i got text on my cell about ach for your uag payment

i had to go to msg&data rates and cancel this

Ugh, same problem here. Someone should file a lawsuit against these jokers. I suppose the $9.99 hit vs. the cost/time of going after these guys in court is what keeps them in business.

Called AT&T -- they reversed charges then added a free "Mobile Blocker" option to both my mobile lines.

Saw this charge on my wireless bill. Called them back first and got transfered 4 times to sit on hold  for 20 minutes then get hung up on. Called AT&T and told them I have a subscription charge I never signed up for. They didn't ask any questions, just apologized and cancelled the subscription and refunded me. Sounds like they get this thing a lot...

I'm w/Verizon & they can block all incoming text msgs for free that can "incur a charge" only; not just ones in general. Within the verizon site you can access "Block Internet Scams" add you number and so on. By law these jack-holes are supposed to have the option to type STOP to end msgs. BUT...there are those scammers that just keep chg'n the number to avoid being caught.

FYI when I called the 888 # linked to the msg, I got a foreign rep after numerous rings and was told I was not subscribed to anything with them. Text alert states I am subscribed. Classic b.s. run around, don't even waste your time calling them.

I got the three texts from 584-97 MobibroIQ.  I called AT&T, and they said they have been seeing a lot of this scam lately.  They immediately removed the charge, and blocked the number.  After it was blocked I received a message saying I discontinued  and to call 1-888-890-6150 for help.

I reported this as spam to AT&T via SMS.  They replied to text "STOP" back to the sender, which I did.  Lo and behold, there was a charge for $9.99 +$0.51 tax on my next bill.  I had set a PIN on my account but it only applies to me being able to identify myself when I call AT&T.  *They* have to set a PIN to block charges.  To their credit, AT&T did reverse the charge with no hassles and immediately set the parental control block.

I received 3 messages from this company this morning. This was completely out of nowhere. I have not signed up for anything!

I chatted online with an ATT representative and they removed the charge. She also put a "purchase blocker" on my account, to prevent these fools (and other fools) from trying to charge me again. I have no idea what/who this is or where they got my info.

Its getting worse now.. Since I got my new number, I am paying extra $19.98 every month.
Please help to get rid of it...

I think you have found the foundation of the problem. Carriers are allowing the mblox people to bill without allowing customers the right to refuse service AND the carriers are profiting from this billing scam. Hopefully, customers will continue to call carriers and complain. This is just not right.

Had the exact same billing information on my at&t bill. I had texted back STOP before with no results or confirmation. A total waste. Got on the www.mblox.com website and their contact page would not accept my number so the email was not processed. Called the 866 number and was assured that I didn't have the service and they would black list my number in the future. Called at&t and had charges reversed, no mention of a block for future purchases. Very unsettling situation, do not understand how these charges were on my bill but am hopeful there will not be others in the future.

Received a charge on my bill also for MobIQ for 9.99/month. My bill said to text 77050 to "STOP" this subscription. When I did, the responding text said that I was not subscribed to any services from 77050 and to goto mobchance.com for more info. The website was for "Celebrity Gossip". The portion of my bill reads as follows:

Monthly Subscriptions

To stop a subscription, text STOP to the Short Code using the mobile phone associated with those charges.

1     12/26/2011     IQ30CALL8668611606     77050     MT     BuneUS
For assistance contact: http:/www.mblox.com     35041     01/26/2012     9.99     0.00     9.99

I called AT&T and inquired about the charge. The rep would not explain how or why this happened, only that she would remove the charge and offered a blocking service for mobile purchases. My next question was to confirm that this blocking service would not affect app purchases from Apple. She assured me that it wouldn't (I knew this going into it since app downloads are billed from Apple and not to my phone bill, but I wanted to hear it from her). The service was free, so I agreed. The service was referred to as a parental control. After the conversation with the rep, I remained confused and just had an unsettling feeling about the whole ordeal. We'll see if the blocking service works.

Who is this and why are they calling my cell number?

Not common???  Yeah right.  I just had a nearly identical charge on my January bill.  I called AT&T this afternoon and the representative (I am handled by a corporate customer service department, so maybe service is better?) clearly stated that they get complaints regularly - and actually expressed confusion why the federal government/FCC allows these companies to continue their scams.  He reversed the charges.

If you get the message, you have already been charged. Don't bother replying HELP or STOP.
Call your carrier and tell them what happened.  For AT&T, call 800-331-0500 and press 4.

Around midnight, 1/14/2012, received a text "7997- Enter this on the website to continue.  Master Quiz Fun Facts 18668611606 $9.99/mo. Msg&Data Rates May Apply.  Reply HELP for help."

