Mobile communications these days have ceased to be just a means of communication. Today, using a mobile phone, you can connect services, subscribe to magazines, confirm login to various Internet resources, and much more. Despite the huge profits of mobile operators, they often use tricks and, taking advantage of the subscriber’s inexperience, connect various services automatically. Wondering why funds are disappearing from their accounts, subscribers call operators to clarify this phenomenon. They receive a response that some kind of subscription is attached to the number. What kind of automatic subscription 9855 does the Beeline operator have, and why it was connected without the user’s knowledge, you will learn from this article.
Mobile subscription to number 9855
If it happened that money began to be debited from the account regularly, daily and in equal amounts, and the owner of the phone, it would seem, did nothing specifically for this, most likely a paid mobile subscription was issued to his number - read what this is below
Its essence is that the cellular user has somehow agreed to receive regular information for a fee, for example, you received an SMS on your phone from the above number with the text: “send SMS...”. At the same time, information such as: what kind of service, what kind of subscription, what kind of website, the cost of the subscription, how to delete a subscription or how to disable it is often not directly shown.
Someone, a partner of your operator, called a content provider in professional slang, supplies you with content for a fee:
- provides information
- provides a service by providing access to an online game, website, program, etc.
The operator finds himself on the sidelines, as he publicly warns on his website that yes, there is paid content, that it is provided by third-party organizations to which the operator itself has no connection.
No, except that he debits money from the subscriber’s account and he also provides the short number to the content provider.
In most cases, the short four-digit number 9855 is rented out by the mobile operator (Megafon, MTS, Beeline, Tele2), receiving a fee for it, and, as a rule, a percentage of the amounts paid by the owner of the phone in favor of the provider.
How subscriptions work
In most cases, offers are sent to the subscriber’s phone without operator participation. The subscriber receives a message from number 4867, informing them about subscription and payment for content. For example, you needed to download an application on your PC. Some sites offer anti-bot verification to verify the user's identity. You are required to enter a number. After the phone number is entered into the system, you receive a message in response to which you need to send a number or code. This is how a subscription is made. Basically, this is an advertising or entertainment mailing.
You can disable payment for content from number 4867 through the subscriber’s electronic personal account:
- go to your personal account;
- on the page in the upper right corner you can view all traffic consumption;
- go to the “Information and Entertainment” menu;
- You can get rid of annoying offers by switching the slider.
Another option is to text STOP to 4867.
Who gets your money
So, it is clear that the user is the loser. In this case, where does the river of benefit flow, i.e. User money? – stated above in general terms. And this, of course, is a simplification that there are only two beneficiaries; in fact, the schemes are many times more complex.
They contain so-called aggregators - wholesale purchasers of short numbers and holders of mutual settlement schemes with telecom operators. The already mentioned content providers are grouped around the aggregators, who own sites where the sale of services is organized and partners who collect and provide the entire scheme with traffic. The setup of this entire cycle of withdrawing subscriber money is being adjusted in such a way that telecom operators, as the last link to the user and payer, remain not guilty from the point of view of the law in most cases when claims are made.
Are there useful paid subscriptions?
Paid subscriptions are not always a universal evil. In most cases, money is written off for all sorts of nonsense such as horoscopes, weather forecasts, quizzes, exchange rates and advertising. But, as one avid gamer told me, he receives SMS messages at any time of the day or night about various events or promotions in the game. And for this pleasure it costs him 150 rubles a month. Well, if you like to cheer yourself up with a funny joke in the morning and you don’t save money too much, you can also connect a paid service for their mailings. You can issue a content ban from Beeline.
legislation
Is there any basis for such claims, strictly speaking? After all, at some point the user voluntarily performed some action that ensured his place as a victim in the chain (relative to the short number 9855). This is precisely the position that telecom operators adhere to when a subscriber, outraged by the loss of money, begins to search for the truth.
The answer is yes, there is
And this is called the federal law of July 23, 2013 N 229-FZ “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Communications”.
In it, Article 2 of the Basic Law is supplemented with subclause 34.1, which defines what “content services” are.
The legislator made this definition as general as possible, practically fitting into it everything that is not the actual connection. Those. if the user using the phone and through the telecom operator’s channels receives, quote,
...reference, entertainment and (or) other additionally paid information...", gets the opportunity "... to participate in voting, games, competitions and similar events...,
Then he, the user, receives a content service. And it, in turn, being provided with the participation of third parties, falls under the addition of paragraph 5 of Article 44 of the Federal Law “On Communications”, which prescribes a mechanism for protecting the consumer by:
- firstly, the possibility of creating, at his request, a separate account to pay only for content services;
- secondly, the requirement to obtain explicit consent to receive such services;
- thirdly, about comprehensive information, including prices and names of suppliers, about these services before obtaining consent.
Another addition, established by 229-FZ, to paragraph 5 of Article 54 of the Basic Law, states that services provided in violation of any of the above are not subject to payment. And finally, Article 68 of the main communications law is supplemented by paragraph 8, which directly indicates the operator’s responsibility for the implementation of Article 44 (see above).
Let’s summarize the legislative information, projecting the rights and responsibilities spelled out in it onto the practical side of life.
If the user consciously wants to become a consumer of content services, then you can secure your account for paying for communications by declaring your intention to open a separate content account to cover the costs of mobile subscriptions and SMS from short numbers. If it is exhausted, funds intended for regular conversations and SMS will not be affected.
