If you live in Russia, most likely you have a SIM card in your smartphone from one of the Big Four operators.
You know exactly how much money you need to deposit into your account every month to stay in touch and are not particularly interested in additional options.
It is quite possible that you regularly pay for some completely unnecessary service, such as a cheerful melody instead of beeps. You may not even know that it exists: after all, you don’t call yourself.
The cost of replacing beeps with a song starts from 49.9 rubles. per month from MTS. Beeline, Tele2 and Megafon are more cunning; they debit 3-5 rubles from the subscriber’s account every day for using this service.
The amount is small, but at the end of the month you wonder: where did 150 rubles go?
Each operator has paid services to honestly take money from subscribers.
Typically, such a service is activated at the operator’s initiative for free. But after 7-10 days, when you have already forgotten about it, it begins to eat up money from your mobile account. And you can have a dozen such “useful” services, from daily stupid horoscopes to “anecdote of the day” that come to you via SMS (this is in the 21st century!).
Here's how to check what you have connected there and immediately disable all unnecessary services:
If you have a Megafon
How to check and disable active services : all information about them is displayed in your personal account on the Megafon website, or in the mobile application, which can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play.
In your personal account, you should select the “Services and Options” item, and then see whether among them there is something you don’t need or not.
How to protect yourself from connecting to services : you need to go to any Megafon office with your passport and demand to connect a special content account to your SIM card.
This is a separate personal account for paying for entertainment services, from which money should be debited for all sorts of “melodies instead of beeps” and other rubbish. If there is no money in this account, Megafon will not be able to connect you to any unnecessary service.
Of course, you will never replenish this account.
How to complain and request a refund : If you think that the service was activated without your knowledge, you need to call Megafon support at number 8 and dictate a complaint requesting a refund of the money written off.
It happens that the operator meets halfway and returns the written off amount.
How to get my money back?
Where can I go to get back the money that was debited from my phone balance for paid useless subscriptions?
A refund is possible only if the subscriber did not subscribe to additional paid services independently, and the use of the service itself was not noted.
Claim procedure
Call technical support
Before writing a claim, you need to call Megafon technical support at 0555 or toll-free number 8-800-550-05-00. Explain everything and demand that the money be returned.
The organization itself is the first instance of appeal; if there is no response or a refusal is received, then you can complain to the supervisory authorities:
- Rospotrebnadzor.
- Roskomnadzor.
- Prosecutor's office.
Letter to company email
The letter can be sent on the official Megafon website:
- To do this, you need to log on to the official website of Megafon and indicate your region.
- At the bottom there is a line “Contact Megafon”. If you click on this line, “Write a letter” appears.
- Next, you describe the situation in free form, preferably without any emotional overtones, with a request for a refund.
- When finished, click “Submit”.
Application for refund
It is also possible to visit the organization in person and write a claim directly in the office.
The claim is written in free form, without a template, in 2 copies. One copy remains in the office, and on the second, an office official notes that the claim has been accepted.
Follow the following structure:
- In the upper right corner of the sheet, as in all documents, the header of the application is written, which contains the name of the Megafon department where it will be sent, the applicant’s full name and his telephone number and address.
- The claim is in the middle of the page.
- Next comes a detailed description of the problem, with a request to resolve it peacefully in favor of the client. It would be a plus if the text of the complaint refers to the articles of the laws being violated.
- After everything is signed and dated below.
We do not recommend completing the documents yourself. Save time - contact our lawyers by phone:
8 (800) 350-14-90
Claim consideration period
Claims are considered in accordance with the established legal procedure, Art. 55 Federal Law “On Communications”. The claim must be registered by the operator within one business day. The telecom operator must review within 30 days. After reviewing it, the subscriber must be informed of the results. Information is sent in writing or as an electronic document.
If you have MTS
How to check and disable active services : you need to go to the special “My Content” page, logging in using the password from your MTS personal account.
It is possible to view all connected services in the mobile application, which must be downloaded to your smartphone from the App Store or Google Play.
If you don’t want to bother with your personal account, you can check the list of connected services via a USSD request. Dial *152*2# , press call and follow the prompts on the screen.
