I think i have been scammed

[Deleted User]

Hi Guys I think i have just been scammed .
I received a message from a site called Secret Sales Codes thanking me for subscribing to
Secret Sales Codes for £4.40 per month from Motech untill i send stop to 60031 .
So i sent stop and duly got charged £4.50 .
I have no idea tow these jokers got my number and have no idea how i am supposed to have joined this farce the help line is 0203 6085243 but i thought this could be a premium rate no so did not call it .
I never used the site and would like my money back but i guess no chance of that .
Please be aware of this site.
Steve

TadleyBaggie

0203 6085243 appears to be just a regular London number. Looking here:

https://who-called.co.uk/Number/02036085243

you are not alone.

seashore22

Have they actually taken any money?

Did you go on their site?

Is this a charge via your phone company?

I haven't read the entire thread, but this may be of help:

https://who-called.co.uk/Number/02036085243

seashore22

Snap.

Maybe you could contact your phone company and they may refund you if it's a phone charge.

Johno100

Mr_Steve_Quinney wrote: »

I have no idea tow these jokers got my number and have no idea how i am supposed to have joined this farce

You didn't, that is the scam. They make you think you have signed up and make their money by you texting them back and getting charged £4.50 as you have found out.

seashore22

Johno100 wrote: »

You didn't, that is the scam. They make you think you have signed up and make their money by you texting them back and getting charged £4.50 as you have found out.

Agree with this. If you had ignored the initial text then I doubt that you would have been charged anything. These texts are sent to random numbers in the hope that someone will be silly enough (sorry) to reply. If you suspect that it's a scam it's probably best to not do anything they ask you to do, including text "stop".

AndyPix

I suspect this is more an error on the side of the companies system.


You should call the number and ask them whats going on, iv just called it and it is a legit number.


Scams such as this dont really happen these days because the organisations who lease these short codes to these companies are heavily regulated since the early 90's where it was possible to send an MT (Mobile terminated) premium rate text to someone !! That means they would recieve a text, and get charged for it - no user input required.


'Nowadays' all premium texts must be MO (Mobile originated) which means the user must first send a text to initiate the recieving of a premium charged text - like has happened here ..


The organisations that lease these codes are very careful that they check how they are going to be used and would be shut down and massively fined very quickly if they knowingly leased a number to a scammer.


As this shortcode has been running since 2012, and has a legitimate contact number, I suspect that something has gone wrong with the program that generates these initial texts.


Give them a call, let them know whats going on, they will likely refund.
If they dont, report the situation to OFCOM and they will be closed down very quickly