Text Message Fraud: Part 1 of 2
My Sprint bill contained an odd new charge this month: SJA Mobile: Alerts – SJA Mobile Alerts – 01/03 $4.99
I had never heard of SJA Mobile, so I dug around on their website. It seems that all they do is offer refunds. But for what service?
It looks like SJA Mobile acquires lists of cell phone numbers, sends blank or meaningless text messages to each number, and then adds $4.99 or $9.99 to the customer’s bill each month until the victim customer figures it out and cancels.
They’re very good at issuing refunds, because it’s all they do.
While I never opted-in for SJA Mobile, through their agreement with Sprint they were apparently able to start charging me with no questions asked.
At Skydeck we believe that anyone should be able to send a text message to anyone else, but premium services should require ‘double opt-in’ before charging. I spoke with Sprint about the issue. While the conversation went well and ended with the service rep filing a fraud report against SJA Mobile, one of the first explanations I was given surprised me because it implied that their partners can bill for services on an opt-out basis: “SMS businesses under contract with Sprint can send text messages to Sprint’s customers, and begin charging them if the recipients don’t ‘opt-out’ of their service”. The only SMS I ever received from SJA’s short code (23907) contained the following message: ” … “. Seriously, that’s it. I was supposed to recognize that “…” meant I was now enrolling in a $4.99 per month service, and had to opt-out?
More details on SJA Mobile
The SJA Mobile website contains no information about their service. It only discusses how to cancel the “service” and get a refund.
I wanted to get to the bottom of this so I called their support line, which was no more than an automated message instructing me to email them if I was looking for a refund. The auto-reply from the email I sent them is below.
——-
Dear Dan Lewis
Thank you for contacting Mobile Support Services Help Desk. A help desk [sic]representive[sic] will review your request and respond shortly.
If you are trying to cancel service, please text STOP to the short code 23907.
If you are requesting a refund, please read the following carefully:
We offer a full, “no questions asked” refund to anybody who is unhappy with a service they signed up for within 180 days of signing up for the service. In order to request a refund, please make sure that your service request clearly provided the following information:
1) Name
2) Mailing Address
3) Mobile Phone Number
4) Wireless Carrier
Refunds will be issued via cashier’s check within 2 weeks of your refund request. Please be aware that we are offering the refund out of goodwill and are not recognizing any statutory duty by doing so.
——-
I wrote back to SJA expressing my suspicions, and they offered to pay me $5.00 in addition to the refund amount of $4.99, for any trouble this may have caused me.
Their last email claimed, “we are merely a gateway provider for mobile billing so we are unsure why one of our clients has billed you.” However, the mysterious text message “…” came from their short code, they could not identify which of their “clients” was responsible for the charges, and they don’t produce the names of any partners they work with anywhere on their site, etc.
What happened next … SJA Mobile Part 2.
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**Note**
We have received a few comments that mistakenly blame Skydeck for the charges appearing on people’s bills. We are not affiliated with with SJA Mobile in any way, and we ourselves have fallen victim to their fees. To get a refund you must contact SJA Mobile or your carrier directly, and to cancel the service you must text “STOP” to their short code, 23907. We will remove comments that imply Skydeck is responsible, to avoid being grouped with companies like SJA.
i have been charged almost $40 every month foe the last three months by at&t. i have one charge for $19.99 and two others for $9.99 each. they each have these codes by them. i cannot find out what these charges are for or what is going on. at&t has credited my acct but i cannot get through to any 800 number to speak to anyone. i am really angry and dont know what else to do.
