Comments on: Text Message Fraud: Part 2 of 2

By: Ann

Ann — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:53:14 +0000

SJA Mobile: Alerts – GameTip Alerts $19.99 just showed up on my Sprint billing. It seems this happens a lot because when I called Sprint, they put a block on SJA and credited the $19.99 charge back, no questions asked! I wouldn’t bother trying to go through SJA to get a refund, contact your cell phone carrier directly.

By: Katherine Longo

Katherine Longo — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:45:54 +0000

I have Verizon and was charged $60 in two months by SJA mobile for premium text messages. Verizon has been wonderful about explaining how these charges came to be on my bill and how to prevent it from happening again. The first time I called, they refunded me $20 as a courtesy. I just called back today to inform them that I have emailed SJA five times and still have not received a refund; they refunded me the other $40 today.

PLEASE do not be mad at your kids!! Believe them when they say they did not subscribe to these charges. Also, do the following:
1. Request your refund from SJA mobile.
2. Call your carrier to place a block on premium text messages and talk to them about a courtesy credit.
3. Email, text, call and tell anyone you meet to stop the scamming by placing a block on their phone.

Good Luck!

By: OSC

OSC — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:15:24 +0000

Yes this is a scam. I spoke to Sprint representative and she said that she could do nothing. I had to pay for the service even if I never subscribed for it. It is a direct rip-off. Tomorrow anybody can open a damn company be a partner with Sprint and charge anybody anything. Sprint representative offered me to block my text messaging to avoid such fraud companies but they will not break their relationship with such fraud companies. Awesome! These bastards keeping USA going. Sometime it is SJAlerts, sometime oil company bastards and sometime walstreet bastards. Ordinary people wait for rip-off.

By: AHM

AHM — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:36:15 +0000

I was charged 9.99 by SJA mobile On my Jan. 2009 Sprint bill. I contacted Sprint and they removed it immediately and stated they would contact the company on my behalf for a refund. This company is horrible and they are anticipating some type of lawsuit which is why they issue refunds so quickly and use that “no statutory obligation” language.

By: Walter

Walter — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:18:15 +0000

I also noticed this recently on my sprint bill and its been occurring for 3 months now. The first CSR would not do anything about it, but I called back again and found a rep that was more than helpful. She credited back everything and blocked these future charges. So check your bills, call customer service, and get your money back.

By: Yuriy

Yuriy — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:39:07 +0000

I have been scammed by SJA Mobile for for the last 5 months, and it’s been a very bad experience. They woudl send me lame messages advertising sine gaming website. I do not know how they got my number, as I never sign up for any premium services (they probably purchase databases of phone numbers). I sent the word “STOP” to their number a few times, they would sent me a “confirmation” that my number would be removed, and then send me messages again (charging 9.99 for each). Their refund policy is a complete lie, I submitted two requests in September, and they are still in a “pending” state.

It’s unpleasant to say that T-Mobile did almost nothing to help me (I had about 6 conversations with customer service). First, they told me they blocked messages from SJA number, but it didn’t work. Then they promised me to block all messages coming from internet gateways, and that didn’t help either. They also wouldn’t refund me for SJA Mobile charges. I finally called them and said, that I am going to drop them and go to another carrier. After that they refunded me about 80% of SJA’s charges, and offered to disable SMS alltogether (I agreed because by that point I would agree for anything to stop this fraud).

So now I stopped getting any messages. Will see, how it reflects on my bill. Overall, I just can’t believe how ridiculous is the whole situation. Anyone can set up a company, purchase lists of phone numbers and start applying charges to them, and phone companies wouldn’t do anything about that. Nice and easy way to make money for everyone, ins’t it? Except it comes from the pockets of unsuspecting people, who can’t really prevent it. In Russia, mobile carriers are banned by law to charge clients for incoming text messages, and for that reason third party content providers require you to send a paid outgoing message to short number before they can give you any service. But in United States it’s a nightmare, you have to pay for everything, including something you didn’t request. Shame!

By: carrie taylor

carrie taylor — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:27:48 +0000

First of all I would love to know how to contact you for my refund as I did not sign up for this service. After reading all these complaints I figure this is a scam and I probably will not be helped. If it is possible to cancel this way please do so and contact me in person for my information ( i will be getting yours also) for a full refund

By: Ruth Fox

Ruth Fox — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:19:49 +0000

My husband somehow got into this site. I had no idea what was going on. I’m afraid to really look at my statements now. I just thought he was making charges here and there. Does changing the number stop the charges?

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:40:30 +0000

I also was scammed by SJA for the past 5 months for a total of $ 99.95. I usually don’t check my phone bill but this month I took a look to see why my bill was so high. My daughter had gone way over and as I was putting my Sprint bill away I caught the charge from SJA on one of the pages. I went and checked my old bills and found out they have been charging me for 5 months. I have never even heard of this company until last night. My kids or wife didn’t do it and if they had they surely wouldn’t have used my cell number when they have their own. Then would have also just asked and I would have signed them up away if they wanted it. I wrote Sprint at 3am last night and told them of this scam and attached a draft copy of the letter I was going to mail to the Attorney Generals of every state. My letter wasn’t directed at Sprint but SJA. This morning I called Sprint and explained everything. They refunded me 1/3 of my money on the phone. I then got on my email and opened the confirmation letter from Sprint for my credit. I wrote them back and thanked them for this refund. I then received another email shortly after stating that they have been authorized to refund me the entire amount. This was very nice of them to do this. I also had them block all premium messages to my 5 phones. I hate being ripped-off and hope someone can put an end to this company.

By: Warren

Warren — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:55:49 +0000

After reviewing the FCC consumer information doc as described above, I discovered that T-Mobile IS inviolation of the FCC’s Truth-in-Billing rules.