How criminals secretly steal your airtime

[Jamie McKane]

How criminals secretly steal your airtime

Fraudulent wireless application service providers (WASPs) continue to steal millions in airtime from mobile subscribers, and there is not much you can do to protect yourself against this fraud.

A MyBroadband investigation in September revealed that WASPs continue to subscribe South African mobile users to content services without their permission or knowledge.

 

[Visser]

Again, WASPS should be banned outright. There is no consumer demand or need for it.

If they do not want to ban it, it should be blocked by default and require a consumer to physically sign up for it and provide the required FICA documents before money is allowed to be deducted.

They are openly stealing from and defrauding consumers. Worst of all is that all service providers are sharing in the loot and profiting from these scams.

 

[backstreetboy]

and there is not much you can do to protect yourself against this fraud.

Sure there are. Move on over to prepaid. If airtime goes missing you'll know it.

 

[Visser]

Sure there are. Move on over to prepaid. If airtime goes missing you'll know it.

No, you won't, unless you check it every hour and keep track.

 

[AstroTurf]

Sure there are. Move on over to prepaid. If airtime goes missing you'll know it.

I moved away from prepaid because I ran out of airtime while a bunch of criminals were ransacking my house...

 

[AstroTurf]

Interestingly, I recently let my 4 year old son watch children sing along stuff (around 30minute videos, baby shark and that type of thing) on Youtube.

What I noticed was that the adverts in the video started around 10-15 minutes in, appeared every 5 minutes after that and were all aimed at getting small children to press the shiny buttons.

got subscribed to wasps via youtube videos and shiny buttons...

 

[Visser]

Interestingly, I recently let my 4 year old son watch children sing along stuff (around 30minute videos, baby shark and that type of thing) on Youtube.

What I noticed was that the adverts in the video started around 10-15 minutes in, appeared every 5 minutes after that and were all aimed at getting small children to press the shiny buttons.

got subscribed to wasps via youtube videos and shiny buttons...

Yep, same here.

Got my kids to run the unsubscribe code on a daily basis.

 

[AstroTurf]

Yep, same here.

Got my kids to run the unsubscribe code on a daily basis.

I download to phone, turn off data then let him watch.

 

[Willie Trombone]

Is bluesnarfing still a thing? It was big in the UK back in the day when anyone could sign up for a premium rate number and make calls from other's phones at the local mall.

 

[Visser]

I download to phone, turn off data then let him watch.

That's one way of doing it. But, this even happens in apps / games they download from the App store.

Got my daughter a new phone a month ago, in 8 hours she was subscribed to 7 wasps and all after installing games and probably clicked something she should not have done.

 

[Solarion]

Easy really, ditch Vodacom.

 

[rubber_otter]

Yep, same here.

Got my kids to run the unsubscribe code on a daily basis.

I will make a tutorial on how to set up IFTTT to do this automatically

 

[rubber_otter]

@Visser Please see this thread. It's really simple.

https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/threads/automated-wasp-unsubscription.983907/

 

[Trompie67]

not much you can do to protect yourself against this fraud.

Easy really, ditch Vodacom.

It is really very simple. Ditch Voda, MTN. Join Telkom Mobile. Zero WASPS allowed on their network. Problem solved.

 

[Visser]

It is really very simple. Ditch Voda, MTN. Join Telkom Mobile. Zero WASPS allowed on their network. Problem solved.

Will do that the moment Telkom expands their infrastructure and have better coverage, but can't do it before that.

 

[Quest10n]

It would be interesting if MBB can have an article on how these guys/gals get to be behind these fraudulent activities.

 

[Solarion]

It is really very simple. Ditch Voda, MTN. Join Telkom Mobile. Zero WASPS allowed on their network. Problem solved.

I'm on Telkom Mobile.

Had to actually google what a WASP is

 

[Kloofvreter]

WASPS

There is literally ZERO consumer need for them. It's all a racket to make money.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Will do that the moment Telkom expands their infrastructure and have better coverage, but can't do it before that.

Since they roam on mtn currently coverage should not be an issue.

 

[Frequent visitor]

WASPS

There is literally ZERO consumer need for them. It's all a racket to make money.

I wonder - just a thought - if the people running WASPS are tied in to the airtime providers?