I am a tech support agen with Sprint and I wanted to clear a few things up with the short codes you may be receiving charges and/or message from. They are NOT affiliated with Sprint. These are purely 3rd party companies that put together a series of 10 digit number to come up with phone numbers. These are random numbers and some are valid unfortunately. I agree with everyone that it is not fair and from a technical point of view it is very difficult to block. This is something that perhaps the level of assistance you may have spoken with may not be aware of. Again I am an advanced technical support agent and work with this issue everyday. The unfortunate thing is that is is not fraud, it is perfectly legal. How these companies get away with it is that if you are able to get enough info to find their websites and view the terms and conditions, they clearly state the charges, how often and how to cancel them. I know it is frustrating for you as a customer and please know it is very frustrating as the one who is here to help you with these issues. I would like to add, I am not speaking for Sprint in anyway officially however, I do understand where you are coming from. I hope this helps some with these issues.
i use T-Mobile and i was charged for 9.99 too!!
i called customer service, but as usual, they can do nothing.
then i emailed the SJA mobile, TWICE, i still haven’t got my refund back yet. help me T__T
I had this happen to me this month from T-mobile and SJA Mobile. Last page of my T-mobile bill had 2 $9.99 charges from SJA Mobile for “cheats” message signup, etc. I am interested in litigating this against SJA. I am an attorney and if anyone is interested in discussing this matter, contact me at rose@roseweisblatt.com. or go to roseweisblatt.com
I just got off the phone with T Mobile, I also have a charge on my bill for $9.99 Listed as follows:
6/29/08 SJA Mobile 8:59 PM 23907 SJA Mobile Alerts 9.99 9.99
The Rep at T Mobile was helpful by offering me a refund (Which will take at least 30 days to process) and instructed me how to make them stop by texting STOP to 23907 but this is just a bunch BS we the consumer should not have to be the ones tryinf to call to get it squared away. Thanks to this site I found more information about it!!!
They Charged me 9.99, but Verizon refunded my money. I would not give a fraudulent company like SJA my email address and/or my home address to send me anything. I don’t trust them with my personal information. They are scam artists and you never know what’s up in their thieving minds.
Well i just got my T-mobile bill in the mail and i found that same charge of 9.99 on it!!! WTF! I did what you guys said and requested a refund and sent Stop to 23907 except i got a text back saying email support@game-cheats-master.com and ask them for a refund and cancel my subscription except i NEVER signed up for anything!! Wow!! Now i wait till i get answers! The world NEEDS to know about these people.! Hopefully they get sued.
Clearly there are already a lot of upset people about this. We have an attorney, an advanced tech person, and a bunch of furious customers. Can we start something to take to the carriers and change the rule from opt-out to opt-in? Because this whole thing is ridiculous. Especially the whole “This is a cashiers check of goodwill.” I’m going to do some more research on their website and see exactly what T-molbile is letting me get charged $19.98 a month for.
This happened to my mom’s cell phone. My dad saw the T mobile bill and my mom’s phone was charged about $20 for usage charge. My dad was like wtf?? I looked at the bill and it wrote that we were charged for using SJA Mobile Alert… TWICE! at $9.99. I have no idea what that was and neither does my mom. So yeah I called T mobile. They say it’s like a 3rd party thing or something. They said how we probably called a number or texted them to subscribe. However, my mom doesn’t watch tv and she doesn’t text. So there is clearly no way we authorized this. So yeah the person I talked to from T mobile block the company and we’re getting a refund which would take from 30-60 days
Seriously wtf is this SJA thing? Is this even legal??? Just randomly signing people up for nothing!! Why couldn’t cell phone companies just block them ahead of time, to save us this hassle..
I noticed this on my Verizon Bill today as a “Premium Text Message” for $9.99!!! All I remember is getting a weird text message that looked like an and and I erased it — never even read through it! Verizon graciously said they’d credit me and that I should text #23907 to stop the subscription and that it was associated with SJA Mobile, 800-559-9313. I had Verizon block any Premium text messaging systems. I refused to do anything that the SJA site says (texting the code or emailing them my personal info to unsubscribe) why in the world would I get back on that merry-go-round!? If you read their terms and conditions on their site, they clearly state “…delivery or ATTEMPTED delivery…” Can we file a complaint with the FCC or a class-action suit? Please let me know what I should do!
