How does the "Give up their phone number" scam work? How do you "[bill] $20 a month" based on that?
Do I need to be even more paranoid about filling out web forms than I thought?
Edit: It seems it's the same mechanism that allows things like Collect calls to be billed to the receiving party. So I guess it has legitimate uses- there just needs to be a better way to keep it from being abused, apparently. http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cramming.html
Getting the telecomm companies out of the banking (money transfer) business would be a good idea. Receiving a share of the scammers' profits is bound to distort their notion of what is proper.
Otherwise we'll need guardians with big sticks (racketeering charges, punitive damages, etc.) to protect the most vulnerable from predatory scammers. Which then leads to other problems, such as the sticks being used for other purposes ...
All you need to do is type your phone number in on a web form, and you get billed. I used to belive that you need to send an SMS to subscribe to a service, but that isn't necessary.
Do I need to be even more paranoid about filling out web forms than I thought?
Edit: It seems it's the same mechanism that allows things like Collect calls to be billed to the receiving party. So I guess it has legitimate uses- there just needs to be a better way to keep it from being abused, apparently. http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/cramming.html