Beware "Fun Chat" fraudulent WASP

Foxhound5366

Foxhound5366

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At least Vodacom seems to be warning users of new WASPs these days. I woke up to this (the second SMS was after I deactivated the service through Vodacom):
Screenshot_20201222-155317_Messages.jpg
 
My question is simple: Vodacom KNOWS that there are fraudulent WASPs, so why is it not simply applying a double opt-in by SMS to new WASPs? Any new service which can be loaded by a WASP to a Vodacom subscriber's account for daily billing without user confirmation makes one question why Vodacom would rather risk irate customers rather than just making life harder for legitimate WASPs.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
My question is simple: Vodacom KNOWS that there are fraudulent WASPs, so why is it not simply applying a double opt-in by SMS to new WASPs? Any new service which can be loaded by a WASP to a Vodacom subscriber's account for daily billing without user confirmation makes one question why Vodacom would rather risk irate customers rather than just making life harder for legitimate WASPs.
Click to expand...

All about the $$$ for Vodacum.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
My question is simple: Vodacom KNOWS that there are fraudulent WASPs, so why is it not simply applying a double opt-in by SMS to new WASPs? Any new service which can be loaded by a WASP to a Vodacom subscriber's account for daily billing without user confirmation makes one question why Vodacom would rather risk irate customers rather than just making life harder for legitimate WASPs.
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You spelled Vodacrap wrong...
 
Foxhound5366 said:
So we live in a world where Vodacom will probably give you double opt-in on email newsletters, but let a third-party bill your account with no independent confirmation from you?
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You're a bit late to the show... Any corporate that can make extra money from you with minimal risk will do so.
 
Flywheel said:
You're a bit late to the show... Any corporate that can make extra money from you with minimal risk will do so.
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I don't know if big corporates like Vodacom are really evil anymore. In my experience things like this are just old-fashioned incompetence. The developers adding the WASP billing hook weren't tasked with creating a double opt-in, and nobody at Customer Care (who receives all the complaints) has managed to convince anybody in Finance to spend money to close this loophole. Maybe in another two decades.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
I don't know if big corporates like Vodacom are really evil anymore. In my experience things like this are just old-fashioned incompetence. The developers adding the WASP billing hook weren't tasked with creating a double opt-in, and nobody at Customer Care (who receives all the complaints) has managed to convince anybody in Finance to spend money to close this loophole. Maybe in another two decades.
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Yup that is correct. The development teams think their shift does not stink and ignore support requests. This happens all over.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
So we live in a world where Vodacom will probably give you double opt-in on email newsletters, but let a third-party bill your account with no independent confirmation from you?
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^^ Maybe also block 0820097640 on your phone in case the 'unsubscribed' sms doesn't stop other WASPS using the same number. Tellows reports it under ' harassment / spam / cost traps' from Mobsto, Powerplay, Fun Chat, among others.

more details:

Cost trap 0820097640 - 24 Ratings

Phone number 0820097640 from Vodacom tagged as Cost trap 15 times: Welcome! You have successfully subscribe... 4928 searches on tellows, the online anti-spam community
www.tellows.co.za www.tellows.co.za
 
Daisy Cloudskitter said:
^^ Maybe also block 0820097640 on your phone in case the 'unsubscribed' sms doesn't stop other WASPS using the same number. Tellows reports it under ' harassment / spam / cost traps' from Mobsto, Powerplay, Fun Chat, among others.

more details:

Cost trap 0820097640 - 24 Ratings

Phone number 0820097640 from Vodacom tagged as Cost trap 15 times: Welcome! You have successfully subscribe... 4928 searches on tellows, the online anti-spam community
www.tellows.co.za www.tellows.co.za
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I think that would be dangerous to do, because that wouldn't prevent me from being subscribed fraudulently ... it would just mean that I don't receive the notifications when I am subscribed fraudulently.

Clearly these WASPs are either signing themselves up just using a list of cellphone numbers they scrape from somewhere, or some third-party 'marketing' firm is doing it for them (much wow - 100% sales conversions!).
 
Foxhound5366 said:
My question is simple: Vodacom KNOWS that there are fraudulent WASPs, so why is it not simply applying a double opt-in by SMS to new WASPs? Any new service which can be loaded by a WASP to a Vodacom subscriber's account for daily billing without user confirmation makes one question why Vodacom would rather risk irate customers rather than just making life harder for legitimate WASPs.
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Because they are a bunch of greedy criminals.
 
LazyLion said:
Because they are a bunch of greedy criminals.
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When did South Africans become so hate-filled? Sanral is "scum", ANC are "corrupt wankers", Vodacom are "greedy criminals". Over-exaggerate much? Vodacom has thousands of employees nationally ... for them all to be "greedy criminals", they've got one hell of a targeted recruitment programme starting at the jails.

Bro, bring the hate down a couple clicks to a medium simmer, ok? We're not going to understand why bad things happen if we're looking at it like an angry bull charging after the latest red rag.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
When did South Africans become so hate-filled? Sanral is "scum", ANC are "corrupt wankers", Vodacom are "greedy criminals". Over-exaggerate much? Vodacom has thousands of employees nationally ... for them all to be "greedy criminals", they've got one hell of a targeted recruitment programme starting at the jails.

Bro, bring the hate down a couple clicks to a medium simmer, ok? We're not going to understand why bad things happen if we're looking at it like an angry bull charging after the latest red rag.
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Mainly because they stole several thousand rand from me through fraudulent WASP and content subscriptions....

I stand by my comments.

Will send you the account statements if you want to see for yourself.
 
LazyLion said:
Mainly because they stole several thousand rand from me through fraudulent WASP and content subscriptions....

I stand by my comments.

Will send you the account statements if you want to see for yourself.
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Yeah man, sounds like you have a right to be angry, but I don't think that right extends to dehumanizing every single Vodacom employee under the label of "greedy criminals". I've had a couple good Vodacom-related experiences, and when I've raised a billing issue with them recently they resolved it swiftly (honouring a data discount a sales rep offered me).

However, for you to share your WASP experience is definitely on-topic. How did you lose "several thousand rand", and when did you first realise this?
 
Foxhound5366 said:
Yeah man, sounds like you have a right to be angry, but I don't think that right extends to dehumanizing every single Vodacom employee under the label of "greedy criminals". I've had a couple good Vodacom-related experiences, and when I've raised a billing issue with them recently they resolved it swiftly (honouring a data discount a sales rep offered me).

However, for you to share your WASP experience is definitely on-topic. How did you lose "several thousand rand", and when did you first realise this?
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I have friends who work for Vodacom, they know what happened and are just as angry. I do not consider them to be part of the criminal organisation. So when I refer to them as criminals I am obviously referring to the people who are actually responsible for this.
It started nearly two years ago... when an employee from a Vodacom shop in Durban phoned me out of the blue and offered a too good to be true upgrade.
Stupidly I took the upgrade instead of dealing with my usual contact.
Then suddenly a few months later I started noticing all of these subscriptions on my company Vodacom accounts.
One by one I had to go through the rigmarole of blocking each number from content subscriptions.
I forwarded the accounts to Rudolph at MyBroadband and they did an article on it.
Eventually there were a few random credits that showed up on my account, but only a small fraction of what had been lost.
So it is my firm opinion that there are employees at Crooked Vodacom shops who have set up these automated computer systems that just randomly subscribe people to as many content services as possible.
There is no double opt-in system at all and no verification that it is the actual number owner who is subscribing.
That's how easy Vodacom makes it, and they have no plans to change that.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
Vodacom are "greedy criminals". Over-exaggerate much?
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Because, with a line or two of code they could block every single WASP and make opt-out the default. They could also implement a stricter method of opting in. But they won't because they make Billions off it every year.
 
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