You guys, this happened to us!
Being on #funemployment I have a bit of time on my hands so when the phone bill looked a bit high I looked closer… We showed 2 months of a $9.99 charge at the bottom of the bill under “Monthly Subscriptions”. Just like this video (The content provider listed on my bill was not Textea, but Eye Level/Jawa! The company outlined in the video!!)
I found this video after doing a bit of googling. I goggled the content provider, and the short code listed and very quickly realized we were victims… for 17 months! Had it not double billed this time I would have never seen it! After a call to AT&T we were fully credited. She was actually nice about it, though did not seem surprised. In fact she is going to have someone call us on Monday to answer our questions as to why/ how this happened etc… Yay AT&T!!
CHECK YOUR BILL, PEOPLE!!!
See also: azfamily.com, and azdisruptors.com
UPDATE:(from the March 2011 article linked above)
One of the nation’s largest phone companies, AT&T, has suspended text “shortcodes” used by Jawa on its network, AT&T spokesperson Marty Richter said. The move temporarily stops Jawa from making money off its premium text messaging services on AT&T.
Richter says AT&T has hired a thirdy party company to investigate Jawa for cyber fraud, and that Jawa is cooperating. He did know how long the investigation would take.
3 On Your Side will continue to follow this story
Made me feel even more better about AT&T, but why did my bill still have the “short code” 5 months later? Hmm.
tagged: jawa at&t att text message scam
