Ericsson Telecommunications Sam Media Services Scam

I received my latest M1 handphone bill - to my greatest shock of my life.

Apart from the usual subscription charges, there was another charge of $42 imposed by this company 'Ericsson Telecommunications - Sam Media Services (Tel: 68808590)' for '7 access'.

I remembered Coco's handphone showing a $6 per week message from a strange-looking sms but did not take it seriously.

It read:

We hv ur online req. sms AA1 to 77877. You will receive 2 sms/wk at sgd6 each till you quit. Quit: sms AA1 stop to 77877 or call 688859.

I thought it did not and could not mean anything. For some reason, I misread the sms to be 'sms AA1 to stop' and I saw that Coco had smsed 'AA1'.

To play safe, I had asked Coco to ask William what the $6 smses were about.

Of course, I hit the roof when I saw the additional charges for 'Value Added Services'.

I read the sms again, and this time, I realised I had to add in the word 'stop' to terminate the service. I thought that's a dirty trick - to create very similar requesting and terminating passwords.

I called Ericsson Telecommunications and according to the customer service person on the line, she was the only person I could speak to and the charges could not be waived as the 'services' were provided and we were billed.

I asked for an email address to email my complaint to.

After that, I called M1 to get the company to waive the charges for selling to a minor or underaged. M1 said they could not get them to waive the full charges. The company was only willing to waive half of it.

I am shocked that things I have read on papers and watched on news have happened to me - child signs up for some devious service without parental consent and parent get the bill.

I have overestimated Coco's maturity when it comes to the internet and iPhone - oh, I have not mentioned that the aunts and I bought her an iPhone for her birthday in April.

Just in these few short months alone, I am starting to doubt if I had made a mistake in getting an iPhone for her.

Firstly, she misplaced the phone two weeks after she received it as a birthday gift. It sparked the adults looking all over just to hunt for her iPhone.

Now, I get a bill of $42 for last month for this stupid 'service'.

Coco said that she thought it would still be free even though it stated 'sgd 6' on the sms.

I have written to this fly-by-night company and have received nil response from them.

For this matter, my elder sister and I had a big row.

I felt that my elder sister had to take up part of the responsibility because she agreed when Coco complained to her that her friends found her iPhone boring. I did not buy any apps or games for her as I wanted her to use it as a handphone. And I did not want Coco to feel out of place in class or school - she had told me that 'the kids in my school either have iPhone or no phone. Nobody is using a Nokia phone like mine.'

It did not occur to me that I should let her have 'no phone'. I just thought that as long as I could afford it, I should try my best to make her feel at ease in the company of her peers. Peer pressure is real, though invisible. I could tell her,"Most people have it doesn't mean you must have it. Besides, not everybody has it." as what I do sometimes. But there is just so many times you can use that line. It loses its effectiveness when you overuse it. And children being children, do you think they don't know the underlying message beneath that line? "Your mother does not have the money. We are poor. Don't compare yourself to your classmates. They are beyond us." I don't want her to live with the notion that we are poor and thus inferior. Inferiority complex was something I had lived with for a big part of my life. I don't want that to happen to Coco.

Anyway, my elder sister downloaded some free games for Coco - which effectively distract her from her studies. And I felt that she had explored other avenues to spice up her phone and that is why I am receiving a bill of $42 today.

Of course, my sister would not agree with me. She said I ought to take full responsibility for it since I chose to buy an iPhone for her. It does not matter that I am equally new to iPhone.

In any case, we quarrelled over the issue.

I have grounded Coco's iPhone since. She uses a public phone to call me when she needs to contact me.

I told her until the matter was resolved, she would not get her iPhone back.

I googled for 'Ericsson Telecommunications' to realise that this fly-by-night company does not have any connection with Sony Ericsson. I googled for 'sam media' to find this:

http://www.sam-media.com/

Under the page 'About sam', it reads 'Sam Media was founded when several seasoned experts in the mobile content industry joined forces'.

Right. 'Joined forces' to cheat mobile phone users.

I saw that there were other users who had unsolicited 'services' provided to them and they were being billed without knowing what they were getting upon googling for 'Ericsson Telecommunications sam media services'.

This incident is a huge lesson for me for getting an iPhone for an underaged.