How to protect yourself from connecting to services : like Megafon, MTS has a separate personal account for paying for entertainment (unnecessary) services. To connect it to your number and never top it up, you need to go to the MTS office with your passport.
You can also simply connect . It makes it impossible to send and receive SMS to short 4-digit numbers. To activate this service, call from your mobile number 0890.
How to complain and request a refund of written-off money : call the short number 0890 and leave a complaint with a request to return the written-off money. You wait, because everything is at the will of the operator.
Features and description of the service
is a guarantee of no leakage of funds from the account in an unknown direction.
You can enable an unnecessary option in one motion - accidentally send an SMS or visit third-party services, and you are already a client of additional services.
There are several ways to connect additional functions:
- Self-activation - the subscriber sends an SMS to a short number, dials a command and connects the necessary options. News portals, exchange rates, horoscope and more.
- Automatic connection - occurs in cases where the service was provided free of charge in test mode. After the month has passed, money is debited from the subscriber's account.
- Random connection - usually happens when visiting some sites that automatically connect to the service.
In order to avoid unpleasant surprises in the future in the form of leakage of funds from a mobile phone, it is recommended to set a ban on paid subscriptions by first deactivating all unnecessary options.
If you have Beeline
How to check and disable active services : go to your personal account, then the “Profile” tab, scroll down to “My infotainment services”, click on this item and see what you have connected.
You can also use the mobile application. Download it from the App Store or Google Play, open the “Tariffs and Options” section, scroll down to the “Services” section.
How to protect yourself from connecting to services : the most reliable way is to connect a content account. There is no need to go anywhere, just call 07226 or dial *110*5062# on your smartphone.
How to complain and request a refund of written-off money : if something was connected and regularly consumed money, call 0611 , complain and demand a refund.
How Megafon burned out on mobile subscriptions
Discussion of cellular operators in Telegram tg.guru/opsosru For a long time, stories about paid mobile subscriptions on IoT devices have been circulating like not funny jokes.
From Pikabu
Everyone understands that these subscriptions cannot be done without the actions of mobile operators. But cellular operators stubbornly claim that these subscribers are suckers:
original
For many years, I have never caught this infection and even thought that people get this because of their computer illiteracy. But I was wrong...
Recently, having shared the Internet from Megafon, I sat and quietly worked at the computer until a redirect occurred when I clicked on the next link in Google
and this window opened for me
Of course, I was overcome by professional interest.
I immediately realized that this was it!
The same thing that they write about so often and now they will try to scam me out of money. Small gray window text
The site presents materials in the following categories: audio jokes, videos, pictures, music, congratulations, useful articles, recipes, tips, interpretation of surnames, quotes and aphorisms, weather forecast. But it doesn't say anything about paid subscriptions...
Since I have 0 rubles in my account on this phone and don’t have any “Trust Credits,” I clicked the “Continue” button.
There was a redirect to another page. The design is very similar to the first one
An ordinary person will not pay attention to this and will think that the contents remain the same. But the gray, barely visible text is completely different:
By clicking on the “Continue” button you confirm your agreement with the connection to the vsewap.ru subscription and the Subscription Terms. Subscription cost 35.0 rub. including VAT for 1 day. Payment is made from the main account. The service is provided by Content Provider LLC Informpartner.
I continue the experiment and click “Continue”. And an SMS arrives...
Subscription completed!
Of course, I immediately turned it off. As most people think in such cases, I probably have a virus on my computer and it redirected me to the content provider’s website.
But in this case, it is Megafon that makes the redirect using the same technology that will redirect you in case of any Internet restrictions or uses wap-click. Unfortunately, I can’t say more precisely.
Corporate users also encounter such redirects:
I’m looking for a place where “legs” grow:
I check who owns the domain, the site on which wants to scam me:
How unexpected! The domain belongs to Megafon! And it’s such a coincidence that the web server IP also belongs to Megafon
nslookup truvpro.ru Name: truvpro.ru Address: 31.173.34.227 Name: truvpro.ru Address: 31.173.34.226 inetnum: 31.173.32.0 — 31.173.39.255 netname: MF-MOSCOW-BBA-POOL-31-173-32 descr: Moscow Branch of OJSC MegaFon role: Moscow Branch of PJSC
MegaFon Internet Center
It can be assumed that one of Megafon’s clients is engaged in fraud and is simply setting up an honest operator.
