By Colin Gibbs
April 19, 2008 - 5:59 am EDT
Sprint Nextel Corp. hopes to clean up the direct-to-consumer content business by hitting wayward partners where it hurts. The carrier last month told off-deck content aggregators that it will be “strictly enforcing” new revenue-share penalties for vendors who violate Mobile Marketing Association guidelines. Partners who repeatedly stray out of bounds — by incurring high refund rates, for instance, or not reporting billing errors to the carrier — can forfeit every dime and lose their short codes, while those who play by the rules can see as much as a 10% bump in revenue splits.
…But the document outlines nearly three dozen potential infractions — mandating price caps for content subscriptions, banning the use of the word “free” in some marketing campaigns, and requiring “help” and “opt out” information, among other things — and spells out penalties based on the number of transgressions and level of severity…The policy also addresses mobile phone numbers that have been recycled and reassigned to new users. Carriers have been hammered by consumers who have received “new” numbers only to have pricey subscription services carried over from previous subscribers… 
By Jeffrey Silva
April 17, 2008 - 2:13 pm EDT
A class-action lawsuit filed against Alltel Corp. accuses the regional mobile-phone carrier of adding unauthorized charges on subscribers’ monthly bills. The suit focuses on the relationships between Alltel and third-party mobile content providers and billing aggregators such as m-Qube Inc., a unit of VeriSign Inc. “Alltel has for years been systematically, repeatedly and without authorization, billing its customers for purchases and services not agreed to by those customers,” the suit states. “Alltel and third-party service providers have, on information and belief, profited significantly through this practice.” …
April 10, 2007 6:51 PM
…Thompson and attorneys have filed a class-action lawsuit against Jamster, claiming the ads were false and misleading and that they hid the true cost of their product. They also allege the company sold ring tones to children who did not know what they were buying…
By Matt Friedman, Special for USA TODAY
March 27, 2007
Last year, Doug Fodeman took his 13-year-old daughter, Lauren, to the mall to buy her a cellphone. Before she used the phone even once, it beeped, indicating there was a text message.
The message: a "dumb-blonde" joke. It was unsolicited, but when the first monthly bill came, there was a mystery charge of $9.99 explained only as "download."
…Billing disputes over premium text services have spawned several class-action lawsuits. The Florida attorney general's office is investigating the advertising practices of Jamster, one of the fledgling industry's U.S. leaders, and Blinko, the company responsible for the mystery charges on Fodeman's bill…
Florida Attorney General Cracking Down on Ringtone Scammers
Shaw Collins
February 7, 2007 8:21 PM
I hear that folks from the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Florida are knocking on lots of doors in search of shady affiliate marketers.
It seems there have been some very questionable marketing efforts for ringtone offers, and the Florida Attorney General is anxious to bring the bad actors to justice.
Forbidden behavior has included cramming (manually inputting leads without the consumer's knowledge), as well as marketing offers as free, when there is a fee, via deceptive advertising and the manipulation of landing pages…
Icstis Website Aims to Mitigate Mobile Misery
Dinah Greek, Computeract!ve
04 Dec 2006
Icstis has today launched an interactive website specifically aimed at educating children about premium-rate services.
It is increasingly easy for children to access premium-rate services; 65 per cent of children aged eight to 15 own a mobile phone and the same proportion have internet access at home, while seven in 10 have access to digital TV at home.
With services such as ringtones, wallpapers, pay-to-receive texts, vote to save (or get rid of) contestants on TV reality shows and competitions, premium-rate lines are springing up all the time. Although many services can be accessed by landline, much of the misery of high costs comes from mobile connections
Last year one such content provider, Jamster, was criticised by the Advertising Standards Agency for not making it clear enough in adverts or on the website that customers buying the Crazy Frog ringtone were subscribing to a club…
The Observer
Sunday December 3, 2006
Buying a cheap phone package for their child's Christmas present could end up costing parents a lot more than they think if they don't monitor how it is used. Charlotte O'Hanlon, 14, unwittingly racked up a bill for £300 when she bought a ringtone from Jamster, the company behind the Crazy Frog ringtone. "I bought a Jamster ringtone from the telly, but once I'd done that I started getting two or three texts a day and that went on for about a month," she says. "I got the bill at the end of the month and realised these texts cost £2 each. My dad went spare. I thought I had just bought one ringtone, so I just kept deleting the texts." …
Sara Underwood
April 25, 2006
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NewsProNet recently interviewed me for a syndicated news story they produced for CBS local TV news. They didn't mention jamsterscam.com, and failed to mention most of the great points that our readers have contributed to the More Stories section; but we can't expect to get everything we want.
I'm so happy that the word is getting out! I'm hopeful that this will pick up the momentum and eventually something will be done to stop the scams for good.
So far, it has only aired on a few stations, but will eventually run on the local news on CBS stations nationwide. The best editing an narrating job I've found is the version done by Sara Underwood for CBS News in Boston. View the video on line .
