Be vary careful

[Takezaki]

I used the free platinium offers on star legends.

At some point after downloading one I received a text message offering me some service for 5$ per text message 3times a week.

I didn't reply or anything, I had to say YES if I wanted to accept the offer, wich of course I never did.


At the end of this month I Received another message saying that the subscription would be renewed, I had to text STOP to make it STOP.

I was billed 50 something dollars for that and the weirdest thing is when I checked my text messages I saw that ''I'' had sent the YES text message to the company after receiving the first message, wich I never did.

I am not an idiot, and this is shameful from star legends to be associated with fraudulous activies like that. I will check with my provider what I can do because there's no way I'm paying a 50$ extra bill for a mobile texting scam.

[javier995]

Its not SL ire STS's fault. The free plat offers are from Tapjoy.

[Trollee]

I hate things like this. Good job notifying everyone of this.

Can you remember what the name of the app was that caused this?

[Lady_Pebbles]

I've tried the free plat as well and had textes sent to me but luckily I haven't been billed nor did I see an auto reply text of a 'yes' to them. However, I did download apps and some don't uninstall properly. I had to manually remove them via USB tethering to my laptop.

Free plat just isn't worth the risks. Hell paying for plat is hella expensive anyway so I don't even bother anymore.

[Kakatoa91]

Im a medium free plat downloader (+/- 300 in PL and 160 in SL) besides the plat I buy with my credit card.

Would be nice to be more precise for us:

1. Apple or android? (My guess its from android... so much junk there)
2. Name of app?

You will need to contact Tapjoy sadly. Only him could do something but im not even sure hell refund u. So contacting ur provider is the best solution, the sooner the better.

[Mrknockers]

One thing you can do to prevent from being charged through text messages like that is to contact your phone service provider (ie. Sprint...Verizon) and you can have them totally block and malicious texts. In my experience my sister got signed into a reoccuring 10$ bill from a text and I didn't know until I looked at the bill and saw an extra 10$ fee that wasn't specified... anyways once I called my provider... Sprint... they actually cancelled the charge and the reoccuring "subscription" and then went above and beyond my request and blocked any charge at all from an unknown text message source (it was a defining moment as this was the 1st and only positive experience with Sprint).

And about the free offers, be very wary... I ran into one on my LG android phone just now "Credit Sesame - Free Credit Score" for 1 platinum. Anyways this one says you don't need a credit card to reel you in, then when you get into the registration etc. it asks for your social security... LOL

[Arterra]

there should be a disclaimer in there telling users to complain to tapjoy...

[Skeletonlord]

I agree with you. It is annoying, but you need to speak to tapjoy because they add the free offers, not STS

[JazzBlue]

One other thing to check with is your bank. If the account that it was billed to was a credit card with theft/fraud protection, you can most likely walk into your local branch office, explain to them you never signed up for this service, and have the charges removed with very little hassle.

It may take 5-10 business days for the refund to clear, and they may want to disable that account totally and issue you a new card. if so, do it, as these unscrupulous people currently have your credit card number! (And who knows what else may be billed to it next.)

I have had to do this a few times in my life due to a compromised account, and have never had any trouble removing the charges on my end without contacting the actual service provider.

Additionally, I have a credit card set aside that I only use for internet/phone purchases that has all of this protection, and I almost exclusively use it just for this type of purchase, that way if something goes wrong, it is not tied to a debit/check card that can clean out your personal bank account.

Banks actually prefer doing things this way, as then the company will go on a global credit alert list, and after so many dings, most banks will refuse to do business with them in a normal manner. If you try and get your money back from the shady provider, most likely, you'll hit a brick wall, and never find them to deal with it easily. If you cut it of at the source, and let your bank take the funds back, it sends a clear message to them that they had better shape up, or some VERY big corporate lawyers will soon be after them for fraud.

Helpful spending tips from your buddy Jazz...

[CanonicalKoi]

The post was good for the heads-up, but, if you got scammed, pop an email off to STS support (as a heads-up) and another one off to TapJoy. I'm sure TapJoy doesn't want scammers in their program and an email to STS (instead of a post that might get lost in the shuffle) will give them more info when the time comes to decide whether to continue partnering with TapJoy or not.

[Aculeas]

Bear in mind any auto texting services generally have a charge unless they specifically say otherwise.