Paid subscriptions are a truly “magical” thing: they appear literally out of nowhere, and you can find out about their availability after the fact, when money starts being debited or some SMS of an informational or entertainment nature is received. What is the number 396 Tele2 from which the messages come? What service do these alerts belong to? Now we’ll tell you what’s what, be sure to continue reading!
Briefly on the topic of SMS from 396, what kind of number is this on Tele2: these are information messages from a paid service. You can disable it in the “Subscriptions” section of the mobile application or on the operator’s website. It is also possible to completely disable the “Themes” service by sending the USSD code *152*0#.
Mobile subscription to number 0396
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 0396 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.
What is the Tele2 number “396”
Also, Tele2 subscribers are often interested in the question of what kind of number this is - 396. After all, messages of various contents can come from it. The answer to this question is quite simple; this number is an information service regarding the horoscope. This, of course, may be a convenient service for some users, but when you find out that you have to pay 3 rubles daily for it, any desire to use such information disappears.
To disable horoscope information, you need to contact a call center operator, who will be happy to provide you with information on this service and help you deactivate it.
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.
How to send a beacon from Tele2
is known to subscribers of many mobile operators and has been in demand for many years. Its principle is simple - it is a message that is sent free of charge, provided that you do not have the means to make a call, but the conversation must be carried out right now. This beacon is reset to the smartphone of the subscriber from whom you want to wait for an incoming call.
For all subscribers of the cellular operator Tele2, the service is connected initially, and by default it is free.
Sending occurs as follows: open the phone book and enter *118*subscriber number#. In just a short moment, the person to whom the “beacon” was sent will receive a message notification that you have requested a call back, and if he has enough funds or time to call back, he will definitely contact you.
Please note that the service is free, but only conditionally. If you use up your quota of 50 such beacons per month, for each subsequent month you will have to pay 50 kopecks.
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 0396). 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 to disable
Just a few years ago, subscribers of this operator had only a USSD interface at their disposal to manage paid services (they sent a short command and received a list of possible actions with codes to perform them). But today we can use several methods. If you want to turn off “Topics” broadcasting altogether, then simply send the USSD command *152*0#. We think you will be interested in reading the article about what is the capacity of a Tele2 SIM card!
To selectively deactivate options:
- In the Tele2 mobile application menu, go to the “Tariffs and Services” section, scroll the screen to “All functions”, select the “Subscription Management” tab. Find “Horoscope” and turn it off.
- On the operator’s official website, find the “. Scroll the screen up and look for “Subscriptions”. Opposite “Horoscope” click “Disable”.
- We use the USSD code *545*0*528# to disable service 396 in Tele2.
Please note: Tele2 has a universal number *189#, which allows you to find out what paid resources / communication options you are subscribed to. And in the case of “Horoscope” it will help us. We send this request like any other USSD code, and in the response SMS we receive a list of subscriptions. Next to each of them there will be a code to disable it. Select the one you need and send. And if you are interested in finding out what numbers Tele2 starts with, read another article that we published earlier.
You will learn what to do if you receive SMS from number 5950 in our other article.
You can also watch our video in which we tell you how to disable paid subscriptions!
How to return money from number 0396
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 number 0396, 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 0396
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 0396
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 0396, 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 0396, about working short SMS numbers for someone else’s benefit, it is easier to navigate, it is easier to avoid mistakes, and there is a greater chance of not regretting 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.
What is this number
First, let's answer the question that interests us: incoming SMS from number 396 on Tele2, what kind of notification is this? And this, dear reader, is an information message from the one connected earlier. This service sends out daily, paid (3 rubles per day from the account) messages with horoscopes according to the signs of the zodiac. This option can be activated completely by accident, simply by studying the Tele2-menu application. We opened the program - clicked on different items - got into “Topics” and, out of curiosity, clicked on the “Horoscopes” section (when loading, by the way, the word “free” is displayed), waiting for another menu to open. But in reality, this “poke” means that you are subscribing to the service. In general, you should immediately receive a corresponding notification and, in theory, be aware that a paid service is connected. But situations are different, the notification may get lost among others, or maybe the child (if we are talking about a children’s mobile phone) can’t admit to pressing the buttons, but delete the SMS from number 396 on Tele2.
And this is an option for subscribers who do not need an Internet connection very often, but sometimes they need access urgently. The offer allows you to connect to the Internet for one day. The following conditions are offered:
- Fees are charged exclusively on days of Internet use;
- Traffic quota – 250 megabytes per day without speed limit;
- Any traffic in excess of the quota is limited in speed to 64 kb/s.
You can activate the service in two ways:
- In your personal account.
- USSD request *155*161#.
Disabling the service
All users of the Tele2 mobile operator need a clear understanding that absolutely all packages of mobile services and entertainment are paid. If you choose to use them, your account will be charged a fee. Among the free applications, only Tele2 Theme can be distinguished. This application is installed by default in the Tele2 menu. Thanks to it, you receive various information of an entertaining nature.
The Tele2 theme is a free service.
Other content packages include paid packages. This includes. The received SMS message must indicate the cost of the content.
If the Tele2-theme application is not installed in the smartphone menu, then confusion may occur, as a result of which it will be connected automatically. It is for this reason that in most cases subscribers receive SMS notifications from number 396.
It is quite obvious that this service is an addition to the previous option. This is an SMS notification to subscribers who made outgoing calls to your number while it was turned off. The received message will contain information that the subscriber is back in touch.
Although, there are also subscribers who, for some reason, do not benefit from other subscribers making incoming calls knowing that their phone has appeared on the network or has been turned on. For this purpose, the company has implemented the ability to disable this service. Everything is done very simply - using the USSD command ##002#.
How to restore Tele2 number
If it suddenly happens that you have lost your phone or accidentally damaged your SIM card, the Tele2 operator always offers its subscribers to restore their old number. After all, it is quite obvious that for most people their SIM card has long ceased to be just a piece of plastic.
If suddenly the card is lost, you must follow the following algorithm:
- Call 611 to complete the procedure for blocking your card (for this, the operator will ask you for your passport information);
- Contact the operator's service center to restore your number.
If suddenly the card was simply damaged, you can omit the first point, just go straight to the subscriber service center, where they will help you solve the problem.