We are verifying a website that allows you to manage subscriptions of all content providers known to Megafon moy-m-portal.ru
He also belongs to the megaphone
whois moy-m-portal.ru % By submitting a query to RIPN's Whois Service % you agree to abide by the following terms of use: % www.ripn.net/about/servpol.html#3.2 (in Russian) % www. ripn.net/about/en/servpol.html#3.2 (in English). domain: MOY-M-PORTAL.RU nserver: ns1.misp.ru. nserver: ns2.misp.ru. state: REGISTERED, DELEGATED, VERIFIED org: North-West Branch of PJSC "MegaFon" registrar: RU-CENTER-RU admin-contact: www.nic.ru/whois created: 2016-04-07T15:00:38Z paid-till : 2020-04-07T15:00:38Z free-date: 2020-05-08 source: TCI
Last updated on 2019-04-18T11:31:32Z
And it is also located on the same IP as the scam site!
nslookup moy-m-portal.ru Name: moy-m-portal.ru Address: 31.173.34.227 Name: moy-m-portal.ru Address: 31.173.34.226
Suppose that the operator uses a Citrix Netscaler class balancer, which, for example, substitutes the subscriber ID to identify him.
Let's see what other domains were spotted at these addresses: dnslytics.com/reverse-ip/31.173.34.226 dnslytics.com/reverse-ip/31.173.34.227
And there are only 19 of them!
arusav.ru dmvasor.ru mfprovas.ru moy-m-portal.ru mvpvas.ru podpiskimf.ru ppmprop.ru pravvopros.ru promfvas.ru propodpiski.ru propodpiskimf.ru proprovas.ru ropovasru.ru savorpm.ru truvpro.ru vasmfpro .ru vasmpro.ru vaspromf.ru vasprovp.ru
Something is too liquid for expensive equipment...
Most were registered in March 2021 (“created: 2019-03-20”)
When you access any of them, Google Chrome reports that your money may be stolen:
That is, all domains belonging to Megafon have been detected as fraudulent
actions with paid subscriptions!
And we remember well that according to Russian law (the situation with the creator of Kate Mobile), the owner of the IP bears responsibility for actions performed from a specific IP. And then the domain owner also matches...
I decided to look at the sites that Megafon subscribes to (from the list posted here: moy-m-portal.ru). Of course, not all, but with the blessing of the great Random.
Sites that caught my eye
zvoook.com
Creation Date: 2019-02-18T07:32:00Z Registrant Name: Protection of Private Person Registrar: Registrar of domain names REG.RU LLC
yottupe.com
Creation Date: 2019-04-08T17: 47:46Z Registrant Name: Protection of Private Person registrar: REGRU-RU
futod.space
Creation Date: 2019-03-26T23:01:18.0Z Registrant Organization: Privacy Protection registrar: REGRU-RU
vkusnopoedim.com
Creation Date: 2019-03-21T11:52:58Z Registrar: Registrar of domain names REG.RU LLC Registrant Name: Protection of Private Person
zavcev.com
Creation Date: 2019-02-18T10:33:48Z Registrar: Registrar of domain names REG.RU LLC Registrant Name: Protection of Private Person
MUSICA-YONTUBE.COM
Creation Date: 2019-03-11T12:41:40Z Registrar: REGISTRAR OF DOMAIN NAMES REG.RU LLC
files-zilla.com
Creation Date: 2019-02-18T10:33:14Z Registrar: Registrar of domain names REG.RU LLC Registrant Name: Protection of Private Person
Total:
- All of them are registered with the registrar REG.RU
- The owner organization is hidden for everyone
- They are all fresh. More precisely, new ones appear with enviable regularity. (you can even track the chronology).
