There is a nice little mobile scam going on

[Saan]

I was a victim to a mobile scam recently.

I had recently changed my sim card from 2g to 3g.

After the change over I thought the cost of my calls was a bit high as I was going through my credit quickly. But I shrugged and put it down to my usual paranoia, I don't make many calls but it was becoming obvious that something was wrong.

I rang 12Call and held on while they checked and the operator came back to tell me that 50 withdrawals had been made on my account, a prepaid one, by a third party. It told him I had not authorised any payments and as far as I was concerned it was theft. He then told me my account would be credited with the amount within 3 working days. The next day over 300 baht was credited to my account.

I imagine this scam could remain undetected if someone was a heavy user and only small amounts were taken each time as was the case with me.

It seems like a new version of the old skimming scam.

[shirtless]

No big surprises there, phone company scamming customers.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

[Trujillo]

How do you think this was perpetrated?

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On a similar note, I assume you are one of the many people who had budget, non-smart phones that we AIS customers were told would be "bricked" at a certain date because everything was going to be 3G and our phones would not support this (or the other way around, AIS was stopping support for 2G).

The deal was that you took your phone in and exchange it for one of 4 models, 1 basic and 3 slightly "smarter." The handsets were free, but you had to top up a certain amount -- for the basic handset it was 100 baht.

I went to the main beehive in Central Festival and went through all the paperwork, signing a paper that said I would not change to another service within the year (probably not legal, and almost certainly unenforceable). I got to the point where I was at a window and they took my phone and gave me the new cheapie model and I noticed that all my saved text messages were gone. I stopped right there, said I wanted my old phone back to take home and take all these down somehow (or else I would have lost them). They said okay, and dug in the box of old cheap phones, found mine and gave it back with the chip.

The end of the story? That was over 3 months ago and while I do occasionally get an auto text message from AIS in Thai saying I need to shift over to 3G, my phone works exactly as it did before.

I like my old phone. I am used to it. I am very glad I didn't get suckered into giving it up for nothing (except my promise on paper not to change carriers).

[Chicog]

How do you think this was perpetrated?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a similar note, I assume you are one of the many people who had budget, non-smart phones that we AIS customers were told would be "bricked" at a certain date because everything was going to be 3G and our phones would not support this (or the other way around, AIS was stopping support for 2G).

The deal was that you took your phone in and exchange it for one of 4 models, 1 basic and 3 slightly "smarter." The handsets were free, but you had to top up a certain amount -- for the basic handset it was 100 baht.

I went to the main beehive in Central Festival and went through all the paperwork, signing a paper that said I would not change to another service within the year (probably not legal, and almost certainly unenforceable). I got to the point where I was at a window and they took my phone and gave me the new cheapie model and I noticed that all my saved text messages were gone. I stopped right there, said I wanted my old phone back to take home and take all these down somehow (or else I would have lost them). They said okay, and dug in the box of old cheap phones, found mine and gave it back with the chip.

The end of the story? That was over 3 months ago and while I do occasionally get an auto text message from AIS in Thai saying I need to shift over to 3G, my phone works exactly as it did before.

I like my old phone. I am used to it. I am very glad I didn't get suckered into giving it up for nothing (except my promise on paper not to change carriers).

Don't wallow in your smugness for too long.

Thailand’s True Corp and Advanced Info Service (AIS) will be required to support their remaining 2G 1800MHz mobile customers for another six months after a previously issued 17 July deadline to ensure service continuity to consumers at their respective True Move and Digital Phone Co (DPC) 2G divisions, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has announced.

[Trujillo]

Yes, that would be July 17 of last year, which brought it up to January 17 of this year, which is what I am talking about.

Unless of course the representatives at AIS were bald-faced lying to me, two different ones said that this was "it," that there would be no support after this. As I said this was over 3 months ago.

[NanLaew]

To the OP; where did the old 2G SIM go? Was it surrendered at the time the 3G SIM was assigned as in Trujillo's case? If so, I guess seeing a unsecured box full of unlocked phones with network enabled and pre-charged SIM's may have been too tempting for some employees. Of course theft by employees is totally unique to Thailand isn't it?

Despite shirtless's comment alluding to rip-offs by mobile service providers being par for the course, note that the OP did have his money refunded in full, as promised.