Immediately received another "Guess What? Madonna surpassed Elvis Presley as the artist with the most top 10 hits in the history of Billboard Hot 100.  For HELP Call 18668611606"

A third: "Master Quiz Fun Facts: You scored 107. You are pretty smart! For HELP call 18668611606 $9.99/mo Reply HELP for help Reply STOP to cancel Msg&Data Rates May Apply"

Recommendation: DO NOT reply or send stop to them!!!!  Replying to them will only confirm you as a sucker.  

Call you wireless service provider and have them remove any and all charges from these fraudsters.  Also have them block any further charges from them. They will already have charged your account when you received the messages.

The FCC requires the carriers to accept billing from others.  It was intended to allow alternate operator and other telephone services to have an easy billing arrangement.  It was never intended for these type fraudsters but they figure out ways to exploit it.  The money they make from it is enormous as most people do not realize they have the charges on their bill.  The carrier can only take action after the number of complaints exceed a certain number, several hundred.

The carrier has no choice by law except to accept the charges until after a large number of complainst, so do us all a favor and make the complaints to your carrier, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and others are being hit by these scammers.

On 12/29/11, I received 3 texts, back to back, all at 9:31 am from short code number 742-48.  As I keep my phone with me, with a pass-code lock, not to mention the fact that I was sleeping when the texts came, I am 100% positive that neither I nor anyone else ever visited any web site nor texted any short code or phone number to sign-up or ask for any information from this company.  These were completely unsolicited texts, that were sent with the express intent to defraud me (or any other cellular subscriber unlucky enough to receive the texts).

The 1st text read "MOBSETTER IQ Fun Facts at $9.99/mo. Msg&Data Rates May Apply. Reply HELP for help. Enter UR password on the web site 2 continue: ****".

The 2nd text read "Guess What? Niagara Falls actually stopped flowing back in 1848 for about 20 hrs because there was ice that was blocking the River For HELP call 18668611606".

The 3rd text read "MOBSETTER IQ: You scored 107. You are pretty smart! For HELP call 18668611606 $9.99/mo Reply HELP for help Reply STOP to cancel Msg&Data Rates May Apply".

I replied "STOP" to the third text, without actually reading all three (I assumed it was just another spam-type solicitation text that I sometimes get).  I never received another text from the short code number, not even a text confirming I had cancelled.  Looking back, that should have thrown up a red flag, but at the time I thought nothing else of it.

Fast forward 2 weeks, and I receive my bill from AT&T; thankfully, I actually look at my bill each month, mainly because of my children.  Listed on the bill summary for my line under "Total Usage Charges", below the recovery fees and service charges that make no sense to anyone, was a charge for "Mobile Purchases & Downloads Charges" in the amount of $9.99.  There was a notation to see that section of the bill for details, so I did.  On the last page of my bill I found a section titled "Mobile Purchases...", and under a heading titled "AT&T Purchases" was a charge in the amount of $9.99 listed as a "Monthly Subscription".

The line detail was: Date - 12/29/2011; Subscription Name - IQ34CALL8668611606; Short Code - 74248; Type - MT; Content Provider - MoblMedProdUS; ID - 35046; Renew Date - 01/29/2012; Cost - $9.99.

I immediately did a web search and found that I was only one of many who had been fraudulently charged by this company, who has gone by many different names over the years.  I looked on AT&T's site, where I found instructions to report spam text messages.  I forwarded all 3 texts to 7726 (AT&T's short code number to report spam texts).  AT&T 's reply read "AT&T Free Message:  It is likely that your message came from a short code.  Please return to the original message and reply STOP".  I had done that immediately following the 3 back to back texts, so obviously that method doesn't prevent these scammers from billing you.

After a little more research, I placed my call to AT&T Customer Service.  After explaining the situation to the representative, I explained that I wanted a full refund immediately, and would like to discuss ways to prevent this from happening again on any one of my 4 lines.  She replies no problem, she can process the refund and apply a purchase blocker to my line to prevent me from "accidentally signing up/opting-in to these types of services".  Well, I stopped her, and again explained that I in no way signed up nor opted-in, accidentally or any other way; I told her that this was fraud, plain and simple, being perpetrated by an unnamed company and allowed by AT&T.  After she again started reading her spiel and referred yet again to my "accidental purchase," I stopped her and asked a question.  I asked her to explain to me why AT&T would allow these crooks to add $9.99 to my bill without any type of proof that I had, in fact, signed up for their "service".  She told me that AT&T likes to provide their customers the ability to sign up for services they may consider useful, to which I asked if she knew anyone willing to pay $10 for a text about Niagara Falls being frozen in 1848.  She ignored me, and kept reading the spiel; I stopped her again and asked her point-blank, "Does AT&T receive any portion of the fees or any other revenue from these 3rd party billing companies?".  She ignored the question, so I pressed on, "Why on earth would AT&T use their paper, ink, and postage, not to mention risk angering their customer base, if they didn't profit from these fees?".  

