sms via icq with the new mobile companies

[Nadav Har'El]

On Sun, Aug 05, 2012, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote about "Re: sms via icq with the new mobile companies":
> So not only check your bill carefully, but before you start sending
> lots of free SMSs, make sure it does not cost you to receive them.

In Israel, you *do not* pay for incoming SMSs - it is the sender that
pays for them.

What can happen, however - is *fraud*: The cellular providers in Israel
invented the trick of SMS "services", where you subscribe to some service
(e.g., get a summary of the news once every day) and you pay for this
service however much the service provider decides - often you pay per
(incoming) SMS. The problem is that much (if not 99%) of this concept is
used not for legitimate services, but for fraud. E.g., you may find
yourself unintentionally subscribed to a "service" that sends you random
messages, or (in your case) messages sent over the web seemingly for
free, and then bill you for 0.5 shekels, or even 50 shekels if they
wish, for each such SMS. Nobody (especially not the cellular providers,
who make a nice commission from the fraud) cares if you were never told
that this service costs you money.

It is unbelievable that several years after this fraud technique became
popular, the ministry of communication hasn't closed this loophole.
The closest they have come to doing so was to force the cellular
providers to let you tell them that you don't want "SMS services" (not
the normal SMSs, just the paid services) and you can no longer be
defrauded in this manner.


-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |           Monday, Aug 6 2012, 18 Av 5772
nyh at math.technion.ac.il             |-----------------------------------------
Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |Warning: Dates on the calendar are closer
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |than they appear.