Beware of SMS.ac
I signed up to give SMS.ac a try having received an invitation way back in early 2003. There existed hardly any of the warnings about this site that you can now find plastered all over the web today. I thought it might be handy for sending the occasional free SMS (there did exist some geniune free SMS sites in the past), though I never tried using it, which is just as well as I’ve since heard that they charge these messages as a premium SMS to your friends phone account.
In the mean time i received a fair few spam messages to an email address I didn’t even sign up to their site with, alleging to be from friends. Eventually I did go back and check the site out and all, again I didn’t find much use for it and found it annoying as hell because they had some flash player thingamajigs that keep blaring mobile phone ring tones.
At some stage earlier this year, however, I started getting annoying SMS messages from SMS.ac. I didn’t think much of it, except they were annoying so I went back to the site once again trying to figure out how to stop it. All to no avail. Little did I know I was being charged for the messages which were being sent as “premium content”. Having gone back to the site again, the only way you could find any instructions on how to disable these messages is if you go to billing (which I didn’t since I never gave them any credit card details) or closing your account (which I did go to eventually due to sheer frustration). I certainly had never requested such ‘premium’ messages through their site or my phone.
Though the question is, how can charges be made to a phone when such services were never requested, especially through the mobile phone itself. This is clearly a scam. Even Telstra’s own Customer Terms clearly state that such charged content can only be accessed “from your mobile
phone”.
Telstra’s customer service people of course proved to be unhelpful and claimed that Telstra is powerless and has no responsibility over such ‘premium’ SMS billing. They told me I had to contact 5th Finger for any refunds, who in turn were referring me back to SMS.ac in the US. That is until I mentioned the magic TIO word back to Telstra and proceeded to lodge a complaint with the ombudsman. They eventually refunded $14 or so (at $0.55 per a message), however, while I was pleased that they refunded something I’m not even entirely sure if this amount is accurate. I have some indication that it may have been more than this. Though the fact that it’s a pre-paid account certainly doesn’t help.
In addition it appears that Vodafone NZ were doing some investigations over SMS.ac.
So stay away from SMS.ac at all costs. Though if you’ve been stung already, don’t take your phone company for face value that they can’t do anything because they can. If you’re in Australia there’s TIO, you could also report it to ACCC as a scam (in which case be sure to mention that 5th Finger, as the local company, facilitating it) or if you’re fed up with spam from SMS.ac then you could report it to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (again if you mention their local links, that is 5th Finger, this could help).
September 17th, 2005 at 11:40 pm
Hello there Jeremy, thanks for making this imformative post about sms.ac, I have seen it a few times (spam emails) and ingored it, I use the site www.smspup.com.au now and then to send an sms if I have no credit left on my phone, you get ’sms credits’ buy clicking links in emails, very simple and I use a seperate gmail account to be safe, I have sent my self a few messages as a test and it doesn’t charge me anything, they also offer a email gateway that forwards emails sent to a email address they supply to your phone in the form of a sms, this is by no means advertising (otherwise i’d have used a referal code) just letting you know that there are still some legit sites out there if you are interested.
September 28th, 2005 at 11:50 pm
Old news!
November 16th, 2005 at 11:24 am
Thanks Jeremy,
I have used your advise on how to recover the damage from the notorious SMS.ac, my mobile operator AAPT agreed to give me a refund on the spam messages from 5th finger and SMS.ac (not before I mentioned the magic TIO word) and hopefully I will not be hearing from them anymore.
Best regards.
April 11th, 2006 at 5:27 am
sms.ac sma.cs
Assuring to know I’m not the only one in the bad ship smsac! Personally I don’t mind the junk email I receive - however I do resent the ‘pain’ that I have caused to others within my community of friends and clients - and the hassle it has caused in my own personal relationship with the girlfriend. Case in point: Girlfriend receives spam message stating: “Check out who’s connected to SMS.ac in Andy’s location” followed by some lovely but lonesome pictures of single women of my age! It took some explaining. And, needless to say, I don’t know any of these women, however flirtingly (though ‘SparkleHK’ looks cute)!
To deactivate your account is nigh on impossible. I found that, after going through the various steps, the “Deactivate my Service” button (the last stage of the procedure!) was (magically) not responding. However, judging by the above war stories and many more I’ve read on the dubdubdub, I’m wasting my breath anyway - as my existing and new contacts will continue to be spammed and, like me, some scammed.
So let’s hope that one day a legal action will eventually ring the neck of sms.ac in much the same way as they’ve been ringing ours - and our mobiles.
September 13th, 2006 at 11:33 am
My Boyfriend gets 4-5 message from SMS.ac everyday. we’ve been ignoring it for ages because we just assumed it was spam. we’re both really angry now. any hints on how to stop it??
September 20th, 2006 at 4:25 pm
I think this should be brought to the knowledge of people round the world.
I suggest all blogs write an article detailing the illegal activities.
So people can be educated.
Thanks
April
October 26th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
Yep this is an absolute joke. I remember seeing this email years ago from friends overseas expecting to get free SMS’s from SMS.ac and then being dumb enough to put their hotmail passwords in to magically invite all their friends.
I too just ingnored these SMS’s as I thought replying would just confirm my mobile number and I would receive more SPAM SMS’s.
Well Vodafone after a lengthy discussion said they can do nothing but refund me $2.00 for the month and to call 5th Finger in Australia on 02 8307 7830 an automatically will remove me. Well 2 days later I just received a new message and I had 3 other friends do the same.
5th Finger is now owned by NINEMSN.COM.AU so they are one of the worlds biggest spammers now!
I’ll try the TIO approach with Vodafone that looks like the only approach. Ha ha I even sent a note to Today Tonight current affairs program to look in to it as it’s also their competition.
I think the things is SMS.ac have hit critical mass now, many people would have signed up years ago **I’m not one of them** and would just be in the too hard basket, or know not to respond to spam. Little do they know though that they get charged for receiving them.
October 27th, 2006 at 4:48 pm
Hey. Cheers Jeremy. TIO - I should have thought of that as a lawyer. I didn’t realise I was getting charged until my most recent bill. I am taking this as a breach of my service provider’s terms and attempting to cancel my mobile contract. SMS.ac is ripping off consumers, and telecommunications companies are facilitating it.
I signed up to SMS.ac about 2 years ago, I think, but haven’t had any use for it. Then a few months ago these messages started arriving. And I ignored them, as I have never, and would never, sign up to something that can charge me for things completely out of my control. I never agreed to updated terms and conditions, and this “premium broadcast service” was not even an option when I first signed up.
Thanks for the 5th Finger link too - at least I have someone to sue if I get no joy. It would be worth paying the filing fees just to get a decision that what they have done is illegal. A class action would be just around the corner - perhaps a large firm may be interested if there was some sort of register of all people who had received unsolicited, costly SPAM.
Let’s see how we go…
December 20th, 2006 at 7:36 am
Can anyone recommend me?
I need an free sms service for my homepage.
I am seeking one with the option to change the design(for a bit).
Thanks a million!
June 5th, 2007 at 11:42 am
My partner also gets these weird messages at am and pm in the morning , recently one from an Amanda about paul frank ?
which has caused a few arguments.
Can anyone tell me what this sms.ac is used for by people who sign up ? like free text or dating which are not able to be seen or traced ?
Thanks