Content charge scam - Love Guru from Tarragon Tech & Integrat [SOLVED]

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ajax

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A colleague of mine just got spammed by a new WASP. It would appear from the sms’s that they tried to fraudulently subscribe him to a content service!

The first sms was as follows and originated from +278200480622313
Welcome to Love Guru. U R subscribed at R3.00 /day. 2 stop SMS STOP to 43741 Help? 0110621402 ADS
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Then the 2nd sms came through a minute later.

Confirm your request for LoveGuru @ R3.00 per day. Reply “Yes” to confirm/”No” to cancel,free SMS.
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Luckily my colleague is with Vodacom and it seems the fraudulent subscription got blocked by Vodacom’s double opt-in system. Kudo's to Vodacom again! He has obviously not replied to the confirmation sms. Only a “Yes” would cause the subscription to continue.

Looking up the landline number on WASPA’s site revealed that this is Tarragon Tech Ltd. They became a WASP in March this year.

Is standard procedure for WASPS to spam and or subscribe?

/off to WASPA to lodge a complaint
 
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Sounds like the service required the consumer to enter in their cell number and then rely on the Vodacom double-opt in as the mechanism to validate the number is correct.

Happens a lot that consumers enter in the wrong number or sometimes just enter in a random number to see what happens. This is why double-opt in is essential and why Vodacom gets it right.
 
The 43741 short code according to sms code belongs to Integrat.

SMS Code: 43741
VAS Rate: Standard
Name: Integrat (Pty) Ltd
Telephone: 0861222767
Website: http://www.integrat.co.za
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Also calling the landline number (011)0621402 I got someone who answered from Integrat. I will ask the mods to update the thread title.
 
cbrunsdonza said:
Sounds like the service required the consumer to enter in their cell number and then rely on the Vodacom double-opt in as the mechanism to validate the number is correct.

Happens a lot that consumers enter in the wrong number or sometimes just enter in a random number to see what happens. This is why double-opt in is essential and why Vodacom gets it right.
Click to expand...

My assessment, and you can correct me if you wish, is as follows:
The "Welcome to Love Guru" from the WASP is a welcome sms. According to the code of conduct:
11.5. Welcome message

11.5.1. Once a customer has subscribed to a subscription service, a notification message must immediately be sent to the customer. This welcome message should not be mistaken for an advert or marketing message. The customer may not be charged for this message.

11.5.2. The welcome message must start with the text "Welcome: " and must also be a clear notification of the following information, in the following order:

The name of the subscription service;
The cost of the subscription service and the frequency of the charges;
Clear and concise instructions for unsubscribing from the service;
The service provider's telephone number.
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So the welcome sms is only sent when a subscription has started. The confirmation sms from Vodacom came after the welcome sms. So the subscription got started on the WASPS side, a billing request was sent to Vodacom, and Vodacom blocked it as there is no “Yes” reply on Vodacom’s system for this “service”
 
Here then the response from Integrat.

They claim that it was someone with finger trouble entering the wrong MSISDN:

You have not been subscribed to any services nor were you billed. It seems that the number in question was entered into a WAP site and for this reason you received a Welcome message and request for confirmation of subscription. This is unfortunately a problem that may easily present itself - for this reason double opt in was placed in effect by WASPA and by Vodacom (internally) to ensure that users are not subscribed who did not request content. The service flow in this instance would typically be - user enters MSISDN (in all likelihood there was finger trouble in this instance and your number may have been entered). A double opt in message should be issued - either in the form of a pin message, wap confirmation page or a normal MO - as in this case (Confirm your request for LoveGuru @ R3.00 per day. Reply "Yes" to confirm/"No" to cancel,free SMS.). A welcome message is then sent and billing may also commence. The sequence of messages are sometimes not in this exact order - but billing cannot proceed if a double opt in is not received. In this instance no such an opt-in was ever sent and for this reason no subscription was initialled.
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Here is a modified log that was provided by Integrat:

integrat.jpg

It bothers me though that the "Welcome" message was sent regardless of the reply to Vodacom's opt-in sms and that the "Welcome" sms was sent first.

A search didn't yield anybody else complaining about this when I started the thread, but here is one now. Another MSISDN "finger trouble" incident?

Sidenote: WASPA says Terragon Tech is not involved, only Integrat.
 
Someone from the UK called my colleague just now. This guy was apparently very polite yet flabbergasted how the "subscription" could have occurred. He says the way to subscribe is to answer a telephone call and respond by typing in numbers on the keypad. He confirmed that my colleague wasn't billed.

The guy also sent an email, and here is a section of that email:

As discussed the logs on your phone do confirm the opt in we have on our
system. I have just spoken to my client and they have confirmed that
+27110623526 is one of the numbers they use to send out automated voice call
messages.

In terms of you receiving a non-billed welcome message, this was a technical
error but I confirm again that you have not been billed.

I'm pleased that the complaint is now resolved and the complaint can be
closed.
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Very interesting, just earlier this week another colleague of mine got robospam from the same telephone number!

The email comes from Mobivate in the UK and he cc'ed Integrat in South Africa.

Perhaps the politeness is to get my colleague to drop the WASPA complaint. But I will leave this to him to decide.
I am just worried that there is a screw loose on a system somewhere and without sanctions nothing will be done and someone else may get subscribed due to their "technical errors" - MTN and Cell C does not have double opt-in.
 
Interesting that Integrat should blame the welcome message on a "technical error".

It's certainly not the first time it has used this excuse.

In this article, a customer's unsubscribe requests were ignored. Integrat blamed this on an "error" in its client's system.
 
ajax said:
Someone from the UK called my colleague just now. This guy was apparently very polite yet flabbergasted how the "subscription" could have occurred. He says the way to subscribe is to answer a telephone call and respond by typing in numbers on the keypad. He confirmed that my colleague wasn't billed.
Click to expand...
I saved the voicemail from Love Guru +27110623526 as an MP3, it says:
To subscribe to Love Guru, press 1 now, or 9 to opt out.
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Since the 15th of May I sent 18 emails to support at integrat dot co dot za asking how I can subscribe to Love Guru. Received several auto reply responses and only on the 10th of June I got a human to reply. Today I got the answer to my question.

You will only subscribed to Love Guru if you received a Voice Recorded Call on your number and you need to press 1 to subscribe.
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which is a total contradiction of the initial excuse given to my colleague (above), in all likelihood a copy-and-paste response:

It seems that the number in question was entered into a WAP site and for this reason you received a Welcome message and request for confirmation of subscription...The service flow in this instance would typically be - user enters MSISDN (in all likelihood there was finger trouble in this instance and your number may have been entered).
Click to expand...
 
cbrunsdonza said:
Sounds like the service required the consumer to enter in their cell number and then rely on the Vodacom double-opt in as the mechanism to validate the number is correct.

Happens a lot that consumers enter in the wrong number or sometimes just enter in a random number to see what happens. This is why double-opt in is essential and why Vodacom gets it right.
Click to expand...

It turned out you were right: This wasn't spam. After some searching I found the Love Guru site, a mobi site.
Here it was possible to enter a cell number:

loveguru1a.jpg

After that, shockingly, you were subscribed. No verification pin or confirmation needed:

loveguru2a.jpg

This is where Vodacom's verification system blocked billing on my colleague's account. If he was with MTN or Cell C, he would have been billed. I verified this with one of my Cell C sims.

It was very tempting to sign up e.g all the "you have won R250 000 in the XYZ draw" spammers or the 419'ers. Integrat was informed and the site was promptly removed.

Just very strange that Integrat themselves didn't know about this "service" ROFLMAO. I will ask the mods to mark the thread as solved.
 
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