A warning about MBlox and buying virtual items off facebook

Jason_Chapman1

I would like to draw everyone’s attention to MBlox and online currency transaction company who most of you have probably never heard of. However how many people here have brought virtual items off one of those facebook games, Township, cityville, Farmville, the list is endless.

This morning while checking my bank account I noticed my orange phone bill was £125 for last month alone, I’m only supposed to be paying a fixed term contract of £40 a month. My wife confessed to me that she had been buying virtual items online for a game called township, funny she tried to tell me last night when we were watching that BBC 4 documentary on Facebook.

Domestic issues aside, I sat down with her and told her to take me through the method in which she uses to pay for virtual items. The thing that got me is how easy it is to pay for items. First of all when you click on the link you get a choice of packages you want to buy. Then all you need to do is enter your mobile phone number. You then receive a text saying that you have purchased an online item for whatever game you’re playing.The text then asks you to confirm your payment by texting ‘Y’ to a premium rate number. Then you get another text thanking you for your payment. And that’s when you get caught out, and when MBlox goes to work, because they handle the transaction you have made and charge you a small fortune not only for the text you just sent them, but also the text they send you. Last month alone I lost £95 to Mblox in charges, and I suspect hundreds more in previous months.

I looked through the terms and conditions of ‘Township’and saw nothing about employing a company to handle any transaction. In factall the terms say is that you are able to buy things with real money. They mention nothing about phone bill charges and other hidden charges that are billed to the facebook user, through their mobile phone company.

People get into the trap where they think they are buying something directly from facebook when in fact they’re not.

I have tried to phone and email MBlox but surprise surprise I get stonewalled. Surely there are regulations stating that these companies have to answer to complaints.

So my question is; are these companies exploiting loopholes in the law to make money, and more importantly am I able to claim money back from MBlox or do I cut my losses and nip this inthe bud.

One final note about these facebook games and people who buy items off them. I knowit’s your choice, but you have to remember that you’re not actually buying anything of real value. At the end of the day it’s just pixels, pixels that cancost an absolute fortune.

DUTR

"So my question is; are these companies exploiting loopholes in the law to make money, and more importantly am I able to claim money back from MBlox or do I cut my losses and nip this inthe bud."

You know the answer, I'm dissapointed with how many people want to blame othrs for their or someone close to them of their errors

Guys_Dad

Your warning is beneficial and particularly if it's facebook and kids could be involved.

I sincerely hope that you have had words with your wife about wasting money.

Jason_Chapman1

Thatnks for the reply 'guys dad' It is a warning that parents (and husbands) In all fairness to the wife, she was unaware of what she was getting into, or how much it would end up costing. In her defence the terms and conditions for these facebook games are not very clear, and lets face it only the very wary sit there and trawl through the novel length terms and conditions.

In other news and for all you tech guys out there, I have indeed recieved an e-mail from MBlox a few minutes ago, it seems to me that when you make a transaction on Facebook, then there are at least three companies that handle you're details. Here's the e-mail I recieved:

Dear Jason,

Thank you for your email.

From the information
you have submitted, I understand you are receiving unwanted messages to the
mobile phone number provided .

Our logfiles found the following client
responsible for the messages sent to this mobile number (left blank)


Client Name: Boku
Shortcode: 85002, 78660, 78880
Contact details: (cannot show email address but there were three of them)
08081202341

You may
contact the client listed above to request cancellation of services. You may
also send a text message "STOP" to the short code provided to stop the messages.

Any refund inquiries should be addressed with the client
listed above.

To clarify: mBlox is a telecommunications aggregator that
provides infrastructure between SMS (Short Message Service) content providers
and mobile phone operators. You can find more information at mblox.com


Many differing companies use our network to deliver content to customers.
This content could be ringtones, wallpaper, screensavers, games, chat services,
premium text or other kinds of content that are
available and consumable on a
mobile phone.

Should you continue to experience any issues, please do
not hesitate to contact us.

With kind regards,
Sam S
mBlox
Customer Care

If you ask me this has opened a can of worms for the facebook game market. How can something so innocent looking lead to trouble and strife?

Guys_Dad

Jason_Chapman1 wrote: »

If you ask me this has opened a can of worms for the facebook game market. How can something so innocent looking lead to trouble and strife?