I was charge $19.99 sja mobile alerts so i did some research found this site and call sprint. they took off the charge apologize and told me to text stop to 866-365-9606
I’m actually on the phone with T-Mobile as I type this….When she asked how my day was going, I told her that except for my parent’s line being “crammed” by SJA Mobile Alerts, I was fine and dandy; she said that this has been happening a lot. Go figure. They’ve credited my account and blocked text messages on my parent’s line…
I am a class action attorney and my firm has been retained by a client reagrding this SJA Mobile “service.” My firm is investigating possible claims related to SJA Mobile and I would be interested in speaking to anyone who has had this problem with their service. I can be reached toll free at 1-866-934-7372 or via email at rw@weiserlawfirm.com
Rob Weiser
I had the SAME problem with SJA! It’s ridiculous for a company like this to be able to charge the unsuspecting for services they have NEVER authorized. I was sent two text messages from a game website that I had NEVER visited, and they said something about me signing up and my charges would be $19.99 per month. I didn’t think anything of it because I didn’t authorize it or anything, and sure enough! I checked my T-mobile bill and low n’ behold there it was! SJA needs to have a SMART and effective way of doing business. I’m familiar with these services, and usually when someone tries to sign you up online for them, they will text a password to your cell phone and you have to log back into the sight or text that passcode back to them to confirm you DID IN FACT order their services. SJA clearly does NOT work that way and is trying to take advantage of the people who aren’t paying attention to their phone bills.
NOT an ethical way to make money!
i dont know what this sja mobile is but they charged me $9.99 for something and i cant get ahold of anyone to find out whats going on
I woke with a call at 3:00am and was pissed that my phone had read that theres insufficient funds.I called the verizon company and was able to get a web site to stop this bs.yet it didnt stop the arguements that happened between my husband and I.how do these people get away with this nonsense?I am not very satisfied with this happening!!!
Same charge on my Verizon cell bill… $9.99 sjamobile. They can’t issue refund to me until they are refunded by the “third party” a/k/a sjamobile. Acc’g to Verizon, I sent a text requesting this $9.99/month service. Bulls***. I’ve only sent texts to 2 people, and they’re saved on my phone! It’s disgusting that this is tolerated by cell phone carriers. Great way for them to lose customers. I’m refusing to pay this charge, and I have reported sjamobile to the BBB, my senator, and state representative. I say someone with the know-how start something bigger to stop this crap.
Verizon Wireless will not refund sjamobile charges of $9.99/month (!!!), but they will block it. Why not do that first, Verizon Wireless?? (I’ve lost my cool over this–it’s disgusting. Maybe Verizon Wireless IS sjamobile?? Bwoo-haa-haa!)
I’ve been getting charge 19.99 a month for two month and I keep calling Sprint. Last month I spent 45 min. on my phone with sprint trying to get it off, even having it blocked and again this month it showed up. This month Sprint wasn’t any help!
I also had an instance last month where I was charged $9.99 by sjamobile. I started by calling Verizon and was told there was nothing they could do. I feel like this is fraud and Verizon is allowing it to happen. I was finally able to get a refund from Verizon when I threatened to cancel my service.
had this same crap on my cell and i hav a t and t
and i had 200$ bill this should be elagal
Billed $9.99 on my phone (at least once) on my son’s phone (a child) for “premium text messaging” for “on demand stock quotes”. Verizon was not that helpful. They did block all 3rd carrier parties after I asked if there was any way to prevent such charges. I haven’t called the company yet. I found this site first. I was pretty confident that he didn’t do this. Our family doesn’t text – only in emergencies. If this had happened on my dad’s phone, he would have had no idea. He doesn’t even know how to get voice mail. Definitely will pursue this. This crap is not worth my time, but I will pursue it out of principle. This should be a class action suit to prevent this. Any attorneys out there listening?
I stopped by the local Verizon Store today (9/22/08) regarding “Premium Text Messaging” charges from SJMOBILE and GLM CONTENT for $9.99 each. This is the third month this has occurred.The customer rep at the store was very helpful; he retrieved information from the phone and sent a note off to his supervisor to get the charges removed and a credit for the previously paid bills. I will be going back Thursday to pay the current bill – if the credits have been applied. “…..” I have printed out the 12 +/- pages of this site; I’m sure the in-store customer service rep will be happy to have the copies. “…..” Everyone scammed by glm content and sjamobile needs to file complaints with the FCC, their Governors Office for Consumer Affairs (GA), and the State Attornet Generals Office in Colorado AND Delaware. We need to put this fraudulent activity out of business.