Here's the version they did at WCBSTV in New York.. |
Alan Coughlin
Jamster Scam Editor
Duncan McCleod
22 July 2006
Mobile content providers in SA [South Africa] have to abide by strict rules that have been set down to protect consumers from bad business practices…
Germany’s Jamster has been accused of unethical practices and has come under fire in Europe for making it difficult for people to unsubscribe from subscription services…..
Cellular customers can get caught in a tangle of extra charges, consumer advocates say.
Raquel Rutledge
April 16, 2006
Cell phone owners who hastily pay their monthly bill may want to slow down and pay closer attention to the itemized charges, as a growing number of consumers complain that they're being billed for services they never authorized or used….
Cell-Phone Users Find Extra Items on Bill Via Unsolicited Offers
Monique Curet, The Columbus Dispatch
March 03, 2006
Carroll Glynn’s cell-phone bill included three $10 charges that no one in her family could explain. The Ohio State University professor finally traced them to a text-messaged sales pitch her 15-year-old son received but ignored…
Danielle Teutsch
February 19, 2006
CHILDREN continue to be sucked into signing up for costly ring tone subscriptions despite moves to crack down on the industry.
Kerri Dennis, from consumer website Not Good Enough, said her 12-year-old daughter was recently charged $80 in fees when she thought she had bought a one-off ring tone.
She had responded to a television ad from ring tone company Jamster…
Dana Blankenhorn
February 2, 2006
Verisign CEO Stratton Sclavos is a big investor in incumbency…But his biggest consumer rip-off to date is Jamba, which does business here as Jamster. Amazing how the major media never attached Verisign to the “Crazy Frog” scandal, which cost European teenagers millions-upon-millions through a bait-and-switch scheme that turned looking at a ringtone into a “subscription” for costly SMS spam messages…
…Cingular refused to even consider refunds, claiming “Jamster is a third party” and thus I’m subject to more rip-offs at any time…This is the Verisign business model in action. This is how Stratton Sclavos makes his money. This is what he pays political protection for…
Sam Matthews, Brand Republic
January 25, 2006
LONDON—Jamster, the ringtone company behind the Crazy Frog TV ad, has failed in its attempt to stop its ads being banned from broadcast before the watershed, despite its own survey showing the majority of its customers are adults…
Colin Gibbs
December 21, 2005
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company was fined $70,000 by U.K. watchdog group LCSTIS… Jamba and its US sister company Jamster have made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic this year as consumer groups blasted the firms for allegedly fraudulent business practices …
A Telephone Watchdog Is Looking Into Complaints Against Monstermob
Lisa Bachelor, The Observer
November 6, 2005
…Complaints about mobile phone download companies have also been made to other watchdogs. The Advertising Standards Authority upheld 298 complaints last September against Jamster, the firm behind the infamous Crazy Frog ringtone, because its television adverts did not make it clear that its mobile services were offered on a subscription basis rather than for a one-off payment…
The regulator of premium rate telcoms services in Ireland, Regtel, has published a code to protect children from being hit with high costs for mobile services.
Ciara O'Brien
November 01 2005
The new code of practice regarding children's services, which came into effect on Tuesday, limits the amount young mobile users can spend on subscription services to EUR10 a month, or EUR5 per single call…
Louise McBride
October 30, 2005
Children under 18 will not be able to spend more than €10 a month on mobile-phone ringtones and other subscription services when a new code comes into force this week.
This follows concerns about the alleged misleading promotion and cost of subscription services such as mobile phone ringtones, logos and wallpapers.
Regtel, which regulates premium rate phone lines such as competition lines and mobile phone ringtones, has just published a new code of practice, which will come into force on Tuesday. Previously, only children under the age of 16 were protected under the Regtel code. This age limit has now been increased to 18…
Jaime Gottlieb
October 19, 2005
The Crazy Frog has been getting into a bit of trouble this year. Consumers near and far have been complaining about Jamster’s allegedly misleading advertisements, which loop consumers into paying subscription fees for what were advertised as “free ringtones.” Countless blogs and forums have sprung up that are dedicated to getting the word out about this apparent Jamster scam…
Mobiledia, MD
September 22, 2005, 11:41 AM
Jamba! GmbH, the parent company of Jamster, has lost a Court judgment to prevent the release of negative publications of its television advertising practices for "Jamster Crazy Frog," "Sweetie the Chick" and "Nessie the Dragon" ringtones.
In its adjudication, the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld 298 public complaints that it was unclear the ads were promoting a subscription service (rather than a one-off payment) and that the style of the ads were of particular appeal to children. The ASA ordered that a post-9pm restriction be applied to the ads in future…
Jamster! Statement Regarding ASA Adjudication Decision
LONDON, PRNewswire
September 21, 2005
Attributed to: Markus Berger-de León, Chief Operating Officer
The following Jamster! statement was developed in response to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) Council's Adjudication, dated 21 September 2005, finding that specific Jamster! television advertisements appeal to children and should be restricted to broadcast only after 9 P.M.
"Jamster! appreciates the vital role that the ASA plays for consumers and the industry, but we believe the ASA's decision in this matter involving specific past Jamster! television advertisements, is flawed.
