Text Spam

Today my wife got a text from a number, 94408.  As soon as she opened the text it confirmed her purchase for $9.99 per month on our cell phone bill.  Doing some quick Google searches I found this is a number commonly used for text fraud.  My wife had fallen victim to text spam.  Luckily we are with AT&T and were able to call them and have it cancelled, and our money back.

We even found AT&T had some programs available to keep this from happening again.  They activated on our account what is called Purchase Blocker.  This means that we have to enter in a PIN number for any purchase activity on our account.  So if we get this kind of text again, it will not go through as they need the PIN number to authorize it.  There are even more types of these plans available from AT&T, but they can cost up to $5 per month, and for now we just went with the free one.  More information on these types of plans can be found at the AT&T Smart Controls website.

Still the very concept of getting a text that confirms a monthly charge like that, simply by opening it, is scary to say the least.  If you are with AT&T I would highly recommend you contact them and get Purchase Blocker activated for your account.  If you are with another cell carrier you may want to take a look at what other options they may have for you to prevent this kind of fraud.