Got some strange text messages on my phone last month and just deleted them. Just got my Sprint bill, and there was $19.99 for SJA GameAlert Tips. Emailed Sprint Ecare and they removed the charges and blocked this service from my cell number. Hopefully that takes care of it.
FYI – if you ever need to contact Sprint support, I highly recommend emailing Ecare. They are quick and efficient. I have had very good results emailing Ecare.
We have been getting a $9.99 charge for the last four months on our Sprint bill. Funny how it appears under the newest phone line we opened FOUR months ago. Our daughter swears she did not sign up for anything and the billing description is vague at the least. Many have posted seeing SJA on their bill. My Sprint bill reads:
“mBill: Alerts – Alerts……………9.99″
Like that really tells me a lot! Curious as to what we were ’signed up’ for without our knowledge, I Googled the above text (w/o the 9.99) and found this website. Now, I have some ammunition to throw at Sprint when they say “You MUST have signed up for this service” or try to point the finger at a child. Very businesslike to put the blame on someone else and even worse pointing the finger at our children! How many children have already gotten the 3rd degree from their parents for something they did not do?
I’m not a happy camper and will be contacting Sprint tomorrow to have these charges stopped and removed from my bill.
Thanks to everyone for all the great info!
Sjamobile has been ripping me off for months. I finally decided to look at my bill because I went over my minutes. Low and behold this company has been charging me 4.99 a month since march. But wait, thats not all, they got greedy and started charging me an additional 19.99 a month last month and this month. I just spoke w/ a rep from AT@T and she really didn’t say much about the company. She said it is a legitimate company. She also said she can’t credit my account for charges for “purchases over 120 days” excuse me I didn’t purchase anything….I can’t even afford grocery’s these days. I am gonna cancel this cell phone if this doesn’t stop!
Hello to All –
I am an executive at SJA Mobile and frankly I am astonished at some of the gross inaccuracies being posted on this board. Please allow me to set the record straight on some items:
1) Our firm is not a “scam” company, in fact we are an extremely reputable and legitimate company in the mobile software industry with clients including the FBI, Best Buy, The United Nations, Bunge Corporation, AOL/Mapquest, and many others. Our company makes industry leading software tools which allow businesses and brands to launch mobile content and mobile billing services.
2) The claims made on this board about “random” charges on their cell phone bill are patently false — we will have you note that a child or other person with access to your phone can easily sign you up for mobile content services whether it be one of our client’s or another company’s.
3) Various companies mentioned on this board are in no way associated with our company, including cheats999.com and “mbill alerts.”
4) Our company offers a full no-questions-asked refund to address cases where a child or other person has signed you up for a mobile content service without your authorization, or even if you are unsatisifed with a mobile content service that you did authorize.
Thank you for your consideration.
Thank you so much for this website..
We got hit with SJA on my son’s phone. I am going to call Tmobile…. This is BS.. . I check our phone records and can’t see any message from SJA and we got hit for $30.
first of all, how can you expect a 11 year old boy to pay !!!! that’s what SJA and all the phone companies are doing…. this is a conspiracy. I am PO’ed. The previous message by SJA executive is BS… IF it’s a reputable company, why can’t we talk to a person…..
I Have been charged 3 different times for this 23907 game cheats I am an Alltel customer all they could tel me is I must have subscribed to it online i told them that I never have. I continue to get these text messages I always view and delete. Suprise now I am being charged 9.99 for every time I get a text for this. I have gotten 5 now in one month the last one was 19.99 that I got yesterday. The bill reads joke alert the text reads Game cheats. This is an outrage the csr told me that it was going to be a revolving monthly charge for the 9.99 every month every time the “game cheat” text was received so we are up to a $50 dollar charge a month. I have emailed for a refund but I am not done yet as I am outraged by this fraudulent billing.