To sum the rest up, I spoke with a supervisor, who also refused to answer my questions regarding AT&T's profits, but did explain that the block was in place to block any 3rd party billing on my account.  So after a tremendous waste of almost 30 minutes on the phone with AT&T, hopefully I won't see this again.  Apparently it doesn't matter whether or not you signed up, nor does it matter if you text STOP, these companies are allowed to bill anyone they so choose.

What I would like to know is AT&T's responses to my questions, verifiable answers, not spiels handed out to representatives.  Not that I will ever get those answers, but here are my questions:
(1)  "What is AT&T's profit from these $9.99 per month charges billed by third parties?"
(2)  "Why does AT&T automatically opt-in their customer base for third party billing when the vast majority of customers are never going to pay monthly fees for subscriptions to these so-called "services"?
(3)  "Considering the current status of allowing any and all charges to be placed on a customer's account, why don't AT&T at least require some sort of proof from these companies that a customer has, in fact, signed up for their service?"
(4)  "Why is the charge listed in such a buried, unread portion of the bill under the regulatory service charges and fees, if AT&T is so innocent in any wrongdoing?  You would think that AT&T would want to protect their customers from fraudulent charges, not aid and abet the crooks."

Good luck to you all, it seems that the more technologically advanced we get as a race, the more crooks come out of the woodwork.  I guess it shouldn't surprise me, as it appears to be pretty easy to defraud people using large corporations such as AT&T as the middle man in the schemes.  And we all have contracts... What a joke!

Received a call with this as a call back number. Strange message about sharks. Did not call but searched.

My boyfriend got a text from them this morning. He called the number and asked him how they got his number. They said they could not disclose that information without the 5 digit pin he used to sign up and couldn't cancel the subscription without it. He asked to speak to his supervisor and the guy told him there was no supervisor there, that he was the only person there! My boyfriend asked the guy for a number to speak to someone in charge and the guy kept saying he couldn't give him any information that there was no one in charge and no one could help him. Wow... I told him to call ATT after reading this thread. Thanks everyone for the advice!

3 texts within an hour from "Imagine MyCrush" - called Verizon and rep instructed me to reply "STOP". She then blocked them from texting me in the future. I am concerned that she had me respond to them, but now that Verizon have a record of my call, I'll check my billing diligently. The rep assured me that any of these spam texts, if replied to within 24 hours, never show up on billing...so be sure to reply "STOP" & let your carrier know. It is amazing what some people will do to rip people off!!

Started receiving these messages and did not sign up for the service.  Company showing up is MOBSETTER IQ Fun Facts.  phone humber  is  1-866-861-1606.  These folks started this in the past week and charged two months against my mobile phone carrier.  Once you see any charge call your mobile provider fast and they will block the charge since it will be on your next Bill.   I blocked them and will have to continue to call my mobile carrier inorder to not be billed.

Be sure to keep calling back to notify them of messages coming to your mobile phone as they will continue to bill you.

Also they will claim ignorance if you contact them.  Do not answer back to the messages for Help of to say Stop as that creates some ownership they will try to convince your carrier you signed up.

Be carefull of what you signup for through your smart phone, Iphone as they will use pop-ups to gain information or use you.  

Contact your BBB, State government office and Federal offices for complaints as this is FRAUD.  

Watch your messages very closely on what is occuring cause POP-UPs now have reached the cell phone community.  You might want to turn off your Caller-id on your phone or call your provider to verify that will deter these leaches from scamming you.

Seems that Peggy (guy on tv that knows nothing) if you all for help from these companies has reached the mobile phone folks.

Remember do not provide these folks with a password they suggest.

Just called AT&T. They removed the charge and put a 3rd party services block on my phone. This is a very bad scam that most people will not catch. You must call your service provider to make it stop and get a refund. AT&T rep told me that "she alone is getting 10 calls a day" about this SCAM. I posted a warning to my friends in Facebook. Consider doing the same. But, you must call your service provider NOW to make the charges and service stop. DO NOT follow the "STOP" instructions in the text. It will not help you. Spread the word!

