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I received an e-mail to complete a survey and receive a free laptop computer. The survey involved signing up for services and products. I signed up for a couple of magazines and a trial for Hoodia. The next thing I know I have all of these companies calling me. I received a test message on my cell phone from UR Bid4Prizes and was charged 9.99 for opening the text message.
It was a good thing that I contacted my cell phone company and inquired about this charge. I had to have my text messaging service disconnected so that I would not receive any more text messages from these people. It shows up as 810-00 UR Bid4Prizes.
Hi Elise,
I too have recently been charged by a third-party company through Fido. I am sure that you did not help with your answer. The thing we want to know is if Fido will reimburse us or not.
Thank you
I had 4 charges in 4 months from 2 different companys..Mbill Telecom and NewMotion.. $80.00 total. I called Sprint 3 times, they gave me the run around until the 3rd time when I told them I've recieved no product, agreed to no contract, and have been completely ripped of by these people and I expect Sprint, as my service provider, to protect me from unethical billing practices. Apparently Sprint cant figure out how to stop these guys so they try to make you take the hit for it.. untill you put your foot down. Lets just say I wont be putting my # in online EVER again for cheat codes for PS3 :)
I recently opened a Photobucket account. I had no idea that I had to watch my back so carefully with Photobucket, because they have always seemed to be a reputable, aboveboard company. I was wrong, and I now consider them criminally deceptive.
In a yellow box, implying that it was REQUIRED information, Photobucket asked for my cell phone number. I'm ill and on medication, and I was not thinking clearly enough to differentiate between PHONE number and CELL phone number, or question a yellow box on a form. I gave Photobucket my number, assured by their deceptive "we won't call you!"
Immediately I got a spam text message from RingAZA, informing me that I was subscribed to get ringtones for $9.99. I closed my phone, but the message remained until I replied STOP.
I then got a message saying I was "unsub" from RingAZA.
I don't believe it. I believe I will be fighting a FRAUDULENT charge on my phone bill, courtesy of Photobucket's criminal scam partners, Ringtone Channel, or whoever they are. I blame this on Photobucket.
It has been extremely difficult to track down anyone at Photobucket who's willing to say anything. I went to their help forums and got a lot of doubletalk from low-level troubleshooters who simply gave me useless 800 numbers for the scamming company, where I spoke to a rude, ditzy phone worker who informed me "WE DON'T HAVE TO HELP YOU." I filed complaints online, and got form letters saying "We are sorry you do not like our associates' offers" and giving me the same useless 800 numbers from the scam companies. Photobucket's first tier offers nothing but resistance and false "help."
I dug around in their website and got some names, and got their Palo Alto office's number from Directory Assistance. I reached what appears to be their liason with Photobucket Pro users. She called back and has courteously assured me that a higher-up will call me tomorrow. She expressed total shock and dismay that this is going on, but you know... THIS IS NOT HAPPENING BY ITSELF. I want to see accountability.
Photobucket, at some high level, decided to partner with these scammers who attach fraudulent charges to users' phone bills simply for being stupid enough to enter a number in the yellow form box. The form is one of the most deceptive things I have ever seen on the Internet, and it is absolutely disgusting that it's being used by a "reputable" company.
I'm sick (stage IV cancer) but I'm VERY angry, and I am strong and resourceful enough to fight this. $9.99 is merely an annoyance to me, but I worry about nicer people, the elderly, for example, many of whom may be on very limited budgets. I worry about people who don't know how to pursue such things. Students, housewives, people whose first language is not English. Photobucket and its criminal partners must be making a killing by stealing from such people, who never intend to pay $9.99 for a ringtone, but may not have the ability to fight it when it appears on their phone bill.
Every time I think about this, I get angrier. I want Photobucket to PAY. I want to see this practice completely exposed.
I want every person who works at Photobucket to THINK about how these fraudulent $9.99 phone bill charges may hurt some little old lady who needs that money for food or medicine, and who can't begin to fight these creeps. They make it extremely difficult to track down anyone who knows anything about this, and the low-level techs I reached on the forums were obviously under orders to keep a lid on customer outrage.
Photobucket must be stopped. At this point, I want to see them fined heavily and publicly exposed for this practice.
Just recently I signed up for Photobucket online and in the process you are hit with an ad for bid4prizes upon signing up, this ad is displayed the sam time as photobuckets signup and there is a box that you can uncheck to bypass this but when you sign in it asks for your cell number.
I signed in thinking it was phtobucket and aparently signed up for this useless site Bid4prizes. I was charged on my cell phone $10.00 instantly. As soon as I saw the charge Icalled Bid4prizes and explained to them what had happened, the support person said that as soon as the charge shows up on their records they would issue me a refund.
So I waited a day and called back only to be greeted by a rude support worker who refused to be helpful and referred to me as being stupid.
So of course along with being insulted they have my money and I have absolutely nothing to show for it.
As far as I am concerned this is deceptive and just short of scamming someone.
Just a warning for those signing up to Photobucket and Bid4prizes.
Once the have your money forget about it.
The first time I ever heard about this scam outfit was when a mysterious charge showed up on my cell phone bill. They claim that I filled out some sort of online form and then acknowledged a text message to my cellphone. This is a total lie! I never filled out any sort of form and I never answered any text message. These people are nothing but thieves!
I just received the very same message on my cell phone, from Bid4Prizes. I just subscribed to a BLOGGER.COM account, which let's me post to my blog via my cell phone, so I had to provide my cell phone number when signing up, then, 6 hours later I am getting cell phone text SPAM from Bid4Prizes. I am totally pissed off.