enmob.com
I recently started receiving unsolicited text messages on two of my mobile phones. These text messages were from “26706″ and contained movie information.
Turns out these messages were from enmob.com, and were a subscription service that included a monthly fee billed directly to my cell phone bill. The enmob Web site claims that subscription requires both signing up and confirming the subscription at their Web site with a four-digit pin. However, I know that I didn’t do that.
I’d also been unsuccessful at sending a “STOP” message to 26706, as my phone expects to send messages to a 10-digit number, not a 5-digit number. Neither replying to a received message nor sending a new message was successful.
Today, I received a text message from enmob thanking me for resubscribing — which I had not done. Hoping to get the bottom of it, I visited their Web site, where I found their phone number. When I called it, a recording answered, informing me that hold times were higher than normal, and encouraging me to send an email to support@enmob.com. Then, rather than putting me into the hold queue, it shuttled me off into a voice mail box. With a system like that, it doesn’t seem possible that their hold times would be higher than normal. In fact, it doesn’t seem possible that there would be hold times at all!
Slightly irritated but still undaunted, I next sent an email to the support address. It quickly bounced back as undeliverable with a cryptic error about being unable to verify mchsi.com. What a good way to reduce the amount of email technical support!
Since text messaging, phone calls, and email didn’t work, I opted to call my carrier: Cingular, um, I mean, I next called the new at&t. I talked to a helpful representative. Within 10 minutes, he’d found and credited two of these fraudulent subscription charges and removed the subscriptions. The agent thinks that I won’t receive any more of these messages now. If I continue to receive text messages, then I’m invited to call Cingular back again.
So, I have high marks for Cingular, but very low marks for enmob.com. According to my experience:
- enmob subscribed me without my permission
- enmob billed me without my permission
- “stop” instructions are unsuccessful because enmob doesn’t provide a 10-digit messaging number
- contacting enmob by phone is unsuccessful
- contacing enmob by email is unsuccessful
These lead me to believe that enmob is totally fraudulent and relying upon peoples gullibility and inattentiveness.
August 9th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
The Enmob.com web site will allow anyone to put in a phone number and that person will be charged monthly on there phone bill. I had a problem witht he first sprint represenative I spoke with : she was rude and clueless and did nothing to help me . The second was on top of her game , took the charges off , took my complaint , made a notation on my account , and blocked the 26706 text message number .
August 25th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
I had the same experience with text messaging. I have Verizon Wireless and I am about to call them to have the charges removed..
August 26th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
I had the same deal happen to me with enmob.
When I called Sprint PCS, the told me there was nothing they could do.
Finally they said they took off the charges but said they could not stop
it from happening again. I told them I would be posting a comment
and contatcting Sprint corporate.
They told me to have a nice day.
Thanks Sprint. I’ll remember that when I get my next phone.
Think I’ll try AT&T.
September 1st, 2007 at 9:55 pm
We encountered the same problem. Verizon was less than helpful. Maybe we got the person without the brain. We also got spammed by http://www.mobile messenger.com, getting a $19.99 charge an a phone used by my 75 year-old father-in-law. Verizon wouldn’t remove either charge. We’ll be contacting the Attorney General of NC and the FCC.
September 4th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
If you were charged on your cell phone bill for ringtones or other mobile content that you never ordered, you might want to get in touch with some class action attorneys. These guys are investigating unauthorized cell phone charges and wireless text message SMS spam and might be able to help you fight back: http://www.ClassActionConnect.com/?q=node/680
September 5th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Thank you for your blog with the information. I just got two text messages yesterday from enmob. Same garbage you went through.
I did learn two interesting bits of information from Sprint:
1. You can ask to have text messages from third parties blocked on your account – I did that.
2. DO NOT text STOP to enmob – it gives them a “legitimate” reason to charge you, according to Sprint. Not truly legit, but I guess any contact gives enmob a hook. I made that mistake, but she took the charge off my account.
I don’t know who enmob is, but I sincerely hope somebody sues them for everything they HAVE.
Thanks again!
