Three of the biggest US cellphone carriers are to drop premium rate text messages. It should spell the end of cramming, a scam by which phone users are tricked into paying for a costly subscription service.
The scam usually involves the user getting an unsolicited message and replying under the impression they are entering a competition or getting more information. In fact they are “signing up” for a premium message service by which they receive one or more messages that carry a fee, which appears as a separate item on their monthly bill. The network then passes on this fee to the “service provider.”
Although theoretically such a system could be used for perfectly legitimate purposes, it’s got a shady reputation with many users being unaware of the costs (or even that they were agreeing to receive messages) and then finding it tricky to cancel the service.
The Office of the Attorney General in Vermont quotes an estimate that such services bring in around $2 billion a year nationwide, while a survey in the state found around 60 percent of such charges were not knowingly authorized.
Following talks between officials in 45 states, AT&T, Spring and T-Mobile have announced they will no longer allow premium rate text messages. Verizon says it isn’t formally joining this program but had already begun “winding down” such services itself, partly because of the allegations of dubious practice and partly because it’s 2013 and it’s hard to imagine anyone needing to pay for information in a text message.
The move follows several attempts by state and federal agencies to use legal and technical measures to crack down on dubious behavior. It’s the failure of those attempts to wipe out problems completely that have led to the conclusion among officials and phone companies alike that a complete abandonment of premium rate messaging is the only solution.
Both T-Mobile and Verizon say they will make an exception that means users can still actively and intentionally donate to a charity or political campaign by sending a text message.