I JUST HIT SOMETHING!! I looked up purely the number. It belongs to BRAINCOOLIQ mobile content service. Under "Registration & Access to Services" part a, it says "Access to the Service. In order to use the Service, you must have a mobile communications subscription with a participating carrier or otherwise have access to a mobile communications network for which Company makes the Service available as well as any carrier services necessary to download content (e.g., T-Mobile's T-ZonesTM services), and pay any service fees associated with any such access."

Part b says, "After you have signed up for a Subscription Plan(s), you may view the details of your plan under ?my zone? after you input your mobile phone number and your password, or contact 1-866-861-1606."

Part e, titled Access without Registration, says "Company may provide you with access to some Services without you registering as a user, such as sign-up via SMS. In each such case your identification is based on means of identification that we deem appropriate, such as your mobile telephone number."

So our carriers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc) could have agreed to this and then threw it at us without our knowledge.

At around 12:12 eastern, I got hit as well. 3 messages sent inder the ID 77050. 1st was the same as Jon Clark's, except I had 9578 as the number to enter. The 2nd was "welcome to IQ! for HELP call 18666811606 $9.99/mo. Reply HELP for help, STOP to canncel. Msg&Data Retes May Apply". The 3rd was a random fact.

And the number was indeed 8668611606

I'm gona wait for my parents, since they'll have a better idea of what to do with AT&T.

On that Imagine MyCrush text msg about billing you $9.99/mo., besides texting back STOP, did you also call Verizon? I've never had any issues like this, but tonight, out of nowhere, I get this text from these Imagine My Crush people. How can they do this? Verizon just lets people charge your account with no permission from you?

just received one, it was called imagine my crush, same phone number. Hate scammers! they sent text every minute. They said i would be charged unless I told them to stop, which I did.

It is a SCAM.   My daughter just got nailed with this scam from MobibroIQ - same 866 861 1606 number, same routine. Already had charged our AT&T mobile account $9.99 for 3 'help' messages a month. AT&T support said:  'I currently do not show any content purchased on 8668611606. I show xxx-xxx-xxxx does have a $9.99 message alert feature in place as of  1/5/2011.'  So these crooks are charging us $10 a month to alert us to the criminal messages they sent us!

AT&T  refunded the charge and canceled the service without problem. The guy I talked to said it was 'not common'. Somehow I don't think that is not quite true.  

The real issue here is that some low life has tried to defraud me and in doing so has forced me to waste my time reversing it.  The cost to them is next to nothing, but 40 minutes of my time searching (thank you 'whocallsme!) to figure out what is going on and then chatting with my carrier to finally fix it.

Today I got 3 messages from MpbChanceIQ. I called ATT customer care and told them about this. They cancelled my subscription and refunded me the $9.99 charge. They also added protection services which won't automatically activate any such things without me requiring to enter a pin.

This is an inside job. I sent Verizon a question on their website (official web form) and was called back by what appeared to be their REAL service number (1-800-922-0204). They left a message saying to give them a call back. I opened the RECENT CALLS section on my phone and hit CALL. it connected me to a Mobile Help company, not Verizon. I spoke with a guy who seemed to not know a lot and asked me questions he should have known. It didn't sound legit so I didn't give him any real info (account number, passcode,...) all he had was my cell number. He told me to email my bill to support@ihelpmobile.com. I hung up and didn't do that. I thought "that guy didn't seem right" so I looked at my recent OUT CALLS. The number that dialed was 866-861-1606. The same number that sent me the $9.99 charge! Somehow they intercepted the web form question to Verizon customer service and called me back with their real number hidden... it showed on my phone as the real Verizon number! I then called the real Verizon number. I actually entered the 800-922-0204 on the keypad and was connected to Verizon. Do not respond to the 866-861-1606 number or hit the CALLBACK button to Verizon if they call you. Open your dial pad and type it in. Verizon is blocking all premium messages on my phone and crediting back the $9.99.

3678 - Enter this on the website to continue MobChance IQ Fun Facts 18668611606 $9.99/mo. Msg&Data Rates May Apply. Reply HELP for help.

Above is the exact message that I just recieved. Apparently they are under another name too. Came out of nowhere after a geomap search for government agency that deals with hackers. I never get these messages currently, but got a lot of them a year ago.

I got the same text from MobiracerIQ text ID 60206 - I called the 866 number and some foreign dude told me someone would call me back to arrange for refund - I'm not holding my breathe but I did get results from my carrier Sprint - they are very familiar with this rip-off and made sure I was not charged and blocked further texts from the crooks.