How to cancel paid subscriptions. How to get rid of extra paid subscriptions - tips for subscribers of Megafon, MTS, Beeline and Tele2

Paid subscriptions are a real evil. They appear suddenly. To activate them, just one random tap on the screen is enough, after which your account will be gutted daily by a certain amount.

Where do paid subscriptions come from?

Let's say you wanted to listen to music on your smartphone and entered the corresponding request into mobile browser. The search returned a list of relevant sites. Having visited one of them, you saw a plug with a proposal to transfer to listen. It cannot be closed.

After tapping on the stub, you were transferred somewhere to the operator’s side cellular communication, which clearly says address bar browser.

The picture was made correctly. Not quite dressed young lady with musical instrument good distraction. White text on a light gray background is harder to see. One more tap, and you already have a paid subscription. 30 rubles per day or 900 rubles per month. By the way, there can be as many subscriptions as you like. Do you understand the scale of the problem?

Some more or less technically savvy people may be indignant: “What idiot would search THAT way?” A question like this is a good indicator of immature thinking.

There are 146.5 million citizens in Russia. Not all of them are tech savvy. We must not forget about children and the elderly.

Cellular operators, of course, pretend to care about their customers and pretend that they are trying to change the situation. What they don’t come up with: applications with which you can check the availability of subscriptions, new tariffs with the illusion of protection from subscriptions, and so on.

But what about changing the process itself? Why not make confirmation of consent to withdraw money more explicit? For example, by sending SMS?

The problem is that operators make profits from paid subscriptions, and imitation of caring about customers is typical hypocrisy. Bees against honey.

How to protect yourself from paid subscriptions

The only one reliable way to protect yourself from paid subscriptions is to create an additional (content) account.

Federal Law No. 229-FZ of July 23, 2013 “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Communications” obliges operators to create, at the request of the subscriber, a separate account for payment for content services of third parties. Debiting funds from the main account to pay for content services of third parties engaged by the telecom operator becomes impossible.

Simply put, after creating a content account, the telecom operator will no longer be able to charge money for paid subscriptions to partner services from your main account. All you have to do is keep your content account balance zero.

Therefore, make sure that you have not enabled auto-replenishment of your content account from your main account. The telecom operator can impose this service, and then the whole idea will lose its meaning.

Please note: a content account protects against paid subscriptions to the services of telecom operator partners. If a paid service is provided by the telecom operator itself, then the money for it will still be debited from the main account.

How to create a content account

Unfortunately, the procedure is different for different operators communications and may even vary depending on the region. In one case it will be enough to send a USSD request, but in another you will have to go to the salon with a passport. Call your operator's support line and ask for clear instructions. This is your right, guaranteed by law.

Support phone numbers (calls within Russia are free):

1. Beeline - 8 800 700 06 11.
2. Megafon - 8 800 550 05 00.
3. MTS - 8 800 250 08 90.
4. Tele2 - 8 800 555 06 11.

How to protect children, parents and grandparents

1. If possible, help them create an additional (content) account.
2. If creating such an account requires visiting a communication store, and the person cannot come there, arrange for him new number in your name.
3. Control another subscriber's account through personal account. This way you can check for paid services and, if necessary, disable them. However, this is a less reliable option.

At the end of November 2016, Russian subscribers of the largest mobile operators started complaining again paid services and subscriptions that are connected by mistake, but cost the user a few extra rubles a day. The editors of the site figured out how to disable unnecessary services and prevent them from reconnecting.

Russian subscribers of mobile operators regularly pay attention to subscriptions and paid services that appear, for example, after visiting certain sites that offer such services.

In November 2016, Director of Strategic Communications of Mail.Ru Group Georgy Lobushkin told on his Facebook page that he discovered that his grandmother, who uses Beeline services, had extra subscriptions that cost her 6 rubles a day or 180 rubles a month. In the support chat, he was told that such services can be activated “by clicking on the Internet.”

A few days later, Ivan Kalyuzhny, head of social media at Alfa-Bank, shared a similar story - he discovered his mother, an MTS subscriber, has several subscriptions to total amount 27 rubles per day or more than 800 rubles per month.

In 2015, the founder of Liveinternet, German Klimenko, who now holds the post of presidential adviser on the Internet, reported a similar situation. He explained that he used the services of Megafon and complained about one of the news sites that redirects users to a page with a video. To view it, the subscriber unknowingly connects himself to a subscription - the terms of use are indicated in an unreadable font in the corner of the screen.

After the publication on the site, representatives of the operator reported that they had recorded “the fact of unfairly attracting subscribers to subscriptions,” fined the content partner who is involved in connecting such subscriptions, and also returned money to all subscribers and disabled existing subscriptions.

The editors of the site publish instructions for subscribers of the four largest Russian operators- about how to identify and disable unnecessary subscriptions and prevent their occurrence in the future.

"Megaphone"

How to detect and disable connected subscriptions

After activating a paid subscription or service, the subscriber receives an SMS with information, which also contains a command to help cancel the service.

To view connected paid services and subscriptions, you must log into your personal account on the website.

In addition, your personal account is also available in the mobile application.

If a user discovers that he accidentally subscribed to a service, he should call the support service at 8-800-550-05-00 and leave a complaint. The operator can return the money after such requests.

Megafon subscribers can connect to an unlimited content account for free in any operator’s salon. To do this you need to have your passport with you. The operator also includes a ban on subscriptions for subscribers who have signed up for bank card Megafon, linked to the main account.

Such an account can also be connected through contact center by phone, but only for three months.

And in the mobile application.

If a user discovers that he accidentally subscribed to a service, he should call the support service at 611 and leave a complaint. The operator can return the money after such requests.