Oh my gosh, I thought my 13 year old son had legitimately signed up for the service until I received 2 9.99 charges in one month! Then I called Alltel and got the same response. You have to text back to stop the charges. Then I talked to my son. He had no idea what I was talking about. I checked, he received absolutely no incoming texts for Joke Alert. Thanks for everyones comments. I never would have known such a scam existed.
SJA is a total scam. I was charged $9.99 on my T-Mobile bill for “SJA Mobile Alerts”. Something that I never signed up for. T-Mobile was very helpful when I told them that it was some type of scam. They credited my account the $9.99 and at my request they blocked that “short code” from further billing me. I went to the SJA web site and under CONTACT US I “Canceled Service”. I then got a text from 230907 that said “You have quit your subscription to Game Cheats Master! Not satisfied? Email suppost@game-cheats-master.com for refund.” It is crazy that they can charge you for something that you never signed up for and unless you catch it on your bill they keep charging you.
This website is great! It answers a lot of questions I had.
So, I just filed two complaints with the FCC – one for SJA Mobile and the other for GLM Content. I encourage you to do the same.
I was also charged $19.99 for the past three months. I didn’t notice until I finally looked at my bill online b/c I was wondering why it had been so high. I called Sprint and they also told me that they couldn’t do anything about it and that I must have signed up for something which I had NOT!!! I don’t play stupid games on my cell phone or even have time to. They said they couldn’t even give me a credit. I am so pissed. I have canceled the service thru SJA’s website and sent them a request for a refund on all the charges, however that was 13 days ago and I have not heard anything from them. I think I am gonna call Sprint back tonight and complain again.
yea well they have upped the billing to 19.95 i just got hit last month. had sprint block them but only time will tell if this is over.
Same thing happened to me. I was charged $ 19.95, When I called AT&T, customer representative told me that she was able to contact SJA Mobile (while I was on phone) and they have agreed for refund. It is all scam,looks like AT&T and sprint are also part of this scam. They say that I have to pay this amount now but will get refund in 2 months time.
I had this start happening in July 08. I assumed it was my kids signing up for things online. even though it said SJA Mobile, it also said things like “Game Cheats” and “Tracy Mcgrady” the first 2 charges I didnt even notice. Another $10 in messaging charges went unnoticed, then they started in on it 2x a month, that is when I noticed. So called our phone company (tmobile) she tried to make it sound like us or our kids intentionally signed up for this(ya right lady!) but did remove all 5 charges and blacklisted them from sending or charging anything else. I also filed a complaint with the FCC. Hopefully eventually something will be done about people doing things like this.
I have twice now been billed by SJA for Game Cheats Master. The phone number they list for help is 18005599313. The monthly charge is 19.99
I never subscribed to this service. It is SCARY as a consumer that someone has found a backdoor method to having ATT bill my account without my express approval.
My son just discovered 2 charges for $9.99 (SJA Mobile)and when I called T-Mobile they said that SJA had just put through 2 more $9.99 charges. They would investigate back 4 months. This is a complete scam. I emailed the CEO of T-Mobile. I asked him how he would feel if a few unauthorized charges were to appear on his Credit Card bill or his gas bill. This is organized crime at its worst. My guess is that these guys are raking in millions.
Im getting charges from SJA for 19.99 a month and I didnt subscribe to these people for game cheats or anything else but im sure getting charged for it. When u call the number u cant get any help its just a recording
Same issue as everyone else. Three months $9.99 of other service provider fees funneled through SJA Mobile to my bill with two different short codes 23907 and 98550. T-Mobile credited my account so thankfully no refund is needed.
SJA Mobile may have many legitimate customers but to save their own name they need to stop their customers who have complaints against them.
Maybe it would help if all the carriers (T-Mobile, ATT, Sprint, etc.) would start charging the offending companies (like Game Cheat Masters) for all the calls and services they are providing on their behalf.
For now I’ll respond immediately to STOP the unsolicited texts, call T-Mobile to block them from even getting on my bill, and report each offense to the FCC.
I had the same thing happen to me through AT&T. What is odd is that on my bill its says SJA Mobile then shows the merchant’s phone number as an 800 number thats just ATT’s customer support line.