For telecom operators Beeline and TELE2, this action is automated and is carried out by sending a USSD request, *110*5062# and *160#, respectively. Sets of commands are also provided for replenishment and checking the balance.
Megafon and MTS require a personal appearance at the office and presentation of a passport, and one must understand that regardless of the method of expression of will, the very fact of opening an account confirms voluntary consent to receive content services, and strictly speaking makes it unnecessary to inform about the details (in including price) of the same mobile subscription.
How VimpelCom fights paid subscriptions from third-party resources
Of course, the main initiator of imposing paid content is the operator himself, but in 2014 he began an active fight against third-party sites and took the following steps:
- Banned the use of paid content on tablets and modems.
- He introduced requirements for the design of subscription buttons, in which he asked not to mask them, to indicate the cost and to write information in clear letters.
- Sending messages with confirmations and debiting money from the balance began to work.
- On tariffs for children and pensioners, a ban on paid subscriptions was included.
- Introduced a system of fines for content providers, the funds received from which were distributed among subscribers.
- I identified and neutralized providers who were too “abusive” in sending content.
- Released a free antivirus to protect against virus spam.
As a result, users had to completely protect themselves from the possibility of accidentally purchasing paid content, but, unfortunately, not everything went as smoothly as VimpelCom specialists described. Therefore, ways to unsubscribe from mailings will come in handy
How to get money back from number 9855
If it does happen that an inexplicable loss of money from a mobile account is discovered, you need to try to remember if you received any annoying SMS message from the number 9855, for example, with an offer to find out the most accurate weather forecast or check your watch with the London Observatory?
Wasn't the answer "yes" sent to him?
Or maybe, in the heat of Internet surfing, a phone number was entered to obtain a registration code on some little-known but attractive resource?
Services for checking the availability of paid services on the number 9855
In order not to speculate, you need to use the service (and every operator has one) to inform you about the availability of paid services tied to your number, including subscriptions to the number 9855
The most informative is access through the web interface of your personal account, and in the absence of the Internet or the desire to use it, the good old USSD request will help.
Megafon - *583#, Beeline - *110*09#, MTS will inform you about this by command *111*919#, TELE2 - *189#
If the acquired knowledge shows that there are subscriptions, and money is quickly debited from the account because of this, you should not hesitate. Using the same tools, you need to disable the subscription, and the debiting of money will stop.
This is done using your personal account and personal assistance services by calling the support service. The USSD commands indicated here will also allow you to select the desired command - “disable”.
Also, a quick cure for a paid subscription, when the user receives an SMS about activating this service, will be a response message consisting of the word stop (or STOP).
Refund of spent funds
Losing money on an unnecessary paid subscription, by accident, through negligence or ignorance, and even more so due to someone’s selfish intent, will certainly prompt the restoration of justice. I want to get back what I lost because of number 9855, but that’s the difficulty. As already mentioned, from the point of view of the operator, namely, we pay him, and it is to him we will go with a claim, the user himself, voluntarily, even if not consciously, but voluntarily committed actions that led to the activation of a paid subscription, and, as a result, to write off funds.
Therefore, they are unlikely to return the money voluntarily, without a fight. And in view of the fact that the burden of proving compliance or non-compliance with the same Federal Law No. 229 lies on the party making a claim for the loss incurred, you need to understand what can be stated as evidence. It’s unlikely that any of us keep print screens of every manipulation with the phone, and it’s unlikely that the warning about the paid service is difficult to read because it’s printed in gray font on an even grayer background will serve as a weighty argument.
What has been said, of course, does not mean that there is no need to try, it is absolutely necessary, and the Internet is replete with stories about successful disputes. Sometimes, in order to avoid image losses, in mass cases when the problem of paid subscriptions becomes public knowledge and is discussed on social networks, operators meet halfway and restore the status quo of the wallets of their subscribers who suffered from their ignorance and inattention.
Knowledge is never superfluous, this is an axiom, and this also applies to the security of your own money. Having an idea about the structure of paid subscriptions, including to the number 9855, about working short SMS numbers for someone else’s benefit, it is easier to navigate, easier to avoid mistakes, and more likely to not regret the lost money and time. We will be careful when pressing buttons, entering our data and phone numbers, and, for sure, there will be a few fewer disappointments in life associated with mobile communications.
Ways to disable subscriptions
Beeline offers 4 options for how to disable a subscription that you do not need:
- Using the USSD command * 110*# call key. A few seconds after the client sends a request, an SMS notification is sent to the phone, which lists all paid services and commands on how to disable subscriptions.
- Through an electronic personal account, in which you first need to register.
- Call the operator at 0611, the answering machine will help you find the answer to your question, but if there are still gaps in understanding, or your question is not in the system, after a short wait an operator will connect to you and help you resolve the issue by sending a message to your phone with clear step-by-step instructions.
- You can get advice on subscription issues at your nearest office. The center's specialists will help you remove mailings if you cannot do this yourself.
What other subscriptions should you disable?
None of the provider's existing subscriptions provide exclusive access. All the information they offer can be found on the Internet at any time. The content located on the websites of content providers is also not unique and is usually freely available. Therefore, all paid and free subscriptions that the operator or its partners may offer are subject to deactivation.
Beeline does not always provide useful services and options. For example, paid subscriptions from partners can significantly affect the user's account, although they do not provide any value. This also applies to the content they offer. Therefore, disabling all paid options of the operator’s partners will save money and get rid of intrusive, but completely meaningless information.
0 0 Votes
Article rating