How to protect yourself from connecting subscriptions in the future

To control costs, the subscriber can connect a separate personal account from which content costs will be debited.

You can fill out an application for opening a content personal account at Tele2 subscriber service centers. For this operation, the owner of the SIM card must have a passport with him.

The operator’s website contains commands for replenishing and checking an additional account.

What should you do if they charge your phone for services you don’t even know about?

17.02.2017 15:51

IN lately complaints from Voronezh residents have intensified that from their accounts mobile phones money began to be written off “for unknown reasons.” As a rule, we are talking about SMS messages from the category: “You have activated a paid subscription. Subscription fee 30 rub. per day. The service is provided by such and such company.” “But I didn’t even click on anything,” assure the majority of those who find themselves in such a situation. Who is forcing paid subscriptions on us and how to deal with it?

What is paid content?

It could be paid game, application, subscription to news, weather forecast or exchange rates. Moreover, the service is most often not provided by the operator mobile communications(“Beeline”, “Megafon”, MTS or “Tele2”) but a certain provider who has an agreement with the operator for the provision of content services and who is allocated a separate short number (as a rule, SMS about paid subscriptions come from four-digit numbers).

Moreover, it is difficult to find fault with operators legally. On their official websites, they warn subscribers in advance that content services are provided by third-party providers, and that the operator bears virtually no responsibility for them (they say, you subscribe to them yourself). And in case illegal actions content providers, the subscriber has the right to complain about them to the operator. And if this complaint turns out to be justified, the operator can block the provider, depriving him of his short number.

How can you “pick up” a paid subscription on your phone?

Content providers have many ways to catch subscribers. Automatic consent to the provision of a paid service can be sending an SMS or calling a short number, leaving your phone number on torrent resources (ostensibly for registration).

People who do not use the Internet often get caught accidentally clicking “OK” on an intrusive banner that appears on the screen from the category “Do you want the most accurate weather forecast?”

But more often paid subscriptions are caught by following links on the Internet (we are talking about mobile internet 3G or 4G). Just click on an interesting piece of news, click the “download” or “lay” button to play the video, and that’s it - you’ve subscribed to a paid newsletter. By law, the provider is required to warn you about a paid subscription. But he makes it subtle small print, gray on black at the bottom of the page, where not everyone even scrolls through.

How to check if you have paid subscriptions and disable them?

The easiest way to check whether you have paid subscriptions or services (and disable them) is in your personal account on your operator’s website. To log into your personal account, as a rule, you need to indicate your phone number on the site, after which you will receive an SMS with an access code or password.

If you don’t have the Internet at hand, remember: when you (even accidentally) subscribe to paid content, you should receive a corresponding SMS from a four-digit number. When this message arrives, the fee for the first day of service is already debited from your account (usually 20 - 30 rubles). To disable the service, send the word STOP or STOP in a reply message to this short number. Sending a message is free.

How to protect yourself from unwanted paid subscriptions?

The simplest and the right way- create a separate account for paid content. Calls, SMS and Internet will be paid from your main account. And if you suddenly accidentally subscribe to a paid service, the content provider will only be able to debit money from the second, content account. If there are 0 rubles on this account, then, accordingly, nothing will be debited. If you yourself want to subscribe to any paid content (weather forecast, news, etc.), then you will need to top up your content account with the required amount. A content account is an 11-digit number that is different from your mobile number by one digit. For example, 6 instead of 9 in the prefix, that is, instead of 8-903 it will have 8-603. It is replenished in the same way as a regular phone account.

Of course, a content account is not a panacea. Some operators (for example, Megafon) provide a mandatory credit limit on the content account, which can put you at a slight disadvantage (read more about this below). In addition, there are tricks when operators can write off money for paid services (if this is the operators’ own content) from the main account, even if there is a content account. But you are unlikely to pick up such subscriptions by accident by following a link on an unfamiliar site.

You can create a content account for free in the mobile phone store of a specific operator, taking your passport with you and writing a corresponding application according to the sample. There are other ways to protect yourself from paid subscriptions. Let's consider all these methods for each operator in more detail.

"Beeline"

To connect a content account, dial *110*5062# and press call (the request is free). Checking the balance of a separate account - *622#. The command for transferring money from the main balance to an additional balance is *220*(amount)# (for example, to transfer 100 rubles you need to dial *220*100#). The command for transferring money from an additional balance to the main one is *222*(amount)#. The command to disable additional balance is *110*5060#.

"Megaphone"

You can open a content account with Megafon only in communication stores (with a passport). Megafon is the only one of the Big Four operators who provides a mandatory and non-cancellable credit limit on the content account. That is, it allows you to drive your account into the minus - however, by a maximum of 150 rubles. After this, this account is blocked, but you already owe 150 rubles.

However, without any content account in Megafon you can ban mobile subscriptions by sending an SMS with the text USTZABAR1 to number 5051 (free service). True, the ban will be established for a period of 3 months. But after this period, the operator will remind you in advance via SMS that the service can be extended.

You can open a content account with MTS only in communication stores (with a passport). However, the MTS operator has free service“Content blocking”, which prevents you from sending and receiving paid SMS and calls from short numbers and protects against accidental paid subscriptions. The service is activated by dialing 0890. You can check whether you have paid subscriptions, and you can disable them by dialing *111*919# (and calling).

"Tele2"

To connect a content account, dial *160# and press call (the service is free). *160*1# — certificate of content balance personal account. *160*(amount)# — transfer of funds from the subscriber’s main account to the content account. *160*(amount)*0# — return of funds from the content account to the main one. *152*0# - command to disable paid content and paid subscriptions if you already have them.