A company with a market capitalisation as high as Facebook's at sometime has to create a decent revenue stream to justify its value. This is obviously one of them!!

mblox

Hi Jason Chapman,

I'm from mBlox and it looks like you've already talked with our support team. I'm sorry this happened to you, and as Sam said we're happy to help you get this resolved in any way. I just want to be clear, it's not mBlox that's charging you, it's the payment system that handles the payments for the merchant (pick your virtual game company of choice). We are simply the message aggregator - we act solely as an intermediary between businesses that provide mobile content and the wireless carriers, managing the delivery and billing of mobile content and mobile services. As a result, we do not own, manage or operate any content or databases, nor do we ourselves originate the messages/billing received.

If any other folks on this forum run into issues that we can help with, you can contact GBRendusersupport@mblox.com and we'll be able to assist you. Definitely make sure you read the fine print on any transaction that is going to be billed to your mobile!

I hope this helps.

Best,
Michele @ mblox

Jason_Chapman1

That's the problem, there is no fine print that comes with these games. The terms and condition for 'Township' mention nothing aboutbeing charged premium rate costs for buying virtual items. This is what itsays.

Virtual Currencies/Goods
The Service may include an opportunity to purchase virtual, in-game currency
("Virtual Currency") that may require you topay a fee using "real money" to
obtain the Virtual Currency. The Service may also include virtual, in-game
digital items (“Virtual Goods”) that may be purchased from Playrix LLC for
“real money” or for Virtual Currency. Virtual Currency and Virtual Goods can
never be redeemed for real money, goods, or any other item of monetary value
from Playrix LLC or any other party. You understand that you have no right or
title in Virtual Goods or Virtual Currency.
Your purchase of Virtual Currency and/or Virtual Goods isfinal and is not
refundable, exchangeable, transferable, except in Playrix LLC's sole
discretion. You may not purchase, sell, or exchange Virtual Currency or Virtual
Goods outside the Service. Doing so is a violation of theTerms and may result
in termination of your account with the Service and/orlegal action.
Playrix LLC retains the right to modify, manage, control and/or eliminate
Virtual Currency and/or Virtual Goods at its sole discretion. Prices and
availability of Virtual Goods are subject to change without notice.

I suggest that Playrix should do a better job or advising people that if they buy anything through a mobile phone transaction then they will be charged premium rates. I even went on their website and they don't mention anything about premium costs. They’re one of a number of companies who rely on people’s ignorance to make money.

Why is it if you enter a competition on the TV (e.g. the gadget show) they have to list how much it will cost if you text an answer to a question. Yet these facebook games don't have to mention anything about cost,or have any warning about texting premium rate numbers

Anyway the point that I'm trying to make here is the countless companies who have their finger in the Facebook pie. It’s like ‘Guys dad’ said Children use these games are unaware of costs that can be racked up just by buying a few pixels.

Facebook needs to monitor these companies more to make sure they’re not taking advantage of people.

MBlox may say they're innocent in all this, but when I tracked a number my wife sent a text to the trail led straight to them. Just one of many companies with their fingers in the Facebook pie.

WillmBlox

Jason_Chapman1 wrote: »

I would like to draw everyone’s attention to MBlox and online currency transaction company who most of you have probably never heard of. However how many people here have brought virtual items off one of those facebook games, Township, cityville, Farmville, the list is endless.

This morning while checking my bank account I noticed my orange phone bill was £125 for last month alone, I’m only supposed to be paying a fixed term contract of £40 a month. My wife confessed to me that she had been buying virtual items online for a game called township, funny she tried to tell me last night when we were watching that BBC 4 documentary on Facebook.

Domestic issues aside, I sat down with her and told her to take me through the method in which she uses to pay for virtual items. The thing that got me is how easy it is to pay for items. First of all when you click on the link you get a choice of packages you want to buy. Then all you need to do is enter your mobile phone number. You then receive a text saying that you have purchased an online item for whatever game you’re playing.The text then asks you to confirm your payment by texting ‘Y’ to a premium rate number. Then you get another text thanking you for your payment. And that’s when you get caught out, and when MBlox goes to work, because they handle the transaction you have made and charge you a small fortune not only for the text you just sent them, but also the text they send you. Last month alone I lost £95 to Mblox in charges, and I suspect hundreds more in previous months.

