bogus cell phone charges by gaming company | Gripevine
I looked at my February 2012 cell phone bill to find a $9.99 charge from Buongiorno Gamifive for Mobivillage games. I called Rogers, and they told me this happens all the time, and I should call the company directly. I did. They just kept repeating that I might have signed up for their SUBSCRIPTION PROGRAM (meaning they'll be charging me 10 bucks a month) by typing my cell phone number into a box online and then inserting whatever password they texted me. IMPOSSIBLE. Not only do I never do that, but I keep all my text messages, and I didn't receive or send ANY on or near the signup date of January 21, 2012. The lady on the phone kept repeating this message, even after I asked her to stop. She refused to rescind the $9.99 charge. I asked to speak to her supervisor, and she said this would require a call-back, and she HUNG UP ON ME before I could find out WHEN such a call-back would occur. I also emailed the company but so far have only received an automated response.
Rogers refuses to take any responsibility other than to block future charges like these, although they admit this happens all the time. Why don't they have the block as a DEFAULT, and people have to ask them specifically to UNBLOCK these clearly bogus charges?
Comments
Deduct the charge before you pay the bill. If Rogers disconnects your service take them to small claims court.
I received my Fido bill today Thursday May 3, 2012.
My Fido bill was charged an Unauthorized Fraudulent Third Party Charge:
9.99 - April 15 - Buongiorno - StarSecrets - Mobilvillage daily gossip service - 1.800.986.4614.
Fido informed me, by the way - that this is a MONTHLY charge.
I never authorized this charge.
Before phoning Fido, I researched Buongiorno and came across this blog.
I informed Fido of this particular blog and the fact that these fraudulent charges are happening to countless victims of Fido/Rogers.
I asked Fido to review the blog. I asked Fido to reverse the charges, but they could not/would not.
I was very persistent with Fido that this was going to become a global problem.
Fido seriously looked into the problem and has launched an internal investigation against Buongiorno.
Buongiorno is not registered with Fido and they cannot even find a number of the codes Buongiorno uses to charge Fido cellulars.
First - You need to inform Fido to block all Third Party charges on your phone.
Please note, this may or may not block their continuous third party charges and you may actually require third party charges to be billed to you.
Second – You need to ask Fido to provide you with the ‘code’ used by Buongiorno to charge your phone. They’ll have to investigate it on your phone.
Third – You can take that ‘code’ and send it to Buongiorno to unsubscribe:
There are countless codes Buongiorno is using.
So far, Fido is aware of 2 short codes:
If your bill states StarSecrets , the code is 6041
If your bill states gameifive, the code is 6033
For example:
To: 6041
Text: INFO
Then follow links to unsubscribe.
I highly recommend your filing a formal complaint as well The Commissioner for Telecommunications Services http://www.ccts-cprst.ca/en/
(they govern the cell phone providers).
Good luck!
Yes, I did consider that. But I called Rogers again today. This time I didn't ask what the charge was and what they could do about it (giving them the option of saying 'nothing'). I simply told her I had a fraudulent charge from a company that refused to reimburse me and that they would have to reimburse me. They agreed without argument! But of course I have to wait 4+ weeks to see if they will actually do it...
I just got charged as well! Roger's isn't doing anything about it, and the company told me they would unsubscribe me from this service that I've never signed up for... So angry!
Buongiorno Gamifive Mobivillage games is a SCAM !!!! Stay away from any games created by buongiorno.com
I have the exact same problem with my Fido bill.
On my January bill shows up that Buongiorno Gamifive Mobivillage games is charging me $9.99
I can't believe that these guys from Fido let anyone charge your mobile bill by just using your phone number.
It's very simple for somebody to get your mobile number and subscribe you to this scam from Buongiorno Gamifive Mobivillage games.
All they have to do is add your phone number and so these guys start charging you $9.99 per month. Unreal !!!
I'm very frustrated with this buongiorno.com company.
I recommend anyone that has Fido/Rogers account that they call and "block" they account so no 3rd company can charge your account.
I want to take Gamifive to court. I'm with Fido and I received that bogus $9.99 charge on my bill. When I spoke to a representative from Fido, she told me that she could only credit me half of the charge and block premium text messages. I later spoke to a supervisor, who got in contact with Gamifive and he told me that I was sent a pin code which verified my subscription, which I do not remember entering into to their website to confirm. I am extremely upset that this happened to me. I then called Gamifive to ask for a credit, the representative took my email and told me that they do not take phone calls for the billing department. These people have dealt with the wrong person because I'm going to talk to my lawyer and alert the media.
try emailing them at gamifive.ca@buongiorno.com. I got them to agree to refund me. when I see the refund on my phone bill, I'll post it here.
The people who answer the email seem to be more helpful than those who answer the phone.
I just received my rogers bill and there were 2 charges of 9.99 each so I went back and there was one charge of 9.99 on my Jan bill. I called Buongiorno and she said she cancelled any future charges and after several times of her saying I signed up and me saying I did not sign up or authorize the charges she said they would look into refunding my money and someone would get back to me in 4-5 business day. I was not feeling confident with this information so I called Rogers and told them these were fraudulent charges, that I had not authorized them and that I had found this sight online with several people having the same problems. She put me on hold to do some research on fraudulent charges and came back and agreed to refund the three charges on my next bill and block all future charges. So if you are with Rogers try them again - maybe they have had enough complaints to realize the charges were not authorized.
It is organized crime in South Africa, they started scamming customers in the UK first but were shut down after stealing millions from cell phone users. They have come to Canada now in February and are targeting Rogers and Telus numbers.
I had this charge show up on my bill as well.
They say that you have clicked on one of their ads on your phone which automatically subscribes you to there service of $9.99 a month. Rogers sees is as a third party charge and pays them and then bills you.
I don't even have the internet on my phone so there is no way I clicked on any ad. I called Rogers and told them this and they said there was nothing they could do except pay the charge this month and unsubscibe. She also let it slips that she has personally received hundreds of calls about the same company in the last couple of weeks. Then she blamed the government for allowing third party charges and said it is not there companies fault.
Even if you "unsubscibe" using their 1-800 number they will still bill until they are shut down and will focus on another country after milking Canadian Customers. Very well built scam. You can barely even see it on your bill unless you look closely.
Rogers and Fido both seem to not be willing to help shut them out as since they pay the third party companies directly and then bill you. Doing so would mean that they would be out hundreds of thousands or even millions. Again I say, Very well built scam!
I finally was able to talk to someone from the call center in South Africa. I could barely understand them but they said that they couldn't refund the credit back to the bill but rather send me a cheque if I gave them all of my personal information...
For those who are nieve enough to do this they probably would steal identity for a credit card etc.
So as a solution if you call Rogers or Fido and ask for a refund of the $9.99 as a service credit for something else they will have to oblidge. Otherwise go to Bell as they have not targeted them as of yet as this charge will keep reoccuring.
Have fun! It has been a nightmare on this end so far and reading through the UK posts they will probably get away with it for sometime until something is done.
wow. I just got the same charge, went online and found this useful page. I'm with Fido, this is what I did. hope it helps.
1. I called into Fido
2. told them about this 9.99 charge, mentioned I know about this is fraud, I went online and search for this and so many people complained
3. told them I want this cost waived and have my account blocked for any 3rd party charge
4. they told me this is not their fault, I should call the scam company, blah blah blah...
5. I stopped them and say I DONT CARE, I don't even want to deal with them because they won't refund me or are going to scam me more
6. I told them take this off, or I go to my CREDIT CARD company to dispute this (yes I pay my bill using credit card) and they'll come back to Fido and take the charge off anyway.. (The credit card company seems to be really good, whenever I complained they waive my charges, I'm with Capital One BTW)
7. they said ok, they'll take off 9.99 and block me from 3rd party charges
8. end of story
hooray! hope this helps
Yes, the key seems to be to work with the phone company and to TELL them not ask them to take the charge off. It also helps if you say that you KNOW this is fraud.