14 DAY TRIAL // We’re happy to report that two companies have been fined by PhonepayPlus, UK’s premium rate phone-paid services regulator, for running Facebooks scams. mBill Pty of Australia and Amazecell Limited from Israel have been ordered to pay a total of £450,000 ($720,000 or 557,000 EUR).
PhonepayPlus found that the companies tricked customers into signing up for paid mobile services by offering them the chance to win gift cards for major retailers such as Tesco and Asda, Sophos’ Graham Cluley reports.
There was nothing special about these scams, but the fraudsters did manage to trick close to 90,000 individuals into signing up.
Victims were told to Share the free gift card advertisements on their Facebook profiles, comment on the shady posts, and then, enter their mobile phone number to participate in a survey. What they didn’t know was that all the SMSs they received actually inflated their bills.
For instance, Amazecell charged users with £5 ($8 or 6 EUR) for each message they received.
Since such scams are still doing the rounds on Facebook and other social media websites, I advise you to be extra cautious when presented with such offers. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.