AT&T Cell Phone Service

[yasmina27]

THIS IS NOT A JOKE, SPAM, OR URBAN LEGEND! I just finished getting this straightened out after 3 hours of research.

If you have AT&T cell phone service, and your child has a cell phone, you may want to check this out. My kids downloaded "free" ringtones from several websites, including m-Qube and ThumbPlay, not realizing that these sites charge $19.99 and $9.99 respectively, each month!

I called AT&T and they reversed the charges from 6/1/08 to the present, and cancelled the services permanently. The previous charges (prior to 6/1) I filed for a refund through this class action suit.

https://thirdpartycontentrefund.com/(S(iwa1py45s1s5ur5543lfpfua))/index.htm

Please pass this on to anyone you know with AT&T cell phone service.

[peacetalksforall]

1. If your kids downloaded it without giving a cc number, it means the

charge is coming through AT & T? If yes, they are totally responsible, imo. Inf act, knowing what we know about the ethics of AT & T - the little software company is probably owned by them. My statement is meant to tell me that my opinion of AT & T is minus a million and that is sad for me - I had reason to want to admire them as a company. I think of them as sewage because of spying.

There is probably a chance that all the music they are listening to is in the database operated by the U.S. Thieves of Washington and Willing Partners. I would not be surprised if your children already have a full file, including shots they've been given. Plus, their grades and comments by teachers about behavior (or whatever they call it today),

[BattyDem]

3. m-Qube is set up so you don't need a credit card

You download one ringtone or send one message from an affiliated web site and suddenly you've got a monthly subscription to their "service" - which basically means a monthly bill for your "free" content.

m-Qube is a billing company for third-party mobile content providers. All you have to do is enter your cell phone number and you're authorizing them to bill you through your cell phone carrier. No proof of age, identity or cell phone ownership required. Nice scam, huh? :eyes:

[Breeze54]

4. I heard about this on Good Morning America, i think... they do that on landlines too...

but in that case, they call and then claim you agreed to switch

your long distance service, when all you did was say, "I'm not interested."

Good thing you caught it!

[BattyDem]

6. Slamming ... that was a nice scam, too.

It's illegal, but it probably still happens. About 10 years ago, half the people I knew got slammed! I put a PIC Freeze (Preferred Interexchange Carrier Freeze) on my telephone service, which prevented it from happening to me.

I don't think there's a way to prevent a cell phone carrier from accepting third-party charges without the account holder's authorization ... but there definitely should be. Some kind of PIN number or account ID number should be required as well. It seems ridiculous that you could be billed for something simply because your phone number was given to a billing company. How do they know it's not a kid playing a prank on another kid or an ex-lover getting revenge? :shrug:

[yasmina27]

8. Well, they say you learn something new everyday

and this certainly qualifies! I also discovered - and I strictly blame myself for not knowing about this - that there are parental controls for internet content and purchases on the phones.

[BattyDem]

14. You can control what's purchased on the phone? I never knew that.

I don't have any children, but I know several people who would appreciate this information. They have kids and they've had problems in the past with the kids downloading too many ringtones and games ... and that gets expensive!

Thanks for the tip. :hi:

[aroach]

10. This happened to us.

We ended up filing a complaint with our state Attorney General to get our money back and stop the $9.99 a month. It took several months to get cleared up.

[BattyDem]

15. It's ridiculous that it's so easy for them to sign people up for a subscription.

No warning, no confirmation required - just some fine print at the bottom of the page that most people probably don't see because they don't scroll down that far!

I'm glad you got your money back, even if it did take a while. :-)

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[pilar007]

12. Change it.........

after capitulating to Bush and wiretapping, I've cancelled my service with ATT. Why would anybody continue to do business with them is beyond me.

[LiberalFighter]

2. Why do people need to pay to download ring tones?

Can't people make their own and download them from their own computer?

[yasmina27]

7. That's a great idea

for people who know how to do it!

Can you use songs that you've downloaded (legally) onto your computer? Then how do you get them on your phone as a ring tone?

[LiberalFighter]

13. Stop Paying for Ring Tones

Stop Paying for Ring Tones

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Same thing happened to me with Sprint a couple years ago

And they took the charges off my bill when I complained.

[Holly_Hobby]

9. We have AT&T cell phones

My husband's phone kept getting texts of daily horoscopes, which he did not sign up for. The 800# on the bill from the horoscope company was the same as AT&T's customer service!

We had the texting shut off on his phone to stop it.

[Supersedeas]

11. interesting

[BattyDem]

16. AT&T will now require confirmation before subscribing to third-party services

AT&T settles suit over 3rd-party cell phone fees

The company now requires customers who sign up for third-party services with recurring fees to confirm by replying to a text message. It also requires the content providers to send monthly reminders with instructions on how to unsubscribe from such services.

"AT&T has taken aggressive action to put industry-leading safeguards in place to protect our customers from unauthorized changes from third parties. We believe this settlement is consistent with that approach."

At least they finally did something about it. Too bad it took a lawsuit to get them to do the right thing. On the bright side, we can expect that all those wiretapping lawsuits will eventually get them to stop spying on us. Oh wait ... :eyes:


Another interesting bit of info from the article:

In some cases, Edelson said, charges for ringtones have shown up on bills for wireless laptop data cards, which have phone numbers but no way to use ring tones. That points to "cramming," or providers signing up customers without their knowledge.

Edited ... forgot link :blush: