When you see ads that say “find out the exact name of your soul mate“, do NOT be tempted to take the test. It’s not a test at all. in step 1 you will enter your gender, in step 2 you will enter your zodiacal sign, or star sign. In step 3 you will enter your first name, (are you getting a feel for this yet?), and in step 4 you will enter your cell phone number.
MY What???? That’s right, and what you don’t notice is that at the bottom of the red bordered screen, out of your immediate view, is the “fine print.” In the fine print you will discover that after you have entered your cell phone number, you will be sent a PIN for you to discover the name of your soul mate. You must reply to the text message with your PIN to reveal your soul mate. Once you have replied to the text message, you are subscribing to a weekly prediction service and agree to be charged anywhere from $5.99 each week to $19.99 a month [depending on who your cell service is with].
The ONLY way to stop this service is for you to send the word “STOP” to the number [short code] 89623, which appeared briefly on the “enter your cell phone number” page which you probably breezed right past and didn’t notice the fine print hidden obscurely out of view at the bottom of the page that you must scroll down to see.
What a great scam huh? This is the typical “preying on human nature” scam that Banks on the fact you will be excited, eager and in a hurry to find the answer. In your haste you will zoom right by the important information that will quietly and invisibly relieve you of your hard earned cash on your quest to find out the name of your soul mate.
So who is my soul mate? I don’t know, because I stopped dead in my tracks when I am asked to enter my cell phone number on a web site. However, I am willing to bet that it would have been the name of some celebrity that is also a Sagittarius, or a list of famous celebs with birthdays in December. Or maybe, the name would be revealed to me after I have gotten 6 predictions first, or it would be a name taken from the phone book of a 3rd world country, who needs to be married immediately to an American or they will lose MILLIONS of dollars that is waiting for them in an obscure offshore account because it was left to them by someone who was related to them (by name) and died recently without a will and leaving the money unclaimed. [Some of you may have gotten that if you have seen that scam as well]
Source: http://lovesoulmate.us
***UPDATE***The Soul Mate site has changed their pages to include the “fine print” at the bottom of every page and changed the title to inform you that you will get your soul mate’s name through weekly horoscope predictions to your cell phone.
***UPDATE 6/12/2007***A new website from the same company running love soul mate is now open called My 1 Pure Love. The charges are the same, the scam is the same and still they only offer horoscopes and love “predictions.”
***UPDATE 7/16/2007***Yet another website by the same company has produced “Perfect Lover Calculator” and it appears on myspace.com accounts as “crush Calculator.”
PerfectLover will not issue refunds to persons or entities claiming that they did not authorize the use of their wireless account to receive a Download.
The STOP text of 75557 is the number to use on this service. The terms and conditions are identical to all their other services with the exception of the name change and the terms and conditions were last updated for all their named services in Nov 2005.
***UPDATE 7/30/2007***It appears that the “STOP” numbers that you text back to the company do not work:
December 27th 2006 04:11:32 AM I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM GETTING MESSAGES ON MY T-MOBIL CELL PHONE THEY’VE CHARGED 20.00 2 MY BILL I WANT SOMETHING DONE AND MY ACCOUNT CREDITED 4 THIS 20.00.I’VE TEXT STOP 2 75557 CALLED 800 # TO NO AVAIL . PLEASE DO SOMETHING THIS IS WRONG ITS A SCAM AND NEEDS STOPED AND REPAY THE MONEY CHARGED ON OUR CELL BILL. THANKS M.M. IN ALABAMA
December 21st 2006 04:38:04 PM I have been charged as well and can not get through on my cell phone for them to stop! WHAT A FREAKING SCAM!I had $30.00 worth on my bill. The phone providers are powerless because of “anti-trust” laws. If they can’t do anything, it is up to us to do it. I am going to start by filing a complaint with the FCC. Don’t know if it will help, but worth a shot.
***UPDATE 8/23/2007***Major changes are taking place since I began this consumer alert post. Today I have discovered that LoveSoulMate.us has changed its home page in the following ways:
- The title of the page is no longer “Find out the exact name of your soulmate.” It is now displaying “Find out the name of your love soulmate with weekly horoscopes to your cell.“
- The graphic now includes a notice to all users saying “Don’t miss out on calculating your Love Soulmat’s name! You will also get weekly horoscopes.“
- The home page of the site now includes links to the Service Info, Privacy Policy, Contact Information and Terms and Conditions. [Please read ALL of these first]
In the contact Information you will note “Please tone dial your number to remove yourself from the service. We do not monitor incoming messages to our service number, so you must send the correct keyword STOP to cancel the service.”
They don’t have a live person monitoring their customer service number at 800-235-7105 so you must use the “STOP” text instead to stop the service. What the Hell??!!??!! But you can enter your cell phone number and they will remove that number from their service, after just telling us that we must use the stop text instead. HUGE red SCAM flag.
So, just out of giggles and grins, I entered a bogus number “588-245-1174″ as my cell phone number, and would you believe the response was “We have successfully removed your cell number from our database. You will no longer receive text messages from Mobile [unrecognized word].“
They removed a number that doesn’t even exist? let alone in their database?? HUGE red SCAM flag.
Now the big scam – At first they were going to tell you the exact name of your soul mate (and they consistently spell soul mate as one word “soulmate” when in fact it is two words which suggests this is not an American company), before changing it to say “don’t miss out on calculating…” What the hell does that mean? Don’t miss out on someone doing the calculating for you? Nope, not at all, as is explained in the “service Info” which specifically states “LoveSoulMate.us is an entertainment service providing weekly readings and monthly love tips. The user is able to calculate some details about their perfect match.” So we have to do the calculating ourselves? from what information, our horoscopes about ourselves? Are you kidding me?!?!
Now, the Privacy Policy which states “Removing Yourself From Database –You may unsubscribe from any or all services by messaging the word STOP.“”Law –The only case where we will provide all neccessary information is where we are approached by representatives of the law enforcement bodies.“[necessary is misspelled]Lets Summarize:
- The Crush Calculator, the Love Soulmate calculator/prediction, The My 1 Pure Love prediction/calculator, are not really calculators or predictions at all.
- They wont provide any information to anyone unless they are approached by a law enforcement body, in other words, only if they are sued or summoned to a grand jury investigation.
- “STOP” text message doesn’t work.
- Calling the company at their customer service number won’t get you a live person because it’s not monitored by a live person.
- Entering “ANY” number at the customer service number will be removed from the database even if the number doesn’t exist or is not your own. (we don’t know if any number is actually removed)
- “Any and All services” implies they do own more than one service under different names. (The terms and Conditions verifies this by giving the same customer service number for all the names stated above in this scam)
- Contradictions, bad or incorrect english and lies [about removing a number from the database and the effectiveness about the STOP text message] all suggest a non-American company and Scam.
This scam needs to be reported to the United States Dept of Justice Attorney Generals office by as many consumers as possible. Click the “Contact Us” link once there.
***UPDATE 7/04/2009*** The global Privacy Policy has been changed to reflect as follows : “We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights…”
“…You have no right, and waive any right you may otherwise have, to pursue any of our service providers or your cell phone carrier for any violation of this Privacy Statement.”
Now I have no idea who the idiot is, pretending to be the legal adviser or legal staff of Mobile Messenger and Mr Tsvetnenko, but this clown has gone way overboard to tell us that we have no rights and that we waive our rights just because he wants us to. I’m sorry, this is laughable. Also this service has spread to Facebook under many company names such as IQquizapp, Inc, and MobiConnex (officialIqquiz.com). The Privacy Policy and the Terms & Conditions now use the term “The Company” to represent all the individual company names used for this world wide scam.
Below is a list found on the officialiqquiz.com website to unsubscribe:
“
Playphone – Does NOT Accept Nextel or Boost Traffic
To cancel your Subscription Plan, send a text message with the text “STOP PP” to 77888, or such other number as may be designated on our Website (http://www.playphone.com), or, send an e-mail to refunds@playphone.com or contact 866-661-2076. The termination shall become effective at the end of the billing period in which you gave your notice of termination.
Ringaza – Does NOT Accept Sprint Traffic
Subscribers may cancel by texting STOP to 75714. To know more about Ringaza’s Terms & Conditions please visit our Web site (http://www.ringaza.com) or contact customer service at support@ringaza.com.
Jamster – Does NOT Accept Sprint, Nextel or Boost Traffic
To cancel your Subscription Plan, send a text message with the text “STOP” to 75555.
SendMeMobile
To stop receiving the security code confirmation text messages or to cancel any service at any time, text “STOP” to 77899, or contact our SendMe Mobile customer support team directly help@sendmemobile.com or call 877-3-SENDME or text HELP to 77899.
GameOn
To unsubscribe send “STOP” to 77877.
Mobile Messenger
This is an auto renewing subscription service that will continue until cancelled anytime by texting STOP to short code 46357.
Solow
Text “HELP” to 23687 at any time for more information about how to play. You can also contact SoLow customer service at help@solow.com or by calling 1-877-402-3687. To stop receiving the security code confirmation text messages or to cancel a service at any time, text “STOP” to 23687.
Flycell
To Unsubscribe simply text STOP to 69999. For more information on unsubscribing visit Flycell here.”
The Chawed Rosin
The Dragon Tail 
What can be done about these low-life scum of the scam world. My 15 year old daughter, took a google provided survey that sent her to this scam site where she claims she did not see any viewable fine
print warning about any charges that were to incur. When did they revise their site with the fine print? It must have been after July 19, since that was when we were scammed. How can we put these dispicable people out of business?
After speaking with Verizon on behalf of one of my customers I was provided with this # 1-800-235-7105
it is an automated system but it does say that my customer’s # was removed.
we’ll see if it actually works.
I don’t care if they put it in fine print or not, people who run businesses like these should be dragged out into the street and shot.
Dan, Thank you for your comment and questions. I’d be very interested in which site your daughter visited so that I can check into it and add it to the list for alerting the public.
These sites have been around for a couple years, and the Soul Mate / Perfect Lover / My 1 Pure Love / Crush Calculator have started using the “fine print” on all their pages since about May of this year. Prior to that only one or two sites were doing so, and usually only on one of their pages, least likely being the first page.
The only legal recourse that comes to mind would be to contact your local District Attorney as well as the Federal Attorney General to report our specific circumstances in dealing with these companies. The most powerful and effective means to combat this type of activity is through public awareness and education. Empowering the public with knowledge on how it works, the knowledge of why it works and using that information to help you spot and avoid other scams is the only true way to prevent these companies/entities from doing damage. Knowledge is power, and by educating ourselves on how it works, we empower ourselves against becoming victims. As a parent, we do our best to prevent our own children from becoming victims until we have empowered them to take the tools/knowledge we give them, and use them wisely.
These scam companies flourish because they study court documents on how other companies are sued and how a case was won or lost. They then make sure they have all the legal stipulations tailored to protect them self against a lawsuit or consumer legal action. Then they devise engineered designs in hiding the information in plain site. I know it sounds funny, but the best place to hide something is right under someones nose. It may not jump out at you in plain site, but 9 out of 10 times, it’s there inconspicuously.
In this particular situation I have heard quite a few complaints that consumers have used the “STOP” code as well as calling directly to the company[ies] and getting no response at all. To me this is primed for a class action lawsuit IF enough people would report their circumstances to the local District Attorneys office and the Federal Attorney General. That doesn’t sound like doing much, but it’s a start, and the rest of the 95% effectiveness in combating scams of all sorts is through self-educating.
Below are a couple links to get you started, and thanks again for your comment.
HoaxKill.com
Snopes.com
Todd, Thank you for your comment. The number you posted is in fact the same number at all of the scam sites listed in my post on this topic. I hope that your customer meets with success in resolution of their matter. Also I would like to add that CrushCalculator.com has specifically stated in their privacy policy:
“Third-Party Measurement Services
We use two Third-Party Measurement Service — StatCounter and Extreme Tracker. These services enable us to track our site usage. These companies may collect and use anonymous information about your visits. The information collected can include:
– Date/time of your visit
– Your IP address
– The URLs of sites you visit
Personal Information
We do collect and use personal information at certain parts of the website in accordance to our Terms of Service.”
My minor son “signed” up for this scam and I didn’t know it until I saw the bill. My first call to Verizon Wireless resulted in support telling me I had to enter STOP to 75557. I did that but was still peeved by the whole process. After finding this site, I sent STOP to 89623 and we received and UNSUBSCRIBE text message back.
I called Verizon back and told them he was a minor child and could not sign up for this service. They removed the charge from last month’s bill. I am sure the charge will show up for this month as well and I will be calling Verizon back to get that removed.
Thanks for the info on the 89623 short code.
Thank you for your comment Paul. I am so glad this post is useful in some way to folks who have to deal with this scam. I’m also glad you had good luck (somewhat) in your dealings with the culprits. I am also finding out that Verizon, as much as they are talked down, has been the only cell company mentioned that is actively “helping” their subscribers deal with this scam.
All posts on this topic now seem to have an intrinsic value to all others who find this information. I am hoping that we all are offering something, with our comments, to those having to endure this scam.
my minor got in the same trouble, she was led by myspace to the soul mate name game.
i called verizon as well, they said i can disable the text on her cell but did not remove the unauthorized charges.
i can’t reach anyone at the 800# and no one has called me back. this is ridiculous.
Thank you Christina for your comments. Yes it is ridiculous, and then some. A sad as this situation is, I haven’t heard of one person having any kind of good resolution with this issue. It seems the best solution here at the moment is prevention. Spread the word and pass along the information…”prevention is the best medicine.”
we just got into the same problem with sprint…im curious if calling the number and asking to unsubscribe produced results?
Hi Jessica, Thanks for your question. I’m sorry to say that so far all I have read is nothing but bad results from trying to contact said company running this scam. Unreturned phone calls, never reaching a customer representative, and if someone was lucky enough to reach a living person, they were thwarted with “we can’t refund any purchases to you” (for various creative reasons).
We have to remember, that this is not a problem with the phone service you subscribe to, be it Sprint, Verizon, Cingular/AT&T, etc. This is a scam run by a 3rd party company using the above mentioned cell service to sell their services.
What I would suggest to ALL who have been caught in this scam is to contact your cell service provider and lodge a complaint about this company and their product/service. The more complaints the major service providers receive about this scam, the more likely the cell service will be to drop that company from using their cell service.
My wife and I both fell for this scam! We were doing this for fun one evening after we stumbled on this website. Anyhow, after receieving these strange messages for several weeks, I decided to do a Google search to see how I could remove this. I was amazed to find out that I had subscribed to a service that was charging me! In any case, I haven’t seen the change on my Verizon bill yet, but I am sure it will be there.
I sent STOP to 75557 and received an unsubscribe response from the service. Hopefully this will be the end of that issue.
This is defiantly a scam!
Thank you for your comment Michael. I would be very interested in knowing if you were successful or not. If you continue to receive charges on your cell bill, please let us know as well. The more information that is known about the activity or lack of activity from this scam, the easier it will be to put a stop to it. Establishing a track record on how this company operates will be very useful.
It is entirly possible that someone could punk another by going onto the spammer’s site and putting in someone else’s cell number – which is what must’ve happened to me. I never went onto any such site and would never supply my cell number to anyone like this. Verizon, at this point, seems unwilling to credit me back the month it took to find out that i had become subscribed to such a thing
How frustrating! I was freaking out when I got an extra $19.99 on my Verizon bill. When I called them, of course they could not refund because I hadn’t subscribed through them. I didn’t even know what I subscribed too! The rep told me it was a “Joke of the Day” service–bull crap! She gave me the number to text if I wanted my number removed (25516). I sent the message and received no kind of confirmation of unsubscribing. I wanted to make sure what this was, so I typed the 800 number into google and it came with hoax-finder sites like this, but also the links to the scam sites themselves. After I saw the site I remembered that I had done the “quiz”. I know I didn’t see anything about a monthly subscription, but I guess I didn’t look hard enough. I went through, saw the fine print this time (it should have only been $9.99 for a Verizon phone I might add). So I called the number, resubmitted my number for cancellation, and received verbal confirmation from machine that my number had been removed. I also chose the option to leave a message in the “Investigation Department” so I told them I wanted someone to call me….wishful thinking I’m sure. This sucks.
Thank you Jimmy and Marcia for your comments. I wish there was more I could do but I think you both related something that I feel is important. Protecting yourself against this kind of scam is paramount, which reinforces the idea of protecting your cell phone number and not giving it out to anyone that you don’t implicitly trust with your life. Why does that sound drastic? Because, quite literally, keeping your number private and protected, prevents idenitiy theft, and as Jimmy mentioned, “punking” your cell number for malicious reasons.
If anyone has had positive results out of this, I would really like to hear the details.
This also happened to me. I must have received a few weekly predictions, which I automatically deleted and never opened, thinking it was some sort of text ‘virus’ threat, and then came the Verizon charges… when I called they told me I subscribed to some sort of ringtone ad on Christmas Day around 8 p.m. After further questioning and frustration, due to the fact that I never did any survey nor did I reply to any ad, they removed the charges and told me to text some 5 digit code back with the word STOP QUIT or END. I texted STOP and received a confirmation text back that I was unsubscribing.
I never received further charges, though I do wonder if someone else typed my cell phone number into this survey. I was always really annoyed when I’d get the ‘predictions’. (You can see the first line when you open your inbox and I never “opened” a message beyond that. But in that first line I did see the ‘soulmate’ word, which is what led me to this site through a google search). I did receive one that said a name.
Thanks for your comment Sam. I have a bad feeling that some guy sitting in an office somewhere, with stock in this soul mate company or getting a kickback from the company is using Intellius and “punking” people into the system.
A Web site named Intelius has created a clearinghouse of cell phone numbers that can be purchased online
(the following source is ABC News http://www.abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3479517 )
“Intelius already has 90 million cell phone numbers, and it’s adding 70 million more in the coming days, along with the addresses that go with them.”
“Intelius claims it is providing a public service that will help parents track down who is calling their children, or families checking on a nanny, but many individuals are upset that their information can be bought online.”
“ABC’s David Muir attempted to buy the records of three people he approached today in New York City, and they were shocked to learn he’d purchased every cell phone number and address they ever had.” (end source)
I’m just thinking here, but lets say that I have to pay $15 for each phone number from Intellius, and I charge $20 for the prediction service. That’s $5 profit per number. I wonder if I could plug 100 numbers a day into the system. Hmmm…$500 a day profit, 30 days a month, I think I could live with $15,000 a month income.
This scam really needs a full blown investigation by the FBI or IRS or young journalist looking to make rank fast.
Wow. It is upsetting to even imagine that this apparently may somehow be ethically legal.
I’m already financially unstable and completely in debt and now I’ve lost another bit unpricipled-ly to the deceitful and exploitive scam of some random, scheming, socially-selfish/immoral and illegit “company”. Geez. (Who knew that this world could really be so messed up?).
I tried this out for fun thinking it wouldn’t hurt. I assumed that legally, I’d have to actually confirm any precise charges in a clear and lucid manner. (Again, who knew that this world could really be so messed up?).
I’ve been receiving retarded messages for about a week now until my friend told me recently that I’m actually being charged. So I googled and googled my way today and have replied with the text STOP. I received an immediate response that said I’ve been unsubscribed.
Sooo…
1) Let’s see if I stop receiving this crap.
2) I’m with Rogers. I’m going to call tomorrow and see how much I’ve been charged and hopefully (HOPEFULLY!) get my poor ass a refund.
Thank you for your comments Kathryn, and I am sorry for all who have been taken advantage of by this scam. Please do let us know what your results are with your efforts. I think it’s only fair that if some people have good results to list those results and share a possible solution for others.
I cant beleive it… This is actually happening to me … all my life i was suspicious of everything, i cant beleive i fell to that one … its a wonderfull website thanks a lot for the info…. I dont even remember if i sugned up with this lovesoulmate.us website … i need to unsubscribe !!! i should have my code ? i lost it !!!
Alot of spam newsletters use similar tactics to send ads by using the unsubscribe button to freeze your internet browser. In my experience the only way to stop recieving mail from these sources is to get a new e-mail account.
Thank you for your comments Mondo, and I agree there are some times there is just no way to stop something like that without completely changing services. A great many emails have an “unsubscribe” at the bottom for you to use to stop the mail. However, I have found in many circumstances that 1) it doesn’t work, 2) it is used only to verify your email address and who you are for MORE junk mail, 3) they do unsubscribe you to that particular newsletter and they then submit your address to 15 of their affiliates which is not a violation of them “selling or giving away your address” because it’s an affiliate, or the same company under a different name.
Unfortunately, the only way to completely prevent pregnancy is to not have sex at all. The same holds true for junk email, newsletters etc. Do not give out your email address, do not subscribe to anything, do not open emails that you don’t recognize who they are from (and even that one isn’t safe).
Sadly in my years on the internet (roughly 20 or so) I have had no less than 15 email addresses trying to avoid spam, junk, etc. The internet bandwidth is literally “choked” from all the spam and other malicious content being sent over it.
I have found that my Gmail account at google has a very good spam filtering system. Unlike Yahoo and MSN or Windows Live mail, there are no limits to the number of filters you can create to go along with their impressive spam filtration.
I just got a text from one of these soulmate websites with a pin number. If I don’t enter the pin number will I still get charged? Will I still be signed up? Or is entering the pin the only way to be registered for it? I’m really nervous.
Kathleen, I am sorry to say, that if you have gotten a text message on your phone, then you or someone entered your phone number on their website. From what I understand, they send you a pin number that is used to reply to their text message and at that point you are subscribed. However, and I caution every single living soul on this planet, just because you haven’t replied with the pin number they sent you, does NOT mean that you are safe after giving them your cell phone number on a public website. What this means is, if you enter personal data (i.e. a cell phone number) on a public website, at that point you are giving the WORLD your private information (in this case a cell phone number), and they may subscribe you anyway.
There is one way for sure that you can tell if you are entering your private information on a “secure” website by which your information is garanteed to be secure, and that is if the web address has an “s” in the “http://” part and it will look like this “https://…” This means it is a secure server that is backed by a secure server certificate which is registered with and issued from the Thawte Corporation ( http://www.thawte.com/digital-certificates/?click=main-nav-products-overview )
This means a company has had to go through a “strict” verification process with Thawte before they issue the secure certificate which enables a secure web address. When I had mine issued it was a painful process and took a few days before Thawte could verify who I was in connection with my company and then issue the certificate, but I felt glad it was not easy for just anyone to get a certificate.
I certainly see a very justifiable situation where all the commenters from here and other blogs who have been scammed, getting together with a class action lawsuit lawyer and suing both Intellius (the people giving out your cell phone number without your permission) and the soulmate scam company.
Prevntion is the best medicine, don’t give out information you consider to be private. Most people don’t realize as well that your social security number is for use by your employer and a banking institution as well as the IRS. It is a Federal offense for any other private or commercial institution to force you to disclose your SSN to them. You can read more about it by clicking on “Scam/Consumer Alerts” category anywhere you see it on this blog. It will be at the bottom of that category as it was the first scam I posted in that category.
Thank you for your question Kathleen.
Ahhhh! I could have cut and pasted nearly all of the comments above. I am so glad I am not alone in this. I’ve had over $150 in charges for Prem_SMS 25516 and Prem_SMS 71769CSW mobile to or verizon accounts. Verizon offers no help. My under age son doesn’t even know how he signed up for it. I pathetically fell for the soul mate scam. We are both being billed 19.99 each month. We have both text back STOP and continue to get billed. I was told by Verizon that if I put a text block on my phone we wouldn’t be billed. This was not correct as we continue to get billed. I have called the 800-235-7105 noted above and requested they cancel all text billing to both numbers. Does anyone know if that works? I have kept a record of of my stop text. I will continue to fight this and will let everyone I know what a scam it is. Thanks for posting this information.
One really frustrated mom,
Julie
I am having this same problem! One night, just for fun, I found some sight called Swami Predicts, or something like that. It was basically a soulmate name generator, and asked for my cell number, which i gave them. Soon after, I started getting all these weird prediction text messages, which i for the most part ignored.
Now, my cell phone bill just came in from Verizon, and I have not one, but TWO charges of $19.99 on it! So I call Verizon, and the woman tells me it was from this company, Mobile Messenger, and told me I can text STOP to 66047 to stop the subscription and charges, but cannot refund the charges because it was from a 3rd party company.
I sent the STOP message, and they gave me the 800-235-7105 number to call, so I did, put my cell number in, and the recording told me I would recieve no further bills.
So, I am only hoping that I really recieve no further bills or messages…
Thank you JJ and Brian for your comments. I hope all my readers here can see a trend in your comments. It seems no matter what company name shows up on your bill for the prediction service, the phone number to call and unsubscribe to is always the same, 800-235-7105. It seems to me that the person or entity that owns the 800 number is using all the “first time charges” that the cell company can not refund to invest in licensing of all these company DBA (doing business as) names. The scam is ingenious if you think about how many people in the nation (let alone the world) that will be charged an initial charge of $19.95 before they find out they have been scammed.
Lets say that just 1% of this nations population (300 million plus) responds to the love calculator, or soul mate prediction. This would calculate out to 3 million initial responses. Now multiply that by $19.95 which won’t be refunded, and you get roughly $60 million. Even if said company had an initial outlay of $2.5 million to start up the business, they profited $57.5 million on a 1% initial response.
Now lets say that the United States was just a testbed market, or that the UK was, and said company decides to take their “profit” and try it in China. Why China? because China has roughly 400 million cell phone subscribers alone. 100 million more cell phones than there are total people in the United States.
Things that make you go hmmmm.
Please do yourself and your friends a huge favor and pass this information along. The best protection is to be armed with knowledge and information.
I wanted to pass along an email address I came across and actually received a response from. I have now received a confirmation that both my cell numbers that have been charged have been cancelled from the text service. This is encouraging, but I won’t feel complete until I see next months statement!
They even included a phone number which is different from the 800 one above to have your name removed. I had already registered my number to be removed via the phone number and the email indicated that my number had already been removed, so the numbers are related and appear to be the same company. Could this be any more confusing for people. FYI – I did contact the Dpt of Justice and file a complaint.
MOBILEMESSENGER
P: +1 800 416 6129
F: +1 310 496 2873
escalationsus@mobilemessenger.com
Good luck!
10 Dragon Tail Points for JJ!! Thank you very much for the update. The information you gave is going to help a great many people. Please do let us know how your cell bill/statement turns out.
Just got my second bill from Verizon for 2 charges of $19.99 for a total of about $40.00 on my son’s account.
Bill message:
PREM_SMS 25516 Text Alerts – Jokes
Called Verizon and they credited my bill! Maybe because my bill is about $250/month, I don’t know. Anyway, Verizon told me to send STOP to 25516 like JJ above. That didn’t do anything. Then my son sent the STOP to 89623. Almost instantly, he got an Unsubscribed message as follows:
LoveSoulMate.us – You have now been unsubscribed from all 19.99 LoveSoulMate.us services. lovesoulmate@sms-helpdesk.com or 18002357105 4 support.
Will advise if the charges continue.
How about the deceiving bill with “Jokes” as subject.
Took several Google searches on the 25516 message from Verizon bill and yours was the only one that gave me a good hit.
Rocket, YOU DA MAN!
Thank you very much for your comment and kind words Steve. I’m happy that the information provided here has been of help to you and others. I wish there were more that I could do personally to help all the people getting scammed.
I would like to say as a caution, that for those that do get refunds or credited on their phone bill says a lot toward the integrity and quality of your cell service. The cell companies are not obligated in any way to credit or refund any charges due to this scam or other scams run by 3rd party services, however I feel it is vital that we all report this activity to our cell providers regardless. This will prove to be a benefit to all as the data is collected (complaints) for use against the 3rd party service company. Please don’t get angry or upset if your cell service doesn’t credit your account, but rather look at it as “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” deals. The main idea being to lodge the complaint with hopes of the major cell service providers boycotting or denying the 3rd party use of the major cell network. Any credits and refunds is just a side benefit and very nice of the cell company.
Steve, you provided very good information that will likely help many others in relation to the text message your son received in response to the stop command. The just supports my findings that it is one company under many different names and services. How funny it is the subject “Jokes” was used on your bill. It even made me laugh and think about what a joke the whole thing is, if only it were a joke. I am sure not many people are laughing.
Please, everyone, tell as many people as you can about this scam, they may not be aware that their sons and daughters have inadvertently fallen for it and may not be aware of the charges. It would sure make my day if you mentioned my blog as well 🙂 and I will continue to provide a place for all the information to gather in hopes it will help.
Learned a little more from Verizon on the phone while trying to get assurance from Verizon that I wouldn’t be charged any more if I did all that is possible to stop the charges.
Verizon has a list of company names associated with the 5 digit code included in the charge on the bill and a customer service number for each. In my case, 25516 belongs to “Mobil Messenger Tone Craze” and 89623 belongs to “Mobil Messenger Funkyfones”. Believe it or not, they both have the same customer service # 800-235-7105!
Verizon also advised me to send 5 separate messages to the number on the bill, all in capital letters. STOP, QUIT, UNSUBSCRIBE, END, and CANCEL.
The only message that received the response was to 89623, which is included in the LoveSoulMate.us terms and conditions.
Below is the contact information for http://www.perfectlover.us
amanda:~ # whois perfectlover.us
Domain Name: PERFECTLOVER.US
Domain ID: D9080813-US
Sponsoring Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Domain Status: ok
Registrant ID: 0EEA6B68D18BAADD
Registrant Name: Eugeni Tsvetnenko
Registrant Organization: Skycell International Pty Ltd
Registrant Address1: 20 Gateway Blvd
Registrant City: Canning Vale
Registrant Postal Code: 6155
Registrant Country: Australia
Registrant Country Code: AU
Registrant Phone Number: +61.403621811
Registrant Email: zhenya@mobilefone.com.au
Registrant Application Purpose: P1
Registrant Nexus Category: C31/AU
Administrative Contact ID: 0EEA6B68D18BAADD
Administrative Contact Name: Eugeni Tsvetnenko
Administrative Contact Organization: Skycell International Pty Ltd
Administrative Contact Address1: 20 Gateway Blvd
Administrative Contact City: Canning Vale
Administrative Contact Postal Code: 6155
Administrative Contact Country: Australia
Administrative Contact Country Code: AU
Administrative Contact Phone Number: +61.403621811
Administrative Contact Email: zhenya@mobilefone.com.au
Administrative Application Purpose: P1
Administrative Nexus Category: C31/AU
Billing Contact ID: 0EEA6B68D18BAADD
Billing Contact Name: Eugeni Tsvetnenko
Billing Contact Organization: Skycell International Pty Ltd
Billing Contact Address1: 20 Gateway Blvd
Billing Contact City: Canning Vale
Billing Contact Postal Code: 6155
Billing Contact Country: Australia
Billing Contact Country Code: AU
Billing Contact Phone Number: +61.403621811
Billing Contact Email: zhenya@mobilefone.com.au
Billing Application Purpose: P1
Billing Nexus Category: C31/AU
Technical Contact ID: 0EEA6B68D18BAADD
Technical Contact Name: Eugeni Tsvetnenko
Technical Contact Organization: Skycell International Pty Ltd
Technical Contact Address1: 20 Gateway Blvd
Technical Contact City: Canning Vale
Technical Contact Postal Code: 6155
Technical Contact Country: Australia
Technical Contact Country Code: AU
Technical Contact Phone Number: +61.403621811
Technical Contact Email: zhenya@mobilefone.com.au
Technical Application Purpose: P1
Technical Nexus Category: C31/AU
Name Server: NS1.EV1SERVERS.NET
Name Server: NS2.EV1SERVERS.NET
Created by Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Last Updated by Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Domain Registration Date: Thu Dec 01 00:31:02 GMT 2005
Domain Expiration Date: Sun Nov 30 23:59:59 GMT 2008
Domain Last Updated Date: Fri Nov 02 09:15:17 GMT 2007
Thank you Michael for your post. Unfortunately if Skycell Int’l is the company that owns Perfectlover and the other names in this scam, they are outside US jurisdiction and therefore will be VERY difficult to pursue actions against them. However, the information only shows that Skycell Int’l bought and paid for the registration of the domain name which doesn’t really tell us anything as they may be an affiliate or franchise leasing or hosting the domain to another company or entity, as this is very common.
If anyone would like to see a Terms and Conditions for Perfect Lover or the other sites, here is the link http://www.perfectlover.us/terms.html
The T&C’s are all the same with only the site name being substituted in each T&C with the exception that the PerfectLover name is used in the crush calculator site.
This is the link to the Love Soul Mate T&C – http://www.lovesoulmate.us/terms.html
Thanks again for the post Michael, lets keep that information coming in!
***Update*** Skycell also registered the domain name of http://www.lovesoulmate.us with all the same contact information. CRUSHCALCULATOR.US is registered through Godaddy.com by an unknown organization, however ALL of the other technical, billing, and contact information is to Eugeni Tsvetnenko (zhenya@tsvetnenko.com) in Australia. Sadly this still doesn’t tell us who the company is that runs the service, it only tells us who runs the websites.
I got a phone message from 1-800-416-6129 on my cell
and heard only an echo of my own voice saying hello? hello? I hear only an echo. I guess this number is associated with some Soulmate Calculator…but I fell for some other scam (Find out who has a Crush on You!) some weeks ago and canceled it. I don’t know if this is
This sounds like a variation on the scams described already…anybody have some comment on this?
Anna
Hi Anna, thanks for your comment and question. The 800 phone number in question is to the Mobile Messenger Customer Care department. Chances are that you were called by a representative from Mobile messenger about your earlier cancellation. If they need to speak to you bad enough, they will call back again, otherwise I wouldn’t worry about missing the call.
As for the dead air/echo of your own voice, this is a common technical problem associated with someone using a bluetooth device on the other end. Whether they heard you on the other end or not is somewhat a moot point. If they truly needed to speak with you about anything important, they would have called back. If your cancellation was successful and you no longer are being charged for a service you didn’t order or approve, then I would say you are well on your way past what could have been a frustrating situation for you.
Thank you again for your much appreciated participation at The Dragon Tail.
🙂
This is Steve again (29&31 above). Just checked my bill and there were NO more charges from these scammers. Looks like either the 89623 message or the call to the 800 number did the trick.
Hey that’s great Steve, thanks for sharing the saga with us. I’m glad things are working out for you, and getting back to normal. I wish there were some way to compensate you and everyone else for the frustration and anxiety this kind of scam causes, however, sharing your experience, and sharing the factual information we learn from our experiences, will empower us all with the knowledge to prevent being taken advantage of in the future.
I know many of our readers feel a glimmer of hope when they hear about the success in dealing with international crooks. I encourage everyone to come back to update us on your experiences, and to enjoy the rest of The Dragon Tail.
The scam is happening here in Australia too. The international company that is running it is called Mobile Messenger http://www.mobilemessenger.com/ and they link up with all the major mobile service providers (I’m with 3 mobile). They have a call center set up here in Sydney that is specifically devoted to calls from people trying to find out how to stop this service once they see it appear on their bill. To get a weekly horoscope SMS delivered to my mobile (for the incorrect star sign mind you!), I am charged $6.60 per message. On the website, you’ll find call center numbers for several countries, the US, Canada, UK, Ireland and New Zealand. They appear to have offices in Australia, the US, New Zealand and India. They wouldn’t give me the exact address for security reasons, I said “I bet”. I do have their Australian Business Number though (a number used for taxation purposes) if anyone wants it.
The company was set up in 1999 (according to the website) and has grown exponentially by scamming people, but remember, this is with the cooperation of the telcos who get a kick back from them as well. They also comply with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (according to the very cheeky “customer service” operator I spoke with), and I’m more than welcome to go to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman. Judging from the cockiness of the company, they’ve got all the legal side of it stitched up.
The site I supposedly signed up on was http://perfectlover.com.au and the only time you get to see any terms and conditions is a link on the last page which has a timer on it – you have to submit the pin code they sent you on your phone in 2 minutes or you won’t ever know your perfect match, and the terms and conditions page which you have to click on (the tick box to agree to it is pre-ticked of course) brings up a small window with the terms and conditions. The part about being charged anything is quite a way in, it’s 7 pages long in Word! So you’re meant to read that in 2 minutes? The guy I spoke to said it’s all made very clear on the website. It does have all the info in it though, I just looked at it then using a fake mobile number (then messaged that number just in case).
These people are low life scum, I’ll grant you that, but the fact is that the profit driven system we live in totally supports this kind of behavior. It’s not that different to your boss cajoling you into working overtime and then not paying you for it. So while it might make us feel a bit better relating our experiences here, this sort of **** will continue until we collectively do something about it; not just these vermin scammers, but the whole rotten system of capitalism.
Thank you for your comment Heidi. I think we would all like to hear your suggestions or ideas on what we can do aside from arming ourselves and our friends with the information relating to this global scam.
I am sure that dealing with an international company is going to be far more frustrating than just a national company. The problem I see is that such a company goes outside the boundary of attracting customers through traditional advertising and “tricking” someone into paying for something involuntarily. If it can not be proven that such a company is taking “involuntary” monies from consumers, in essence robbing the consumer, then I don’t see this being an easy task to discourage or eliminate such deceitful activity by a corporation.
Another problem would be “who is the enforcing agency” in stopping this type of business practice on a national as well as an international scale?
I can see one more problem and that is how do you convince businesses like the Telco’s to deny business activity from low life businesses like mobilemessenger? Aside from the fact that the telco’s apparently don’t care what kind of reputation they get from enabling companies like mobilemessenger.
I wish there were a simple solution, but like you said it will take a concerted effort as a group to combat this scam with whatever means we can find. Hopefully word of mouth will do its job and spread like wildfire to arm everyone around the world with the knowledge that will help protect them from this type of scam no matter where it breaks out.
Hello! I am writing to you about my experience 🙂
I do have Verizon. Back in June, a close relative had put a 19.99 charge onto my bill from Mobile Messenger. I called Verizon and they were very helpful to me. They took the charge off and I had all of my texting blocked so I wouldn’t recieve any messages or charges.
Well, in November I wanted to add texting back onto my plan. I debated on this for quite some time because I was too scared to unblock my texts and have these charges appear onto my bill.
So, I looked up tons of information on the web. When I came across this website, this is where I got the most information. Thank God for you all!
What I actually did was keep reading peoples experiences and what they did to remove these charges.
So here’s what I did. When I came across the message from October 23rd, I saw the 2 numbers that were listed. (From what I remember this is what I did.)
They listed this number: P: +1 800 416 6129
Which I called of course and got ahold of customer service for mobile messenger. I spoke to one person to have my number removed. I actually called the automated system to have it removed and apparently that didn’t work. So when the woman told me that my number had been fully removed, I hung up with her. And because I’m such a paranoid person (Heh), I called right back and spoke to someone else to verify that it had been removed. It was. 🙂
Soooooo. On my December bill for Verizon, I had no charges for any mobile messenger.
So I hope my experience has helped someone because you all and this website has DEFINITELY helped me!
Thanks and Happy Holidays! 🙂
Thank you very much for your comment and compliment Jessica. I’m really glad that the sharing of this information is helping people with this scam. I’m certain there are a number of people that this information is helping that don’t leave comments, and that’s perfectly fine with me. It’s really nice to hear how it’s helping as well.
I want all my readers out there to feel free to bring other scams to the attention of the Dragon Tail so that we can continue to empower each other with the knowledge to prevent harm. Kepp up the good work 🙂
I had gotten the 9.99 charge as well and I sent a email to the email provided in the text message and they replied with a automated email that gave me a different 1800 number… here it is…
—————————————————-
zus@sms-helpdesk.com Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
Subject: Thankyou for your email
Thank you for your recent email to Mobile Content Customer Care.
If you are receiving content, text messages, or charges to your cell
phone and/or bill that you would like to stop, we can help you.
Our friendly staff will respond to you within 48 hours and are here to
assist you until your problem is resolved.
You can also contact us directly on free call number 1800 416 6129
between 9:00am – 9:00pm American Eastern Standard Time Monday to Friday.
If you have provided your cell phone number in your original email our
customer care team will quickly process your request. Alternatively,
please reply to this email with your cell phone number so we may action
your request.
For assistance immediately, please find below some information that may
answer your questions.
The content or text messages that you are receiving on your cell phone
could consist of the following:
– Text alerts – such as horoscopes or jokes
– Ringtones
– Wallpapers and Images
To join and receive these services you must do one of the following;
Visit a website offering mobile content. Enter your cell phone number
online, receive a pin and enter that pin online. Or, send a text message
to a premium number you have seen on TV or in a magazine.
The above must happen before you are considered a valid user of a
service.
You may also cancel this service at anytime by replying with the word
STOP to any text message you have received. This is a standard policy
for all numbers offering cell phone content.
We hope that the above information is of assistance to you. Please
remember, if you have requested to be contacted, you will be hearing from
one of our representatives within 48 hours.
Sincerely,
Customer Care
————————————
after that i called them and they told me that i needed to have verizon fax them a copy of my charges so that they could refund my money in a check form through the mail since they do not work with the providor directly. The fax number that they gave me was 310-496-2873, verizon told me that they can not fax them anything without a court order and to call them back and let them know that and ask for a supervisor. So I did and I got the rudest person there I swear, she answers I tell her and I ask for her sup and she then goes on to tell me there is no one there to help me but her and I just keep repeating let me speak with your supervisor and then she wont talk and I said hello!!! and she says hello can i speak now and I said NO let me talk to your supervisor and she said one moment please and HUNG UP ON ME! so I called back and I swear the same person answered, when they put you on hold you can hear them setting a phone down and when they say they are transfering you they just set the phone down as well, anyways so the lady answered i told her someone hung up on me and was rude and wouldnt let me speak with their supervisor and i told her you sound just like her she said hold on and someone else got on the phone that sounded just the same only happier so i told her i dont know if you are really a supervisor or the same damn person but you guys hung up on me i want my 9.99 refunded you cant do this without a court order yadda yadda and she tells me that they are based in australia and that they are a day ahead so the charges are not showing on their records yet and to call them back on monday and then they will refund a check in the mail in 21 days… i called verizon back got a nice gentleman named jeramiah who believed it was a scam refunded my 9.99 and called corporate to let them know about the scam… maybe you all can get help by him as well. best of luck to you all.
Hello Nacine. Thank you for your post. I’m sorry you had a terrible experience with them, but that is very typical of people who are running a scam/ripoff. Worse yet is that we have a bunch of people in another country who feel they found “free money” floating around in America, and have no clue about American Law and the savvy of American People.
These people are not going to quit. America can not issue a court order on an Australian Company (no jurisdiction) and the lady at Verizon meant it takes a court order to release phone records to someone other than the owner of the phone number(yours).
Also the people in Australia should have been happy with you yourself faxing them your own phone bill but to what end? What information is in your phone bill that you haven’t already told them personally? They charged you, they have your phone number, why do you need to send them proof that they charged you? This is typical of scammers.
I am certainly glad that Verizon is on to this scam, but why is Verizon even doing business with them allowing their customers to be scammed?
Thanks again for your post Nacine and a Happy New Year.
thanks for the reply, yeah I understood what the lady at verizon meant about the court order I think I just worded it wrong, but as for verizon now atleast saying something to their corporate hopefully they drop them and dont do business with them anymore
Thanks for the info. Just called the 1 800 # and received a text message that I had been unsubscribed. Hopefully I really was. Stop, end, and all that didn’t work and verizon wasn’t very helpful. Would have had to pay $9.99 for the rest of my life if it wasn’t for your site! Thank you!
Thanks for your kind words and your post, Lisa. The power of my blog rests with its readers. The more people that come to read or share their information, the more powerful the knowledge becomes.
If anyone would like to share what they find here, please feel free to include a web link to my blog at the bottom of their email correspondence or anywhere they want. A tag line at the bottom of email is unobtrusive and more polite than spam. IF you are a newsgroup reader or you like message boards and forums, you could also include the link as a tagline to your profile or posts.
Thank you to all my visitors. 🙂
I also had a bad experience with mobile messenger and know other who have too. I just wrote a review on the better business bureau website and I encourage everyone to do the same.
Thank you for your comment Cindy, and great idea. Every little bit helps. The link to the BBB is US Better Business Bureau
Hi everyone, Here is where all your money is going – have a look at this web site http://www.perthnow.com.au – Mr Eugeni Tsvetnenko has just spent $1.5m of your hard earned money on a “low key” wedding…. fit for royalty.
Good luck.
Hi Angel, thanks for the comment, but I am not sure how a Russian-born businessman, Zhenya Tsvetnenko, giving his Australian wife a million dollar wedding has any connection with this scam.
Are they brothers? Father/Son team? If there are more details that would be helpful to us, please feel free to include them in another post.
For everyone else that is duped by this scam, I am providing more contact information for you. If you would like to lodge an official complaint against Mr Eugeni Tsvetnenko, you can do so with the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) at the following number: 612 6243 1305. You can also use the online form at http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/54217/fromItemId/3634
Also please be aware that Mr Eugeni Tsvetnenko, trading as Mobile Adverts, has provided court-enforceable undertakings to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission not to engage in misleading and deceptive conduct with respect to the promotion of personal introduction services.
This was a result of numerous complaints from within Australia about his business practices. Following complaints to the ACCC, Mr Tsvetnenko was advised the advertisements appeared to contain false and misleading representations that may contravene the consumer protection provisions of the Trade Practices Act 1974.
He accepted the ACCC concerns and cooperated fully with the ACCC, immediately taking action to ensure that similar advertisements would not occur again.
Apparently because of the wide spread nature of this scam, Mr Tsvetnenko feels that this does not apply to him outside the country of Australia. Every complaint from outside Australia will have an impact, so please don’t hesitate to make the call or fill in the complaint form. The ACCC reviews every single complaint lodged.
Scam reporting form http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/reportascam
Yes that certainly is the crook.
He is a fraud and a crook. Do not trust him !
Here he is…..
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,23149231-5005370,00.html
Rocket,
Have a look who has registered the websites in the US and UK for this scam. Its Zhenya Tsvetnenko. Its the same guy that has ripped everyone off in Aust and used it all for his own. The guy has never done an honest days work in his life.
I just hope his new wife, Lydia Gaugg wakes up to the fact that she has married a crook and a fraud as no doubt if he is like that in business he is like that in his other relationships as well.
Thank you for your comments Danobi.
As of today, the following information is on file with the whois database at the Internic:
Domain Name: LOVESOULMATE.US
Domain ID: D10530428-US
Sponsoring Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Domain Status: ok
Registrant ID: B55DC8E2DFE296D7
Registrant Name: Zhenya Tsvetnenko
Registrant Organization: SkyCell International Pty Ltd
Registrant Address1: 20 Gateway Blvd
Registrant City: Canning Vale
Registrant Postal Code: 6155
Registrant Country: Australia
Registrant Country Code: AU
Registrant Phone Number: +61.403621811
Registrant Email: *******@skycellinternational.com
Domain Name: PERFECTLOVER.US
Domain ID: D9080813-US
Sponsoring Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Domain Status: ok
Registrant ID: 0EEA6B68D18BAADD
Registrant Name: Eugeni Tsvetnenko
Registrant Organization: Skycell International Pty Ltd
Registrant Address1: 20 Gateway Blvd
Registrant City: Canning Vale
Registrant Postal Code: 6155
Registrant Country: Australia
Registrant Country Code: AU
Registrant Phone Number: +61.403621811
Registrant Email: ******@mobilefone.com.au
Domain name: my1purelove.com
Registrant Contact:
Wireless Idea Corp.
Alex Rebuffo ****@wirelessidea.net)
+1.2122026640
Fax: none
217 E 86th Street
328
New York, NY 10028
US
Domain Name: CRUSHCALCULATOR.US
Domain ID: D12579804-US
Sponsoring Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 146
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Registrant ID: GODA-031409406
Registrant Name: Eugeni Tsvetnenko
Registrant Organization: Unknown
Registrant Address1: 20 Gateway Blvd
Registrant City: Perth
Registrant State/Province: Washington
Registrant Postal Code: 6155
Registrant Country: Australia
Registrant Country Code: AU
Registrant Phone Number: +61.403621811
Registrant Email: ******@tsvetnenko.com
A few things I want people to notice, the Crush Calculator domain status, also that the perfect lover and love soulmate have different names even though the last names are the same. Again, are they brothers, father/son, related? or maybe an alias.
Follow this link.
To anyone who is interested. This is Zhenya, the man who has been ripping all of you off. I am sure he is on a spectacular honeymoon thanks to all of you!
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,23149231-5005370,00.html
Eugeni “Zhenya” Tsvetnenko is the same guy. Yes he’s a crook and i’m sure he’ll get what is coming to him.
Even better here’s his personal address and phone number:
Tsvetnenko Z & L
19 Hawkins St Mt Pleasant 6153
(08) 9364 6646
Noname, thanks for your comment. I hope everyone understands your humor and that you aren’t really Mr Tsvetnenko. The link was interesting.
Thank you Craig. That cleared up a lot and is even more understandable. His M.O. of dodge and evade is becoming very clear. This is how people who call themself businessmen, avoid lawful prosecution from their dishonest business practices.
I think it’s time for this story to hit CNN Headlines.
Please remember folks, until the time comes that the law catches up to the crooks, we must arm and protect ourselves. Pass this information along so that others are not scammed or caught in this trap.
The one and only plan Mr Tsvetnenko had was to avoid paying refunds for being scammed.
If you get 500 million cell phone subscribers world wide to pay for something accidentally or tricked into paying for one time, at $20 a shot, that equates to a $10 billion target goal. Out of that $10 billion, how many people will you actually have to refund due to complaints? Lets say you have to refund as much as 1/2, you still made a nice $5 billion to pay for the endeavor and a tidy profit. The whole idea was to get people to pay for something first by ANY deceptive means, and then worry about paying any of it back later.
THAT is the true get rich quick scam.
Mobile Messenger is an industry leading global Business to Business service provider of mobile entertainment products and Billing. Our primary services are to provide delivery and billing of mobile phone content for companies that wish to offer mobile entertainment products to consumers.
As part of our service offering we have also taken on the process of Customer Care for our clients. This provides the consumer with a reliable contact to manage any issues they may have. Our customer care service has been recognized as the best in the Industry.
As a company we pride ourselves on customer service. Mobile Messenger now has live Customer Call Centre locally in the US and Australia. These centres have been positioned within their respective consumer regions with a view to address consumer contact quality of service, speed of service, and efficient execution of service.
As a company Mobile Messenger and its clients adhere to the regulations set by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and all carriers across the US. The business model operated within the US for premium cell phone services is a highly regulated industry. Consumers must double opt-in, meaning they must verify they are the owner of the device and are accepting the chargers.
If a consumer would like to be unsubscribed from anyone of our clients campaigns, it is very simple, they can send in the word STOP to the shortcode eg 33999, send an email to our contact centre escalationsus@sms-helpdesk.com or call our USA Contact Centre on 1 800 416 6129. These instructions are also provided on all advertising material, the original welcome message and the billing reminder messages they receive each month.
Hi I am feeling rather frustrated as I live in New Zealand and have been sucked in by the lovesoulmate scam and have sent the word STOP to 89623 and nothing has happened. HELP ANYONE? Really want to stop this from going to my phone charging me $30.00. I am really angry. Can you help me get rid of this?
Hi Kim, I am sorry you are having to go through this as well. Please see my posted comment number 50 above for the links to protect yourself and your friends and the links to report your claim to the ACCC.
Please let us know how things went and please tell all your friends to utilize the ACCC reporting and investigative services and claim filing.
Don’t you think its a little late Michael? Though I am sure you feel most people will swallow that garbage you just fed us, rest assured that treating the public like idiots that will buy into that little spew, falls on well informed ears.
First of all, you are a go between and as such have taken on the responsibility and the guilt of Mr. Tsvetnenko and added your own guilt for scamming Verizon and other companies into thinking they are providing a valuable service to the public with your split tongue.
Second, your lack of scruples and professional morals, your greed for money have allowed you to ignore prudence and good judgement in dealing with Mr. Tsvetnenko.
Third, who exactly recognizes you as the best customer care service in the industry? I sure don’t see any support or agreement on that statement from the customers. Customers should be your biggest asset as well as your number one priority and in as much should be the ones rating your company. I don’t see this happening.
As was stated earlier in this post, the crime has already been committed when you rip off millions of consumers for an initial fee that they are unaware of being charged. Taking money (blood money) as payment to “then” offer consumers with a customer care service well after the crime is committed, is purely unethical and unprofessional and unacceptable. The blood money should be refunded to the consumers and the Cell services you helped rip off, and you should then disassociate yourself from an international criminal, not be taking payment from him.
“Mobile Messenger now has live Customer Call Centre locally in the US and Australia. These centres have been positioned within their respective consumer regions with a view to address consumer contact quality of service, speed of service, and efficient execution of service.” — too late Michael, you are using blood money to operate those centers after the crime.
“The business model operated within the US for premium cell phone services is a highly regulated industry.” <—this is a totally moot point since Mr Tsvetnenko is not offering a cellular service, let alone a premium one and neither does Mobile Messenger. As you mentioned earlier you provide an “entertainment package” delivered over a cellular service provider, not the cellular service itself.
“If a consumer would like to be unsubscribed from anyone of our clients campaigns, it is very simple, they can send in the word STOP to the shortcode…” <—-too late Michael, as was discussed earlier, this is exactly how the scam works. You get the consumers money first through deception, then offer to unsubscribe them from future bills, but keep the initial blood money. This is how class action lawsuits are created. Bean counters know this, corporate lawyers know this, everyone knows this scam. They also know the crime pays more than the court systems will award in damages equating to a profit for the criminal.
“These instructions are also provided on all advertising material, the original welcome message and the billing reminder messages they receive each month.” <—-These instructions were “NOT” originally on the advertising material or the welcome message and having them on the billing material now, is again and always will be, far too late, which is the purpose and reason the scam works.
Nice try Michael. Thanks for the attempt at portraying yourself and your company as reputable and credible. Better luck next time.
Kia ora…I am from New Zealand also and have been wondering how to get out of this scam…thank you for the information…I am sure that there are many like me who appreciate you…
kia ora again…i live in a country area in the north of new zealand with no mobile coverage and it is only when i am in coverage (about once a week or so) that i get these horoscopes…have sent an e-mail to accc but that is in australia…is there a contact in new zealand…i am going to send the stop message next time in mobile coverage and see what happens…or else i will just change my mobile number…
Thank you for your comments Kia. I wish I knew more about the government structure in that part of the world. However, I am almost certain there would be some sort of consumer protection agency in New Zealand that can be of help to you. If anyone knows who Kia can reach in New Zealand, please drop a comment here for her and others to benefit from.
This has all been very helpful, it makes you want to scream when this stuff happens. The bottom line in my view is that the mobile providers have to take responsibility for these bogus charges much like the credit cards companies do with fraudulent charges on your credit card. If I get billed for services that I did not receive, I should be able to contact the company that billed me and have the issue resolved.. pure and simple. I will be calling Verizon and once I get through the broken auto voice directory system and actually get a human on the phone, you know.. one of the geniuses that work there.. I will begin the painful process of trying to communicate the problem and drive for a result that will set things right! – 40 bucks back in my pocket! One can always hope.
Thank you for your comment Izzy.
Like many others, I wish there were a way to defeat the process of criminals such as Eugenie “before” they get that initial, criminal influx of blood money. As we all have read and seen, the very first presence of this scam on the net was illegal and deceitful. WE have watched the website transition to a now legal representation that all consumers are now aware of all charges “before” any commitment occurs from the consumer.
The cell service providers are not without guilt as they allowed such underhanded and dubious business to be conducted without verifying the legality of the business and as a result in some instances, are willing to save face by refunding to some customers.
However, I also can not see them taking on the burden of repaying back to Americans, the debt that Eugenie owes the world (or Americans alone) and allow Eugenie to keep his money.
What this should be is a class action lawsuit by the cell service providers, on behalf of their customers, for their customers against Eugenie Tsvetnenko. At the very least, there should be a class action lawsuit filed on the behalf of the consumers who were initially duped by this scam.
This would definitely send a clear and resounding message to all wouldbe criminals such as the likes of Eugenie Tsvetnenko, around the world that “we will not tolerate” this kind of criminal activity.
If you have charges on your cell phone bill for mobile content subscriptions and service (i.e., ringtones, SMS text alerts, horoscopes, etc.) that you never authorized or ordered, you guys are not alone:
http://classactionconnect.com/cell_phone_issues/
Share your stories. Be heard.
Rocket: Great post. Keep fighting the fight.
i have tryed all these numbers and nothing. i’m with virgin mobile and they tell they know nothing
We at Mobile Messenger would like to assist you with your concern or complaint. If you need assistance in regards to being unsubscribed or other related issues, please do not hesitate to contact us. Please call 1-800-416-6129 Monday to Friday 0600 – 1800 US Pacific Time or email escalationsus@sms-helpdesk.com. For assistance in Australia, please call 1300-766 915 Monday to Friday 0900 – 1700 EST or email escalationsau@sms-helpdesk.com.
Let me know if anyone has a problem with or actually gets help with this last post. Thanks
Look, we are just sms marketers. We comply with local laws and regulations. We are entrepreneurs and make a great living from this. Please read terms of service prior to signing up. It contains all the legal info you require PRIOR to joining services.
Why moan and complain when all you have done is neglected to read the terms of service? Sure, we can throw million dollar weddings, drive Ferrari’s and holiday in Cancun, but that doesn’t mean we conduct business illegally.
PS:
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,23149231-5005370,00.html
I think the public has spoken clearly..concisely, and effectively. I think your business ethics and lack of professional conduct and lack of concern or care for your customers speaks for itself as well. The fact that you consider scamming customers first, and then putting out fires afterwards focusing “only” on the people that figure out and complain about being scammed is your SOP (standard operating procedure). The fact you are marketers, means nothing. The fact you are entrepreneurs, means nothing. These are not titles that “authorize” or “legitimize” your business conduct as ethical or legal.
if you don’t recieve an SMS does that mean you haven’t been subsribed? I still haven’t gotten one and its been 10 minutes
do you get a pin number or do you get password made of letters?
Ran into the same problem. Didn’t find out until I was charged twice. Been too busy lately and I use prepaid, so I thought I made/received too many calls lately (at first, until I investigate my account activity).
Well, now I know, never sign up for any SMS services that you don’t really need. Especially, the unsoliticited ones that may popup on your phone.
At least critical services like traffic.com SMS alerts don’t frickin charge you for it.
Rocket, you sound like such a hypocrite. You need to look at the consumers as well and not the companies and marketers. You’re getting what you pay for here and it’s very clear. When you see commercials on TV for automobiles you’re seeing the best model – the fully loaded top of the line model for that series; then you see the price and it’s of the lowest stripped model. There is fine print that is unreadable on the screen that states the vehicle shown in the commercial is $10-15,000 more then the price they just threw in your face.
This is not a scam, this is called marketing. People make a very good living doing this. There is nothing illegal about it. Mobile Messenger is a solid company and has been in business for a long while.
If people actually policed their children, and/or if people actually paid attention to half the things they do on computers and cell phones they would not be going through the trouble of trying to cancel services they say they did not want, and or sign up for.
They’re LIEING when they say they did not sign up for these services. They accepted the service and not only accepted, but confirmed their pin codes and are now being charged monthly. I think this is fair, if you read the terms and conditions on these sites they blatantly state the amount you will be charged per month. Word of advice. Do not allow your children to enter their phone numbers into any websites. Do not allow your children to use their cell phones which you pay for without supervision for things other then talking.
Don’t blame Eugeni Tsvetnenko, blame yourselves and your lack of caution for todays world. This is nothing new, it’s just in a new vehicle: online and mobile phones.
Add my name to the list of people scammed by Lovesoulmate and perfectlover. Mine is thru Boostmobile and I NEVER GAVE MY CELLPHONE NUMBER to either of these “services.” I have been charged 8 times $5.99 each for services I NEVER ordered, didn’t give out my cell number, didn’t get a pin number, didn’t sign up for anything involving my cell number.
Hey somebody.. don’t call me a liar. I don’t use my Boost as a cellphone only the Walkie-Talkie feature. So how was M-Qube authorized to STEAL money my from my Boost account? I’ve sent the “stop” message and got a text reply from Perfectlover saying I was unsubscribed. We’ll see. I’ve been trying to straighten this out for 4 freaking days now.
I did call the number today from post #69 1-800-416-6129 and talked to a nice rep named Desire’ who said I would get a refund in 6-8 weeks. We’ll see.
SOMEBODY….You ought to get your facts straight before you talk down to people. Also they are not lying (notice the correct spelling) when they say they have not subscribed to these services. Many of us have no kids and are intelligent adults who know exactly what is going on here, and that is FRAUDULENT CHARGES ON OUR CELL PHONES.
FYI, apparently the Attorney General’s office of Florida also believes the consumers who this has happened to, enough to go after AT&T and fine them. FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH…..”Complaints received by the Attorney General’s CyberFraud Task Force led to an investigation which showed that thousands of Florida AT&T Mobility consumers had received charges on their cell phone bills for certain third party services that they did not authorize.” You can read it for yourself…
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/03/fl_att_ringtones.html
Yes, the article does mention “fine print” for some of the charges, but NOT ALL OF THEM. Many of the charges were just plain fraudulent.
SO SOMEBODY, if AT&T isn’t at fault here, why on earth would they be paying out about 3 MILLION DOLLARS?
Too bad you think you are informed enough to pass judgement on people you don’t even know. M-qube is taking advantage of today’s technology to screw people over via AT&T.
My contract with AT&T is up now and I’ll bet that I’ll never be fraudulently charged again since I’m a free agent and only have to commit month to month with them. Prior to that, I had been billed fraudulently by m-Qube, fought w/them to get a refund after they played stupid, and the fraudulently charged again. After another lively discussion, the 2nd charges were also refunded. Somehow I doubt they’ll be messing w/my account now, not when I can walk away without a termination charge.
Information from m-Qube support found at: http://www.verisign.com/m-qube/support-faqs/index.html#01000009
Who is m-Qube, I never signed up for anything with m-Qube?
m-Qube is a company that helps mobile content providers distribute and bill for their products through wireless carriers. Simply put, when you visit certain sites—on the web or on your handset—and purchase a ringtone, a ringtone subscription or other mobile content, some of those sites use m-Qube’s services to link their site with your wireless carrier so that your purchase shows up on your mobile bill. In many cases you will not see the name of the content provider you signed up with on your wireless carrier’s bill. It often may simply say m-Qube. In all cases, the mobile content vendor is responsible for answering any questions regarding billing, and contacting them directly is the quickest way to resolve any concerns.
How do I get a refund?
You may pursue any claims for refunds or credits with your wireless carrier or the merchant. You should call your wireless carrier first. If you fill out our support form provided above and give us a valid email address, we will send you two emails. The first acknowledges that we have received your request and the second provides information about how to contact the merchant.
MY QUESTION TO THIS FORUM:
Why are people so up in arms regarding charges of $100 or less. GAWD!
I hate to see how people would react if they were charger $1,000 or more???
Do what I did and stop your complaining – Call your wireless provider and have them remove the charges. If they don’t remove the charges, COMPLAIN TO THEM – NOT A FORUM!!!
Thank you Dave, Steve, Cathie, and Anthony for your comments.
My response to “somebody” is this: When you acquire the gonads to use your name to cast aspersions, then I will address you (not that Cathie didn’t already put you in your place).
For those that may see misleading, false advertising, or advertising designed to intentionally misdirect or mislead you, taking your time to investigate “unbelievable claims” before acting, will be prudent. However, This practice is only a reflection on the business ethics of the advertiser or company advertising their product or service.
Some people will tell you “this is just how it’s done” or “this is how everyone does it and its always been done like this”, which is about the most lame excuse for supporting something that is wrong, and always has been wrong.
Yes, there are many people who don’t catch “the gimmick” or the “slight of hand” or “play on words”, but just because these tactics are effective, doesn’t make the practice right.
I am sure most of you noticed that SMS Marketer and “Somebody” said the same thing and it’s a good chance they are the same person as they both stated as some sort of supporting authority that “We/people make good money/living at this [sms marketing]” which is no excuse and no justification for anything. Drug Dealers make good money and a good living. Criminals of all sorts make good money. Unethical business or even immoral business makes good money. Prostitution makes good money. Just because a profession makes good money, doesn’t make it good or right.
As “Somebody” conveniently ignored, were my earlier comments that this type of marketing IS a SCAM when you rob people of their money in a manner that prevents the victim from knowing money has been taken from them until after the fact. I also mentioned that this scam showing up under many many different company names all forgot to put a public notice in the form of a TOS (term of service) or “statement” notifying the public what charges will be levied, until after millions of people were scammed out of their money. Not just in the United States but also in Australia and Russia.
As Michael from Mobile Messenger in post #58 and #69 mentioned, they are more than happy to address those victims that discovered they were ripped off “after the fact”, but only those that have discovered they were robbed and scammed and “go to them” (mobile messenger). They could care less about anyone they successfully robbed and scammed that have yet to realize they were robbed and scammed.
Also as I stated in earlier replies, this is a very common, unethical and deceitful manner of business and a good working business model in the “scam the money first” category, put out fires later.
Automobile manufacturer’s “bean counters” understand this concept and live by it. Take the number of deaths that a faulty tire or faulty brake system causes from a small percentage of design flaws that reach the consumer, total up the average cost of a lawsuit for wrongful death, then weigh that number against the cost of recalling and fixing the design flaw or faulty product. If the cost of the lawsuits in total of all lawsuits brought, is cheaper than the total cost of the recall and retrofit/repair of the flawed vehicle or system, then the company pays the lawsuits instead of the more costly recall and repairs.
This very same philosophy and ethic is how Mobile Messenger and people like Eugenie Tsvetnenko make their fast “good money.” It is cheaper to rip off or steal $42 billion from the public at large first, then pay off only those that discovered they are scammed and actually complain about it, afterwards.
My advice: Knowledge is power. Power to defend yourself and to prevent this type of business activity from becoming successful. Understanding how it works and why it works, gives you the power to prevent it from working on you.
There is a site named: “Class Action Connect” at the web address of; http://classactionconnect.com/cell_phone_issues/ that appears to be a site for the people. This site gives the consumer the chance to complaint about unauthorized cell phone charges. However, people are not aware, that said site, is trying to make money off of the victims of these unauthorized cell phone charges.
How you ask?
“Class Action Connect” is in a program called Google AdSense;
Earn money from relevant ads on your website. Google AdSense matches ads to your site’s content, and you earn money whenever your visitors click on them.
AdSense for content automatically crawls the content of your pages and delivers ads (you can choose both text or image ads) that are relevant to your audience and your site content—ads so well-matched, in fact, that your readers will actually find them useful. Info found at:
https://www.google.com/adsense/login/en_US/?sourceid=aso&subid=EN-ET-AS-ADSBY6&medium=link&gsessionid=RfirDpy9yk0
Ironically, the Google Ads appearing on the web pages at Class Action Connect, are the same companies that the consumers are complaining about. So while you’re at Class Action Connect bitching, HEY SCAM VICTIM “click on a google ad” and Class Action Connect makes money from the scammers. SWEET!
Who can you trust now folks?
Thank you for your comment JJ. I wonder what the google adsense sidebar would look like for a web site with nothing more than the word “SCAMS” on it 🙂
The entire Premium Short Message System (PSMS) industry relies on “tweens” (teens and twenty-somethings) to make the impulse purchase, or to enter into a subscription in response to clicking on an ad that leads to a PSMS web site landing page WITHOUT reading the terms and conditions.
The Florida Attorney General’s Economic Crimes task force is investigation the carriers, ad networks and content providers (like Mobile Messenger). They have already received several financial settlements and have required AT&T (aka Cingular) to refund all Florida consumers. Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile are next.
Mobile Messenger (based in Australia but with offices in LA and Las Vegas) is the owner and operator of the Luv Crush campaigns. I believe their ads for this campaign are deceptive and misleading. Don’t let their cheesy web pages deceive you. Their annual revenues from all derivations of the Luv Crush campaign exceed $175 million/year. This is a verifiable fact and very much in the public domain as a result of numerous legal actions in the mobile marketing space.
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Hi all,
I am from Canada and am having a similar problem with Tatto Media, the company responsible for all these text messages worldwide. They operate through websites like myluvcrush.ca and put unconscionable charges on hapless people’s accounts. Most people do not know how to fight them. They have sent me over 75 messages in the last 2 months. These messages come in quick succession and at any time. I received some of them very late at night. I plan to take this all the way to the courts if I have to. I have no experience with the court system, but I have had it with this group of companies taking advantage of the public and our lax laws on new technology.
I have made a complaint to the CRTC and am waiting for their response. Please keep monitoring this since I most likely be contacting a class action law firm in Canada and launching a case on behalf of all Canadians affected by this.
DM
Hi, I am currently doing an journalism article about this issue of misleading users to subscribe to these services. If any one has had past experiences with it before, please contact me at thestarsshineabove@gmail.com.
These companies are using different portals such as social networking websites to advertise their product, and they get 9 bucks for every person who enters their mobile number. I hope to address this issue and make it known to the public so that people will be more alert about the existence of such websites.
Your help is much appreciated. Thank you.
Regards,
Alva
We at Mobile Messenger would like to assist you with your concern or complaint. If you need assistance in regards to being unsubscribed or other related issues, please do not hesitate to contact us. Please call 1-800-416-6129 Monday to Friday 0600 – 1800 US Pacific Time or email escalationsus@sms-helpdesk.com
Looks like the russian born Tsvetnenko living in Perth is still blowing the loot he\’s scammed so many, before anyone can get any back…
too bad so many have fallen victim to support all his lavish lifestyle
This was his latest party
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,25630877-5012990,00.html
Thank you for your comment Jason, I especially liked the part about
“In 2006, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission was concerned that advertising for part of the service called SecureDate could breach the Trade Practices Act.”
Hello,
I know Zhenya and he is a hard working guy. He has allot more than others because he was smart enough and had the balls to put everything on the line and go for it.
Everyone is always jealous because they don’t have what other people have got. I am not jealous of him I am lucky to know someone like that.
Instead of sitting on here winging and complaining, Try thinking of an idea and go making it work.
If you subscribe to stupid SMS things you deserve to pay for the useless information it gives you. If you believe in the love calculator and crap like that you are obviously not smart enough to know you’re being ripped off until you get the bill.
Wake up and get over it.
Look at the Nigerians going around scamming everyone’s money using money skimmers on ATMs and stealing peoples identities and the so called investment houses that are ripen everyone off blind.
Let’s talk about some real criminals hey?
The Gosnells Boy
Thank you for your comment Framed.
Your comment suggests that just because Mr. Tsvetnenko was smart enough to rip off millions of people before they knew what was happening (and not complying with any laws that govern fair business practices or privacy protection practices) that he is a hard working man with a legitimate business.
I don’t believe this is a case of jealousy as much as it is the ability of good people being taken advantage of, recognizing that what they were told was not what they got. In other words, the advertising of this product or service is created with one intent, to deceive people and make money on the deceit. Mr Tsvetnenko is morally bankrupt and his intentions were to get rich by scamming people out of their money instead of running a legitimate business.
If you had read this entire article, you would see that the perpetrator of this kind of scam is not a man of character, hard working, moral fiber with a straight and solid backbone. It is the common crook and criminal activity charateristic. This is the enemy.
Generally speaking, we as human beings believe in the good will and good nature of our fellow human beings and we trust in this for the survival of the human race. The fact that those of ill-intent and criminal minds preying on his fellow human beings to enrich himself are able to rip off good hearted people, only defines his character, not ours.
I agree he is working hard to rip people off, but I did notice you didn’t call him a good man. A common phrase “good, hard working, decent, law abiding man” does not apply here. I think you recognize this.
If you feel lucky to know someone like the criminal Mr. Tsvetnenko, that is strictly your business. I am sure most people are not jealous that someone else is prosperous or even rich. Most adults are looking at “how” they attained their wealth. Anyone can rip off others to get rich, it’s not hard to rip off honest, big hearted people.
As you can see, many organizatiosn in many countries have had to step up to the legal plate and demand that Mr Tsvetnenko abide by the governing law of fair business. It’s a shame that the court system in Australia had to order him to comply with the laws that the rest of us have to follow.
A good honest man wouldn’t have had to have a court order him to conduct business fairly.
*****Comment deleted for violation of the one rule of this site which can be found on the “about” tab*****
Expletives and verbal harassment will result in the deletion of the comment and ban of the commenter.
The Gosnells Boy
Rocket sounds like a ***content edited for violation of the “one rule”***
Rocket turn the light on
Editorial note – comments that lack any value and are non-productive to this topic will be edited for content or completely deleted. I.E. non-value added comments that are harassment or directed at another person in an inflammatory way.
I noticed these thieves were scamming me yesterday. What confuses me is they say you have to respond to their text message with a pin. I’ve had my phone for two years and all texting and pix messaging has been blocked since I’ve gotten it. I don’t like texting so I had it blocked. How is it even possible to receive and then respond to a message after I’ve purposely blocked my phone from doing either. I don’t know how anybody else feels but I wish I could afford a plane ticket so I could find out where these idiots are and give them the beating of their life.
Fortunately virgin mobile was able to block this company from accessing my account and they also refunded SOME of the money taken out along with crediting 75 minutes to me.
When I called the 800 number they repeated over and over that I confirmed, after I repeatedly told them texting was block from my phone for the past two years. IDIOTS
I’ve never been so ticked off over such little money. If I ever meet the person (people) behind this scam…
ASS WHOOPIN’
Thanks for your comment Josh.
I have heard several times that just entering your phone number to get the results of a test, to find out this, that, or the other thing, is all it takes. You don’t have to wait for the pin and use it to access the information. Once your number is in their system, they start charging you.
Facebook is riddled with these tests, quizes, “find out who is…” scams all from the very same company, leading back to the very same man (mentioned above).
The fact that virgin mobile helped block access to Josh’s account by this company, supports this theory of operation.
Do not enter your phone number on a website, or give it to anyone who you don’t implicitly trust, and do not use it on applications for employment or credit (especially credit) or loans.
http://www.theage.com.au/photogallery/executive-style/management/brw-young-rich-list-2009/20090923-g22m.html?selectedImage=5
You can see the guy that scams you 🙂 He’s one of the richest man in Australia now, he’s on the left on the picture
I received a “messaging services” charge from Sprint in regards to ” FlirtTips Alerts”. Has anyone heard of this or know how to cancel? Is this the same thing? I can’t find any information anywhere. Thanks much.
Vadim, thank you for the link.
Kathy, Flirt Tips is used by the “My1PureLove” portal as well as many other companies such as Discovery channel’s Discovery Mobile Alert, Ezinearticles.com, Imedix.com and others. Unfortunately it is the same scam. In most cases the user/subscriber is unaware they are subscribing, however, because of the number of lawsuits filed against mobile messenger service and Mr Tsvetnenko, there are now more disclaimers posted. Please be warned, do not click to see results of anything unless you are absolutely sure you have read the entire page and you know exactly what the result of the click will be.
Kathy, the post above by Sandra “may” help. Let us know what your results are.
i’ve been trying for the last hour to delete this FlirtTips Alerts crap off my phone and i finally found a site that i think gave me the answer. type STOP ALL to 44636
Thanks for your comment Eden, would you also please post the website where you found this information?
Hello! I’m new here. Just wanted to say hi
Just testing everything out!
i got the message as well. i didnt get charged anything, yet. what you all need to do is all start calling this number constantly 866-390-6184 and harass the crap out of them all day, scream profanity at them and call them the nastiest names you can think of. it wont accomplish much but it will make you feel good. i have their number on speed dial and whenever im bored YOU BET im going to call and harass them.
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up! Other then that, great blog!
Hi,
I would like to propose the link exchange deal with your website dragontail.wordpress.com, for mutual benefit in getting more traffic and improve search engine’s ranking, absolutely no money involve.
We will link to you from our World News, Society, and Politics portal authority site – http://www.iwasthestate.com/, from its homepage’s sidebar. In return you will agree to do the same to link back to one of our of our Personal Injury websites based in Dallas, from your dragontail.wordpress.com’s homepage too (sidebar, footer, or anywhere on your homepage), with our brand name Personal Injuries Legal.
If you are interested, kindly reply to this email.
Thank you,
Charles
Hi,
I would like to propose the link exchange deal with your website dragontail.wordpress.com, for mutual benefit in getting more traffic and improve search engine’s ranking, absolutely no money involve.
We will link to you from our World and Politics News Authority Site – http://www.iwasthestate.com/, from its homepage’s sidebar. In return you will agree to do the same to link back to one of our of our Personal Injury website based in Dallas, Texas, from your dragontail.wordpress.com’s homepage too (sidebar, footer, or anywhere on your homepage), with our brand name Personal Injuries Legal.
If you are interested, kindly reply to this email.
Thank you,
Charles
Good information. Lucky me I discovered your website by chance (stumbleupon). I have book marked it for later!
I had choices from essays to videos and I figured blogging can be fun. Can you give me a good free website and a little help on how to get started with what to say, and whether i put it under one day or do it every day until its due. Please help and I promise to select you as the best answer if it helps!.