September 19th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
The exact same thing happened with me. I am with Verizon, the first lady was helpful, but told me to text “STOP”. Second lady was rude and clueless. Finally I called again and asked for a supervisor. They told me there was nothing they could do, and they could not credit the money back because my account with Verizon was “too old”. Basically they were saying that because I wasn’t some cell phone newbie, I must have subscribed somehow, excluding me from a refund. I think I’m sick of Verizon.
October 25th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
enmob strikes again,my kid called and told me about this so i called verizon and they put a note on my bill to take off any charges from enmob.I then called the fcc,they said they can’t do anything, that its verizons responsibility to do something about this scam. the verizon guy told me to text “stop” to 48000. in closing ,as a parent i see random charges on my phone bill from ringtones and ringbacks, i’m a parent of a teenager,i expect that stuff, but if i saw a 10 dollar extra charge on my bill i may have just paid it and assumed my kid was downloading god knows what, enmob is probably counting on that.
November 12th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
My daughters Sprint phone received the same messages. 4 in 10min. I attempted the same as everyone else. I contacted Sprint who was helpful and was going to block the messages. However the instructed me how to go online to sprint.com and do it myself. Just log in, go to on line tools, text messaging then settings and preferences. This brings up a diolog box that you can enter the text #s you want to reject. Seems to have worked for me. *&$)@# Enmob.
November 16th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
I had the exact same experience, except I was able to reply “Stop” to the text messages. This did nothing. I have sent emails and contacted Verizon (my carrier), but still I receive their messages. I was promised by Verizon that I will not be charged anything from them… I’ll have to wait a two weeks to get my phone bill.
November 17th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Wow, THIS IS EXACTLY THE SAME EXPERIENCE AS MINE.
3 messages in a row and I have NEVER signed up for this service (nor ANY service.) I was able to Text Back STOP and received a confirmation that I would not receive any more messages. THEN also received 3 more text messages the next day and one Saying I Resubscribed. I have NEVER subscribed. Checked my Sprint Service on-line and I had a $9.99 Premium Service Charge. They are definitely spammers. I want to know how they got my cell phone number to begin with.
I reported this to the donotcall.gov site under File a Complaint. I recommend we all do this.
November 26th, 2007 at 11:59 am
The exact same thing happened to me. Nevis Mobile is unreachable, their parent company m-Qube is now part of VeriSign, who maintain that Nevis Mobile (enmob.com) are legally obligated to get a “double opt-in” confirmation from me in order to charge me. VeriSign claims they have evidence that I completed this “double opt-in”, but I did not.
I called Sprint’s Fraud Management department. They can’t help. I called VeriSign repeatedly. Being nice doesn’t help; threatening litigation doesn’t help. They say it’s Nevis Mobile’s issue, not theirs. They claim Nevis Mobile will call me, but won’t provide contact information for Nevis Mobile.
Curiously, VeriSign was able to immediately confirm that I had charges pending, and correctly identified the date when Nevis Mobile first targeted me. But they say there’s nothing they can do, that they just handle billing and that Nevis Mobile is not affiliated with VeriSign but rather its client.
I can’t find Nevis Mobile listed on the Better Business Bureau website.
How do we go after Nevis Mobile? I’m full of fire over this, I want these people in jail for what they’re doing to us. How do we track them down?
December 7th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Hi all,
I had a similar experience with Mobile Messenger. I’m not sure if Nevis Mobile and Mobile Messenger are related at all, someone also mentioned mobilemessenger.com above.
I sent a complaint to the internet crime compalint center. (Visit this website: http://www.ic3.gov/ ) Someone has already contacted me and wants a formal statement.
If you have had a bad experience with Mobile Messenger, Nevis Mobile or another company please report them. I really think the more people report them, the less likely it is that they will get away with this in the future.
January 15th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I just had this same problem happen with my aircard number I use to access the internet. Fortunately Verizon was great and credited me. I did text “STOP” to 26706 and received a text saying I was not signed up. Yet, they had billed me for $9.99. And, that is not even my cell phone number.. .I only use it for internet access. I still have no idea how I received that text.