[Saan]

To the OP; where did the old 2G SIM go? Was it surrendered at the time the 3G SIM was assigned as in Trujillo's case? If so, I guess seeing a unsecured box full of unlocked phones with network enabled and pre-charged SIM's may have been too tempting for some employees. Of course theft by employees is totally unique to Thailand isn't it?

Despite shirtless's comment alluding to rip-offs by mobile service providers being par for the course, note that the OP did have his money refunded in full, as promised.

No, they gave me back my old sim card.

I do not think 12Call were party to the scam.

I think it was some virus malware, whatever that caused the problem.

I posted to alert others who think they might be paying more than they should to check with their providers.

[bamukloy]

This is probably a silly question but has the phone been in anyone elses hands?

Gf's or someone otherwise 'helping' to investigate the problem?

Also sometimes if you mistakenly subscribe to one of those silly subscriptions they will draw anything up to 50 baht a day.

Once i took what sounded like a daily special/promotion for cheap internet for 24 hours but found out later they had bumped me onto a different, more expensive plan without any disclosure.

These companies...worldwide.. take on the most sleasiest tactics imaginable to draw extra $ from customers.

I consider this industry no.2 on the worst scumbags after insurance companies

western companies do this all the time and its always non refundable and say your locked in to get ripped off for x amount if time.

At least with the Thai model, it is usually rectified quite quickly and without grief

[Saan]

This is probably a silly question but has the phone been in anyone elses hands?

Gf's or someone otherwise 'helping' to investigate the problem?

Also sometimes if you mistakenly subscribe to one of those silly subscriptions they will draw anything up to 50 baht a day.

Once i took what sounded like a daily special/promotion for cheap internet for 24 hours but found out later they had bumped me onto a different, more expensive plan without any disclosure.

These companies...worldwide.. take on the most sleasiest tactics imaginable to draw extra $ from customers.

I consider this industry no.2 on the worst scumbags after insurance companies

western companies do this all the time and its always non refundable and say your locked in to get ripped off for x amount if time.

At least with the Thai model, it is usually rectified quite quickly and without grief

No one has access to the phone.

I must add that 12Call stopped the problem instantly and refunded the lost credit very quickly.

[KhonKaenKowboy]

I bought 100 in credit, got a free phone, and everything has been fine. I can access my info online with the ID number in my yellow book. Passport number works at the Sinet site.

[WorkingTourist]

Also sometimes if you mistakenly subscribe to one of those silly subscriptions they will draw anything up to 50 baht a day.

Mistakenly?

Someone I know was subscribed to some news service that drained her balance, I went with her to AIS to get it cancelled.

At the time, data was not enabled on her phone, and her SMS history did not show that she had sent any SMS to subscribe to this service.

Nonetheless the AIS clerk claimed she had subscribed (despite inability to explain how she could have done it) but would look into a refund, which she never got.

Another girl I know was subscribed to some “wait music” when people called her (also 12Call), and I’ve heard a few complain that 12Call are sly (kii-gong) when they check their balance, because it’s lower than what they would have expected — of course that could just be their faulty memory.

[dingdongrb]

I had my previous 2G phone for over 5 years and had no issues as I only used it to make/receive calls.

I kept hearing about how 2G was going away and I didn't want to be without service or lose my current number.

So about a month ago I went to the AIS office and asked when 2G was going to be obsolete. They really couldn't give me a straight answer but said that they currently had a promotion going on where I could trade my 2G phone in for a new 3/4G phone and sent me to a booth where the promo was occurring. Arriving there I found out that nobody could speak English. I speak some Thai but not enough to know what I was getting myself into so I left.

I went to a phone store and bought myself a new Samsung 4G Smartphone. This new phone uses a micro-SIM whereas my older phone used a standard SIM. I went back to the AIS office and they took my old SIM and moved all my info (contacts, etc.) from my old SIM onto a micro and low and behold everything seemed normal and I still had my existing number.

Now a week or so passed and I noticed that my top up amount (I usually buy a 300 Baht pre-paid top up that generally lasts me a month or two) was slowly decreasing by 10-30 Baht every now and then.

