Saint Paul, MN -- February 1, 2012 -- The Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Minnesota and North Dakota has received a report of a text scam hitting the Twin Cities, which appears to lead to charges on the cellphone bills of consumers who receive them. Here's a copy of the text message people should be on the lookout for:
From: 99716 'TXTALTSNOW: You'll receive Entertainment Alts. $9.99/mo billed to cell; 3 msg/wk. Reply HELP for help, STOP to cancel. Msg&Data rates may apply.'The individual in the metro area who received the text above didn't reply, but checked their cellphone bill and noticed they had been charged the $9.99 anyway.
These text messages first appeared in Western Michigan recently. A press release from the BBB of Western Michigan provided the following information to help identify these fraudulent text messages:
- The cellphone statements of consumers who received the messages had different SMS (Short Message Service) addresses, including 60822, 55033, 36713 and 99716.
- The messages appeared to originate from an entity named "Silicon Investments".
A line item in cellphone bills looked like this:
Silicon Investments:Alerts-55033_Gosspitext_ALT-12/23…..$9.99
After some investigating at
www.smswatchdog.com and running the SMS text address 99716 through the system, it appears from consumer input there that:
- The SMS texts began in December and have continued into 2012.
- Many people are getting hit
- It's happening to multiple carrier services (Sprint, AT&T, etc)
- Replying STOP is a waste of keystrokes; you will likely still get charged
The best way to combat this scam: Call your mobile service ASAP and dispute the charges.
Equipment affected: The cell phone does not have to be a Smart Phone. It simply must be able to receive texts.
People who receive these text messages should also report them to the FTC at
www.ftc.gov.