Does anyone know how we can file a class action lawsuit for this scam? The post by SJA above is bogus. How could you have so many people having the same issue and stated that it was done by a child or someone? I am with T-mobile and they charged me 4 months already and still expecting more from SJA mobile alert BS.
Someone please advise how we can all get together and file a class action lawsuit against this company?
I found the sja charges of 19.99 on my bill today also. I did what everyone said and had my husband text stop to the code. A little of insight from a career with our local landline phone company. I am not sure if this holds true for cell companys but do know that for landline companys if a 3rd party company sends through a charge then the company is required to send this through to the customer. Now when you call the company about the charge the 1st time they are also required to tell you to call that company. As most companys get the charge say from this SJA company and they pay it then charge you. So the way your billing company gets there money is either for you to pay the bill or the other company to send them a credit. So thats why you are told to call them and sometimes they claim they cant do anything about it. The second or third call your company can send the charges back to the 3rd party company and wait for their money back. Either way the customer is the one that has to do the work. There is more of this out there than most people know. When I was at the phone company about 40%of my calls I took a day had to do with these kinds of things. My advise is to make sure to look at everybill and keep copys for at least a year. I know that it is a full time jobs and its not just phone companys that do this, its cable, internet and even your great doctor and hospital bills. Say you have sprint and the 3rd party sends the charge, its not sprint that is doing this its they are regulated to send through the charge. Now CRAMING is if your company adds a service that you did not ask for like you called and ? this charge then next month ended up with mobile tv on your phone so there is a difference between this charge and cramming, I will be calling sprint and asking them to send the charges back to SJA which is just like if you get something taken out of your checking acct. that you did not authrize. Hope this helps anyone!! Happy Holidays!
I am a TMOBILE customer and I got the same thing. I remember getting the SMS saying I was confirmed for game cheats, and that I if I didn’t want this service, I could reply to the text. I “assumed” it was like SPAM – reply and it validates your number is real and goes on a marketing list.
TMOBILE took it right off the bill, for this month, and the next, but claims I must have somehow signed up somewhere either directly, or with someone who sold it to them. They can’t offer any way to block them or others like them.
Similar saga with Verizon from May-Sept 2008.
What gets me is that Verizon manages to capture these companies’ billing information accurately enough to pay them, but doesn’t provide accurate contact information to the consumer. It’s called FRAUD and the FCC is completely asleep on this. I submitted a complaint to the FCC and have heard nothing back. They are too worried about TV broadcasts of swear words, meanwhile tens of millions of Americans are uttering swear words at home precisely BECAUSE of the FCC’s impotence.
Glad to see this page pop up in Google…!
I just noticed this charge on one of my phones (for the past 4 months, argh). Called my carrier, ATT Wireless, and they removed the charge and said they’d issue a refund.
Thanks for the info on this page, to help me understand this scam.
I too wanted to beat my child for subscribing to something, but this website saved her from a beating, plus she insisted that she did not subscribe to anything. So I called Sprint and they refunded the last three months charges and blocked the short code’s so that this wont happen again. Got to say that Sprint really helped out and worked with me on this. THANKS SPRINT. Resolved in 15 minutes.
I’m not getting any services, never ordered any services and yet, some one is charging me for services- joke alert on alltel service, and game tips. Near as I can tell, joke alert is SJA, and they are still charging me after I text STOP! The only major problem is that I can’t even file a small claims suit against them since thier address is NOT posted on their website. It only says that they are located in Colorado- but there is no street address. If anyone has SJA mobiles street address please respond.
I too got my Sprint bill Friday. Noticed the charge was $20.00 more than usual.
I contacted Sprint this morning, very nice lady, blocked everything, including all text capabilities (husband and I don’t text at all anyway) took me about 15 minutes but they were great Thanks Sprint
SAME THING! I WAS CHARGED 19.99 FOR THE LAST 2 MONTHS. SPRINT DID TAKE IT OFF BUT IT PISSES ME OFF THAT WHOEVER THIS COMPANY IS WAS ALLOWED TO DO THIS US.