"In particular, the ASA fails to adequately consider the well-established fact that the overwhelming majority of Jamster!'s customers are above age 16 or the protective measures that Jamster! has exercised as part of its advertising, including a specific '16-and-over' callout button.
"For example, a recent independent study on Jamster! usage, conducted by ICM Research between 5-13 September 2005, found that of respondents that purchased content between June 2004 and August 2005, the mean age was 32. Those found to be under 16 accounted for only 1.6 percent of those polled and 0.4 percent of those who had enrolled in Jamster! in response to advertisements cited under the ASA adjudication were under the age of 16…
UCAN Press Release
July 20, 2005, 1:30 PM
Consumer Group Seeks to Stop New Forms of Cell Company Rip-Offs
A consumer group is declaring war on the newest scourge infecting wireless phones: Cellular Cramming.
Cellular Cramming comes in the form of unwanted text messages or ringtones that are charged to unsuspecting customers’ bills. Today, UCAN, the San Diego-based Utility Consumers’ Action Network filed two complaints with California regulators demanding that the state put an end to the growing numbers of “Cellular Cram” complaints. One of the greatest concerns raised by these complaints is that the carriers are using these practices to supplement their profits. This gives them a clear economic disincentive against ending cramming…
By Pete Freedman,
The Miami Herald
July 15, 2005, 8:00 PM PT
All his 10-year-old daughter did was send a text message. And it cost Charles Ford 80 bucks.
The girl had messaged a company called Jamster, responding to a television ad promising her a free ring tone. She said she never downloaded any of the songs the company sent her, but for each message she received, Ford was billed US$1.99, plus another 5 cents for each text message she read over her monthly limit. And the messages kept coming.
Unfair Targeting
T-Mobile, his daughter's service provider, denied responsibility and Jamster refused requests for a refund. Frustrated, Ford hired an attorney. Now he's suing Jamster and the three cellular phone service providers that grant their customers access to this service—T-Mobile, AT&T, and Cingular—as part of a lawsuit accusing the wireless companies of negligence and blaming Jamster for targeting a younger, naive audience.
"I don't think it's rocket science to see that that's what they're trying to do," said Ford's lawyer, Robert Thompson of Callahan, McCune & Willis in California…
Two industry groups release guidelines for selling mobile content to users.
By Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service
May 26, 2005
Two U.S.-based mobile industry groups are trying to rein in a Wild West market for cell-phone downloads, publishing a set of "best practices" for selling content such as ringtones, daily messages, and screen backgrounds…
May 5, 2005, 5:55 AM EDT
BALTIMORE -- If your child has a cell phone, you have more to worry about than them going over their minutes, Baltimore television station WBAL reported.
The fancy ring tones that are a hot commodity with teens just might be the reason cell phone bills are high.
It's not enough for your children to have cell phones -- they want all the extras like wallpaper and ring tones to make their phones special. So when Gabrielle Barnes, 14, saw an advertisement offering ring tones from a company called Jamster, she jumped on it.
"It just said free ring tones," said Gabrielle.
But it wasn't free. Charges showed up on her mother's phone bill, and for months Kim Barnes wondered what the extra charges were for…
By Ed Oswald, BetaNews
April 8, 2005, 9:08 AM
A California resident has sued ringtone company Jamster over what he claims are misleading advertising practices that lure younger users into paying for text messages by advertising it as a "free ringtone."…
Lawsuit accuses Jamster of fraud and false advertising.
By Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service
April 05, 2005
Jamster, a service owned by VeriSign that sells ringtones and other content to mobile phone subscribers, is under attack for allegedly misleading young consumers into paying for expensive text messages.
A lawsuit filed last week in San Diego accuses Jamster of fraud and false advertising, saying it falsely advertises that mobile customers can get a free ringtone by sending a text message to the company. In reality, those customers then get text messages from Jamster that each cost $1.99 plus the mobile operator's standard per-message charge, according to the complaint brought by Charles Ford, who claims his daughter was lured into the service. Ford's lawyers at Callahan, McCune & Willis filed the case last Tuesday in Superior Court of California, County of San Diego, and are seeking to make it a class action on behalf of Jamster customers around the world.
Jamster is the U.S. name of Jamba, a German mobile content provider that VeriSign acquired in June 2004. The suit names VeriSign, Jamster, Jamba, and three U.S. mobile operators that Jamster says carry the service: T-Mobile USA, AT&T Wireless Services, and Cingular Wireless. VeriSign and T-Mobile declined to comment on the suit. Cingular, which now also owns AT&T Wireless, could not be reached for comment.
The Jamster service was launched in the U.S. late last year, the complaint says. The suit follows numerous gripes from consumers in the U.S. and Europe, some posted on Web sites. One disgruntled customer has started an online petition against the company. However, some posts indicate unhappy users have been able to cancel their subscriptions and get refunds from Jamster.
Jamster advertises on TV and other media that mobile customers can get a free ringtone if they send a text message to the number displayed on the ad. In fact, those who sent the text message got multiple messages back notifying them that content was available for download, according to the complaint…
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