Weird 1-2-call Sim/top-up Card Problem

[nrvs]

Yesterday I purchased an old secondhand Nokia phone at MBK for use on my holiday. The shop assistant activated a 1-2-Call SIM and we tested it before I left the stall. No problems. An hour later I was bored on the bus, so I checked the balance (*121#). I discovered that I had 0 baht left. 15 baht came with the SIM, so I don't know what happened.

Still, I didn't think much of it, and bought a 100 baht top-up card at 7-11 last night. I successfully added 100 baht (*121# showed 100 baht). But this morning I got a SMS that my balance was running low. I checked and saw that I only had 35.80 baht remaining! During this time I hadn't made any calls or sent any texts at all. Even if I mistakenly made a call, it wouldn't cost 64.2 baht. Almost immediately afterwards, I got another SMS: "Thanks for using iMangoWeb service. Please use GPRS-Internet for optimal browsing speed. Click Cancel in My-Account section of iMango to unsubscribe." This is ridiculous because this Nokia doesn't have web-browsing capability -- it doesn't even have a color LCD!

So...<deleted>? Can someone explain what's going on here? How I can avoid having it happen again?

Thanks in advance,

Mark

[H2oDunc]

Call 112 and speak ot the call centre.They will un subscribe you from whatever you have signed up to no problem.

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

You will need to get in touch with the iMango people a.s.a.p. or they will keep sucking your money! I have been there, in fact still am. Loooooong time ago i used one of their apps (iMango Web... something) because back then it was able to let me check Hotmail on a mobile phone. It changed from "free" to "fee" without notice, but after it deducted 100 Baht (!) from me for the second time i simply stopped using it, still it kept sending me messages "iMango Web Portal renewal", looking like an innocent SMS message however if you push the wrong button (you got "connect" and "cancel") it will once again renew the service and start charging you!

The thing is, this application installs in the phone, so even if you change SIM cards (as i did!) it almost immediately started terrorizing me on the new number as well!

So quite likely your "old Nokia" (which got to come right out of the stone age to be web-un-enabled!) had this app installed and now you are already trapped.

Check in the phone's features/applications list for anything called "iMango" and unisntall or delete it.

Then try to get a response off this e-mail: [email protected] where you will have to provide your current phone number AND phone's IMEI number (you get it by pressing *#06#) and *hopefully* they take you off the system.

If not - have the phone "flashed" (all software incl. operating system reinstalled, like a "format" but a deep one, this is done everywhere in MBK and cost between 100 to 250 Baht depending on phone model) and get yet another, virgin, 1-2-Call SIM.

I hope i could help you....

Regards

Thanh

[nrvs]

Thanks for the helpful responses, both of you.

I think I understand what's going on now. How annoying! The last thing I want to do is go back to MBK to fix it, because I hope to leave Bangkok tomorrow. Can this hard reset be done at typical mobile phone shops elsewhere in Thailand?

I just emailed iMangoWhatever and I will call 1-2-Call later to see if they can unsubscribe me. I couldn't find any applications list in my phone. It's very old -- an o.g. Nokia 3315 straight out of 2000.

Mark

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

Now if this truly is a Nokia 3315 then it really IS web-un-enabled, and i'd wonder how such phone can be in touch with iMango. Leaves only one possibility, also noy unheard of (and experienced by myself)... that in fact your "new" 1-2-Call wasn't all that new but "pre-tested".

I myself have TWICE gotten pre-paid SIM cards supposedly "new" but strangely already activated, receiving calls from strange people and, worse, having the "your account is expired" message after only a couple of days! It's the sales people in those phone-repair-shops, they just take any SIM to test a phone they just fixed, maybe talk to they mother-in-law for a few minutes and check the latest ringtones from wap portals such as (!) iMango.... then top up the credit to the required 50 or 100 or whatever Baht and sell Joe Customer the SIM as "new". And Joe Customer will wonder why he gets weird SMS messages, has a new ringtone every couple of days (along with 25 Baht missing from his credit) and why Mrs. Anuphong from Surin insists on reaching "Lek" on this number. Or, like me, having to top-up the account, which has 100 Baht in it, the second day of use because otherwise it would expire (and fending of a couple of girls who look for one guy i never heard of, and try to convince TRUE that i REALLY didn't apply for their "color ring" service which keeps trying to charge me 50 Baht, the only way to prevent it from happening is to keep the balance below that amount!)

Maybe it'd be best for you to simply make one long call top someone to "empty" that SIM and then get a new one, at 7-Eleven or some other place that doesn't fix phones, too..... since you only got it since yesterday not many people will know your number, and those you can give the new one quickly

Rest assured, a Nokia 3315 can NOT get in touch with iMango, it doesn't even have CSD It must be the SIM.

Kind regards.....

your Thanh