#maybe don't download unvetted apps

[waterbottlegrey-blog]

I feel nostalgic, remembering of the most common scam we've dealt with in the call center job i had for a phone operator.

A person would download an emoticon app or leave their number somewhere for a lucky winner gets a prize thing. Or sometime they'd get a call and pick up or call it back. The next month they would get additional charges on their phone plan maxed out. The limit was 61 eur btw. Quite a bit over here, almost one sixth of an average monthly pension.

What had happened was, they were subscribed without knowing it - that call was the scammers checking if the number was active through robocalls and then sending several payable sms's. 2 euros a sms adds up. And they'd be empty or one-word, so if the phone had spam filters for sms messages, people wouldn't even notice.

See the legislation about this here just isn't - the phone provider isn't required to warn you that additional charges are being made in real time, they're just required to list the breakdown of the expenses on bills. Which you get at the end of the month.

A bunch of 'companies' based out-of-country or out of EU made their living by scamming people like that. We'd usually tell them how to usubscribe via sms and then set up a block for additional charges.

Worst thing, the elderly grew up in early days of stationary phones, where you were warned that there would be say, an additional charge for international calls, or that you were calling a premium number.