February 5th, 2008 at 12:43 am
Same thing happened to me. $9.99 charge added to my account. Never heard of them until it appeared on the bill. I called Sprint and they refused to reverse the charges. I called the BBB and they are investigating. I called Enmob and the voice mail states they are unavailable due to the high volume of calls. I emailed the support@enmob.com and recieved a response from “David Ebanks” asking for my cell number again. It’s obvious that a scam is in progress and a shame the phone companies do not take better care of their customers.
February 20th, 2008 at 6:50 am
It seems that we all have the same horror story to tell about enmob and our various wireless providers. It also seems to me that rather than re telling the story over and over action needs to be taken by us all. Thus far I have left a message on the enmob “higher than usual hold time” telephone with the promise that I will continue to call. I have done the TXT Stop and have sent three emails demanding a stop to this scam. I finally received a reply this morning from the infamous David Ebanks that my number is now “out of our system. I can assure you that you will no longer be receiving texts on that number”. I also have sent a lengthy email to Verizon informing them that I under no circumstances contacted or made any authorization to enmob to charge my account for “Premium TXT Messaging” and that further I was putting them on notice that past charges and any future charges would be an illegal unauthorized charge. I also asked for clarification re: just how enmob could get my wireless number since only Verizon and myself had that number and that I under no circumstance gave it to them. I am awaiting an answer on that one. I have also contacted a made a complaint with http://www.ic3.gov/ and have also given the information to http://www.class action connect.com. Am I finished? No! I am now going to contact my credit card company and dispute these charges. They in turn will contact Verizon which will AGAIN make Verizon aware of this scam. You can’t tell me that Verizon is not aware and has taken no steps to correct the situation. I am also going to file a consumer fraud complaint with the Attorney General of my State (Arizona) concerning enmob. Am I finished now? I hope not. Any suggestions from any of you victims of this identity theft, fraud and scam will be appreciated and followed up. I sincerely hope that other than just sitting around and posting our problems we will now all start making ever complaint in writing to every wireless provider, class action lawyers, governmental agencies and any other organization that might make life a little on the tough side for enmob.
March 5th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
This happened to me also, so I researched and found the information below. I was able to be reimbursed by my telephone company but I know a couple people who were reimbursed by contacting this evil company via the info below. I also saw that the David Ebanks mentioned above is the owner of this company based out of the island of Nives int he carribean.
p.s. The number below does work (I talked and yelled at them myself) but is an international call, so be aware.
Registrant: Make this info private
Nevis Mobile
Edith Solomon Building
P.O. Box 636
Charlestown, Nevis 99999
KN
Domain Name: ENMOB.COM
Administrative Contact , Technical Contact :
Nevis Mobile
nevismobile@gmail.com
Edith Solomon Building
P.O. Box 636
Charlestown, Nevis 99999
KN
Phone: 869-469-0224
April 1st, 2008 at 10:53 am
We at Mobile Messenger would like to assist you with your concern or complaint. If you need assistance in regards to being unsubscribed or other related issues, please do not hesitate to contact us. Please call 1-800-416-6129 Monday to Friday 0600 – 1800 US Pacific Time or email escalationsus@sms-helpdesk.com.
July 31st, 2008 at 7:48 am
I am unsure as to how these jerks got my number but I have been charged $9.99 by my carrier for a subscription that I didn’t sign up for and requested be stopped as soon as I got the first text. If I am not refunded my money in 30 days, I too will be joining the class action suit against this bogus company. And for them to provide a 888-648-9524 number for me to leave a message … real professional. Cowards!
April 23rd, 2009 at 6:51 pm
We at Mobile Messenger would like to assist you with your concern or complaint. If you need assistance in regards to being unsubscribed or other related issues, please do not hesitate to contact us. Please call 1-800-416-6129 Monday to Friday 0600 – 1800 US Pacific Time or email escalationsus@sms-helpdesk.com
SANDRA
MOBILE MESSENGER
December 11th, 2009 at 1:17 am
I have difficulties looking at your website on my Lenovo netbook screen. Is there a less-wide version of the site I could look at?
December 24th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Nope.
December 24th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Molly, now that the blog site is mobile aware, you may find that switching to the “mobile” site (link at the bottom of the home page) works better on narrow-screen devices.