Not having a Smartphone before I found that I needed to change a setting 'Background Data Restricted' to on. That setting would connect me to the Internet via AIS service when I was outside my WiFi range..... So now with that setting disabled I don't get skimmed for a few Baht every now and then.... :-)

[WorkingTourist]

Not having a Smartphone before I found that I needed to change a setting 'Background Data Restricted' to on. That setting would connect me to the Internet via AIS service when I was outside my WiFi range..... So now with that setting disabled I don't get skimmed for a few Baht every now and then.... :-)

If you use data then definitely buy a data package, as the “pay per MB” is very expensive.

Someone I know have a tendency to forget renewing her monthly data package, and she’ll notice by her balance being drained shortly after it expires, because it switches to “pay per MB”.

I’ve since convinced her to switch to DTAC because I just find AIS so opaque, maybe they have all the same options as DTAC but just lack the English interface, but I have previously asked online about things, e.g. how to top up online with 12Call, easy as pie with DTAC, no idea how to do it with 12Call (and no-one replied to my thread).

DTAC also has an app where I can monitor how much data and minutes are left on my current plan, and I’ve never had a problem with unexplained charges from DTAC or a balance that drains too quickly (see my previous post about 12Call).

[NancyL]

How do you think this was perpetrated?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On a similar note, I assume you are one of the many people who had budget, non-smart phones that we AIS customers were told would be "bricked" at a certain date because everything was going to be 3G and our phones would not support this (or the other way around, AIS was stopping support for 2G).

The deal was that you took your phone in and exchange it for one of 4 models, 1 basic and 3 slightly "smarter." The handsets were free, but you had to top up a certain amount -- for the basic handset it was 100 baht.

I went to the main beehive in Central Festival and went through all the paperwork, signing a paper that said I would not change to another service within the year (probably not legal, and almost certainly unenforceable). I got to the point where I was at a window and they took my phone and gave me the new cheapie model and I noticed that all my saved text messages were gone. I stopped right there, said I wanted my old phone back to take home and take all these down somehow (or else I would have lost them). They said okay, and dug in the box of old cheap phones, found mine and gave it back with the chip.

The end of the story? That was over 3 months ago and while I do occasionally get an auto text message from AIS in Thai saying I need to shift over to 3G, my phone works exactly as it did before.

I like my old phone. I am used to it. I am very glad I didn't get suckered into giving it up for nothing (except my promise on paper not to change carriers).

You may want to get out the new nearly freebie 3G phone, fire it up and start to use it while it's still under the six month warranty. So far, I've had to take my nearly freebie AIS phone in twice for work -- once to replace the battery and a second time because it still wouldn't hold a charge for more than 6 or 7 hours, even in the absence of any calls. With the second visit, there was something about the phone needing a "software upgrade" and that took care of the problem. In the past there had been a little light on all the time. I'd assumed it had something to do with the phone "knowing" where it was in the world. Now that little light is off, except when the phone is plugged in.

Also, I've been back to the AIS office in Maya Mall about 4 or 5 times for little lessons in how to use the nearly freebie smart phone. The little booklet that came with it was worthless, even though it was in English and I couldn't even answer a call properly. I'm not the only oldster with this problem. I've seen other older people in there, both Thai and foreign, clutching the new 3G replacement phones trying to get help in how to use them. It's really quite difficult to learn since the office is often noisy and the clerks are across the counter from you. I've seen the same elderly Japanese couple in there almost every time I'm in there, looking baffled. I sure hope they've figured out how to make a call with the darn thing.

[dingdongrb]

Not having a Smartphone before I found that I needed to change a setting 'Background Data Restricted' to on. That setting would connect me to the Internet via AIS service when I was outside my WiFi range..... So now with that setting disabled I don't get skimmed for a few Baht every now and then.... :-)

If you use data then definitely buy a data package, as the “pay per MB” is very expensive.

I don't.... I only use my phone to make/receive calls.

However when at home it is connected to my wireless so I can easily check emails.

I'm not a geek that has to be online walking around like a zombie. When online I do that from the comfort and security of my home PC.

[Gonzo the Face]

A previous post just gave me an idea that no doubt will make millions . I will have T shirts printed that people can give to or make their family members buy . People/family members that you see everyday by the hundreds.... that would be those who cannot even walk down their driveway without holding their hand phone in front of themselves. The printing would read " CAUTION .... WALKING DEAD APPROACHING "

PS sorry, I musta thunk I wuz in anudder thread ..... katooot

Edited May 11, 2016 by Gonzo the Face