaning, no matter what you configure, it will have no impact on cell-to-cell messages (which, to me, makes this a perfect remedy). Oddly, it took me several google sessions, over a two week period, to learn about and finally locate this special section of AT&T's site: http://mymessages.wireless.att.com, where you set up your preferences. I'm guessing this service is not widely publicized to prevent educating the spammers.

I say all this for one reason: don't assume that your carrier has nothing comparable-- you really have to dig and look around for it. Worth the effort though!

(U.S. folks: note that the log-in screen will NOT relate to your username and password set up for the main site, i.e., paying your bill. You must register at this special page, with a new set of login info, for this precise service. Be sure to turn off your cookies manager first.)

Just don't use a name that can be guessed by the spammers' determined software. FWIW, I use a part of my last and first name, which creates a nonsense word.

More info: David Pogue's NYTimes June 2008 article:
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/how-to-block-cellphone-spam/

Just ran a quick search focused on blocking UK sms spam. Found this -- hope it helps:

- Orange takes steps to block mobile spam
........... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/01/02/orange_takes_steps_to_block/
........... http://www1.orange.co.uk/about/contact/spam/

EvanLugh said:

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I guess no one saw this - it gives you a direct answer from the company