Why on earth I have been charged Mobile Purchases & Downloads item?

[airman530]

I have been charged $29.97 for mobile purchases & downloads item again!!!

What is this? I canceled this item's subscription last month by calling with AT&T customer agent.

But, it's been charged again. what are you doing your company?

I want you to cancel the item right now and you do not charge in my bill ever.

You have to check my bill as soon as possible and cancel it. 

I am really annoyed at your behaviour!!!

[aristizzle]

If you called last month to have it cancelled then you most likey got the refund, but the charges were unbilled (pending) to show up on this months bill. The refund applies to that current balance. Check your bill in the "prior activity" section and that section will tell you if you got the refund on your previous balance.

[jamileh]

I'm sorry you've had bililng issues.

If you will please send me a private message with your name, account number, phone number and the best time to contact you; I will have someone contact you to make sure that you're being billed properly. 

To send a private message, you can either click on the link in this message or click on the little blue envelope in the upper right hand corner, click "compose new message" and type my username in the "Send To" field.

[BadBadLeroyBrown ACE - Warrior]

I don't know if some enterprising mobile vendors are exploiting some vulnerability in AT&T's system, but 3 months ago I started getting charges from a Chalkboard Genius Mobile Quiz Club. I finally had to put a mobile purchase block on my phone.

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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BadBadLeroyBrown wrote:

I don't know if some enterprising mobile vendors are exploiting some vulnerability in AT&T's system, but 3 months ago I started getting charges from a Chalkboard Genius Mobile Quiz Club. I finally had to put a mobile purchase block on my phone.

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Most  "enterprising mobile vendors" pul this scam, they advertise "download free ringtones, wall papers" for your phone and in the 2 or 3screen agreement build in something like this "by downloading this item you agree to a monthly subscription of XX.XX that weill be charged to your phone". There has been documentation on a "survey" that is advertised on face book that you agree to a mpnhtly charge for continueing to send you "surveys". You go hit by a well known one, they charge you 9.99 a month for sending you a "quiz"

Sad thing is they are not doing anything wrong, they build their agreement and authorization for the charge into a large number of screens that people tend not to read and just hit "I accept", that is all that is needed for them to send the bill to any carrier for payment and charged to your number. This is not just a issue with ATT, all major carriers hae the problem.

[BadBadLeroyBrown ACE - Warrior]

Yeah, I don't do any of that garbage. The only non-standard ring tones I have are ones I made, and I change girlfriends more frequently than backgrounds (and even then, I use my own pictures 99.9% of the time). I don't do online quizzes or surveys, especially from my phone. If you Google Chalkboard Quiz or ChalkboardIQ, you can find PAGES & PAGES of people complaining about this service. Not even sure how they got my telephone number. All I know is I got hit with a text TELLING me I was being charged $9.99/month, even before I had the opportunity to respond with STOP. I put a stop to that....I instituted a purchase blocker.

When I spoke with one of AT&T's CS people, he said that he'd send an email to his "Operations Manager" regarding the service, but he didn't think there was anything that could be done since to block the service would interfere with people's ability to use their phones.

[druidess]

And there we go! I was reviewing my bill online last night and noticed that our 5th (!) line, used rarely by my 85 year old dad for emergencies, only to numbers we have programmed in, and couldn't text if his life depended on it, has been charged $9.99 per month since July of 2011! Yes, I realize it's my fault that I haven't stayed on top of this line, my only excuse is that it is used so little and no extras and no texting/pictures/videos that I have skimmed over it. Probably why it was the line selected by whoever these scammers are. The at&t rep I just spoke with told me (with a great deal of disdain) that it doesn't just happen,that Dad would have had to reply "positively" with a "yes" text back 3 times in order for the app to be downloaded. As I said above and told him, my dad couldn't text if the fate of the world depended on it. NO how, NO way, NO, NO, NO. So he said, someone probably did it for him...Uh-un,again, NO. Lives alone, no one has access and there is no one in any part of our lives that would have selected this app - I am told it is Bible verses and Quotations. That would appeal to many, I understand, but not to anyone in my family - EVER, under any circumstances. Again, the rep was short...."Ma'am, I have no comment, all I can do is adjust this month's bill and credit last month's...

Although  the rep noted the app was downloaded in September 2011, I show the charge began in July 20011. Isn't it interesting that at&t can track you to the nearest milli-cent when they need to charge you, but when they need to credit you, they cannot track back to see that Dad has NEVER, not ONCE, accessed the Bible Quotations they claim he must have or had someone, download for him??? I am enraged. Rep said at&t doesn't police all the hundreds of thousands of apps that are out there to be downloaded. I pointed out that it would be to their advantage to make sure that their customers aren't scammed, particularly when at&t then has to use resources to address the issue and do they recover the cost from the scammers? "Ma'am I cannot comment on that..."

[jamileh]

While frustrating, the information the rep gave you was correct. It's unfortunate, but there are a lot of people out there trying to make money from people by scamming them. 

You can always keep an eye on mobile purchases here: https://cingular-oac.qpass.com/oac/html/signin.do

I'm sorry this happened to your Dad and I hope that it doesn't happen again. 

[jonesey95]

You wrote:

"While frustrating, the information the rep gave you was correct. It's unfortunate, but there are a lot of people out there trying to make money from people by scamming them."

This is NOT TRUE.  I can verify with screen shots from my iPhone that I received four text messages, all within the same minute. The first three were identical spam messages advertising ringtones etc. for $9.99 a month. The fourth one was a message saying "Welcome ..." and informing me that I had subscribed. I checked my on-line account, and sure enough, I had been subscribed to a service for $9.99/month.

Again, all four of these messages arrived within one minute, while I was away from my phone (my phone was not accessible to any other people during this time). I was automatically subscribed to a $9.99/month service without my consent. This is a scam, this is fraud, and AT&T needs to put a stop to it.

[JFizDaWiz]

I wouldn't be surprised if companies just spam numbers that might exist, but that is not an att problem, and att helps you by adding purchase blockers

[jamileh]

When it comes down to basics, your phone number is just 10 digits strung together. A computer program can compile millions of 10 digit strings a day, sending texts to all of them. Some numbers may be legit cell numbers, some not but the ones that are legit get the spam.

[jamileh]

@jonesey95 If you'd like me to have a member of my team give you a call to review any unauthorized charges & set up purchase blocker, please send me a private message with your name, account number, phone number & the best time to call.

[DVCkev]

yea, this crap with charges being added without signing up for anything is happening to my wife's phone. Now if I still have the 2GB data plan for $25 and have a customer service rep block all purchases for free, is that going to change my data plan to 3GB automatically? If that is true then will I lose my employer discount off the data plan and the lines??

[jamileh]

Applying purchase blocker to your account does not change any of your features or your rate plan.