I looked through the terms and conditions of ‘Township’and saw nothing about employing a company to handle any transaction. In factall the terms say is that you are able to buy things with real money. They mention nothing about phone bill charges and other hidden charges that are billed to the facebook user, through their mobile phone company.

People get into the trap where they think they are buying something directly from facebook when in fact they’re not.

I have tried to phone and email MBlox but surprise surprise I get stonewalled. Surely there are regulations stating that these companies have to answer to complaints.

So my question is; are these companies exploiting loopholes in the law to make money, and more importantly am I able to claim money back from MBlox or do I cut my losses and nip this inthe bud.

One final note about these facebook games and people who buy items off them. I knowit’s your choice, but you have to remember that you’re not actually buying anything of real value. At the end of the day it’s just pixels, pixels that cancost an absolute fortune.

Hi Jason,

I'm sorry to hear that you have had issues caused by this service. The reason for the response from mBlox support is that mBlox are an SMS aggregator platform so only process the SMS parts of this transaction, some of the customers of mBlox are the companies who are advertising these services on facebook and many other websites. That means that the correct course of action in a complaint case such as this is to contact the company who provided the service to you directly, they will then raise the complaint with mBlox and be able to supply the required information on the SMS traffic involved in this case. Unfortuantely until the issue is raised to mBlox by mBlox customers, the company will be unable to verify the validity of the transaction. Alternatively you can raise this with your network provider who can permanently block access to premium SMS services such as these.

Thanks,
Will

nsabournemouth

Jason_Chapman1 wrote: »

I would like to draw everyone’s attention to MBlox and online currency transaction company who most of you have probably never heard of. However how many people here have brought virtual items off one of those facebook games, Township, cityville, Farmville, the list is endless.

This morning while checking my bank account I noticed my orange phone bill was £125 for last month alone, I’m only supposed to be paying a fixed term contract of £40 a month. My wife confessed to me that she had been buying virtual items online for a game called township, funny she tried to tell me last night when we were watching that BBC 4 documentary on Facebook.

Domestic issues aside, I sat down with her and told her to take me through the method in which she uses to pay for virtual items. The thing that got me is how easy it is to pay for items. First of all when you click on the link you get a choice of packages you want to buy. Then all you need to do is enter your mobile phone number. You then receive a text saying that you have purchased an online item for whatever game you’re playing.The text then asks you to confirm your payment by texting ‘Y’ to a premium rate number. Then you get another text thanking you for your payment. And that’s when you get caught out, and when MBlox goes to work, because they handle the transaction you have made and charge you a small fortune not only for the text you just sent them, but also the text they send you. Last month alone I lost £95 to Mblox in charges, and I suspect hundreds more in previous months.

I looked through the terms and conditions of ‘Township’and saw nothing about employing a company to handle any transaction. In factall the terms say is that you are able to buy things with real money. They mention nothing about phone bill charges and other hidden charges that are billed to the facebook user, through their mobile phone company.

People get into the trap where they think they are buying something directly from facebook when in fact they’re not.

I have tried to phone and email MBlox but surprise surprise I get stonewalled. Surely there are regulations stating that these companies have to answer to complaints.

So my question is; are these companies exploiting loopholes in the law to make money, and more importantly am I able to claim money back from MBlox or do I cut my losses and nip this inthe bud.

One final note about these facebook games and people who buy items off them. I knowit’s your choice, but you have to remember that you’re not actually buying anything of real value. At the end of the day it’s just pixels, pixels that cancost an absolute fortune.

Very soon Facebook will be going public and all the useless information people post up like checking in to various places is being sold for quite a bit of money. Why would people want to buy 'virtual' stuff anyway?

Lip_Stick

It absolutely amazes me that people waste so much money on these games. The additional extras aren't cheap, some of the options are over £60. Just for little daft credits or whatnot.

I did think that when you made a transaction via mobile, the warning about paying for the texts came up then.

Evilm

Michele @ mblox
Will @mblox.

Apparently you need a lesson in reading T&C's as well. Your posts have been reported as you don't have the required signature as an approved MSE company representative - from which I can only assume you didn't read the forum T&C's!