On all sites, the footer has the same text as a template
The cost of access by subscription is 35 rubles including VAT per day for subscribers of MegaFon PJSC; for a one-time payment - 150 rubles (including VAT) for 30 days for subscribers of MegaFon PJSC; Subscription access is renewed automatically. To refuse to provide a Subscription to the service, send an SMS message with the word STOP<space>113 to number 5151 for subscribers of MegaFon PJSC. The message is free in your home region. Technical support service of Informpartner LLC (free call), e-mail
And the offer is the same everywhere vk-vid.com/site/offer
Well, it can’t be that hundreds of sites were created just for the sake of Megafon subscribers! What if a Beeline client wants to receive this content?..
Too many coincidences...
Recently, if a subscriber complains to technical support because he was charged money for a wrong subscription, then this money is returned to him.
So, if the money were transferred to left-wing content providers, then the mobile operator would not give money to the subscriber from its own pocket! Megafon is afraid that if mass complaints to law enforcement agencies begin, then sooner or later such actions will be classified under 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. And there will be no Infopartner LLC in this chain! It’s cheaper to shut up the outraged at the very beginning.
Installing all kinds of protection against subscriptions on Megafon does not help
IN
The comments also confirmed that Megafon is putting the brakes on the bans.
Thus, Megafon is not even trying to hide the fact that they are deceiving subscribers into signing up for expensive shitty content...
200,000 people will subscribe to the newsletter for 35 rubles. 100,000 will be outraged and they will return the money to their account. From the remaining 3.5 lyama per day to the company’s budget...
In this case, I studied the behavior of one telecom operator - Megafon. But, judging by the reviews, all operators in the Russian Federation do this (except for YotaRussia).
By going to a specialized hosting site for such sites, we will see as partners those whom we know and “love”
nslookup zvoook.com
Name: zvoook.com Address: 78.140.175.32 Name: zvoook.com Address: 78.140.175.19 nslookup 78.140.175.19
19.175.140.78.in-addr.arpa name = webwap.org.
It turns out that this is an organized criminal community engaged in fraud on an especially large scale?
PS: This article is aggregated from my two on Pikabu: One and Two.
If you have Tele2
How to check and disable active services : the entire list of active subscriptions and services is visible in your personal account on the website.
You can also download the mobile application from the App Store and Google Play, and in it find the “Manage Subscriptions” section.
How to protect yourself from connecting to services : go to the nearest Tele2 customer service office with your passport, write an application to open a separate account for entertainment services, and never top it up.
How to complain and request a refund of written-off money : if money has already been written off for an unnecessary service, call 611 , complain and ask for a refund. The decision is at the discretion of the operator.
How to disable additional features
The first task when you detect that money has been debited from your account in excess of the norm is to check for paid subscriptions. You can perform the operation in the following ways:
- via USSD request - to do this you need to dial *105# and press the call key. Then you need to follow the commands on the screen;
- through the mobile application on your smartphone “My Megafon” - you need to visit the “services” section and familiarize yourself with the options available on your number. There you can enable the “banning paid subscriptions” function;
- visit your personal account on the official Megafon resource;
- contact the operator and ask to activate the ban on paid subscriptions in the future.
The most effective way to stop unnecessary charges is to enable a ban on paid options. You can do this as follows:
- Create a separate personal account to pay for mobile services. The procedure is carried out in the operator’s office, it cannot be done over the phone or online, but after that you can calmly surf the Internet and not be afraid that one awkward move will enable you an unnecessary function, the presence of which you will not immediately find out about.
- Enable the “Stop content” option. This will make sending SMS and making calls to short numbers impossible. This way, your phone will be insured against unexpected debits.
In addition, you can deactivate paid subscriptions by sending an SMS with the word “STOP” to 5051.
Any Megafon subscriber can use the “Stop Content” function, regardless of the tariff plan. However, please note that the service operates exclusively on your home network; the service will not operate outside the region.
There is no charge for activating the ban on paid subscriptions; the service is absolutely free.
If you have Yota
But here there will be no instructions, because Yota does not have any hidden subscriptions, melodies instead of beeps and other pseudo-entertainment services.
Not at all, really. So you choose your own tariff with the required number of minutes, SMS and megabytes on their website and pay a strictly fixed amount every month.
For example, 20 gigs of mobile Internet per month cost 325 rubles . Add 50 minutes of calls and here you have a full tariff without any hidden charges for 377 rubles.
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21 votes, overall rating: 4.19 out of 5)
