My cell phone bill was unusually large. I went online to look at my bill and found $59.99 worth of premium text messages. I have 5 lines and they only appeared on 1 of the lines; my 75 year old mother. The text messages were for text dating, hip hop screen savers, horoscopes, etc.
I called Verizon customer service and the young lady was very helpful. She told me that she didn't know for sure how they were able to get only my mothers number except that she probably gave her number out online. I was skeptical about that but went on.
She was able to unsubscribe to all of the messages, refunded me $149 for all but 1 charge over a three month period and put a block on our phones. Today, we are unable to send picture messages to each other. We can still text, just not photos. I uploaded a photo to facebook, so that function still works.
I talked to my children when I got home about putting their numbers on the internet. They all said that they had NEVER put their number online. They knew better. But they receive these messages anyway. They just delete them instead of opening them, so we haven't been charged for them. I also received the messages and deleted them instead of opening them and I can assure you that I have never put my number online. Even my mother insists that she has never given her number out online. I am inclined to believe her on this one.
I am investigating the numbers Verizon gave me for the companies that all appear to be from the same online company, just different phone number. I have a hard time believing that Verizon doesn't receive any of the proceeds of these number, but cannot prove that. The phone numbers so far are not answering. This may be something that needs to happen legislatively.
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