I’ve Been Had

For a month and a half or so, every Friday at noon, a text message has been coming to my iPhone. 

It’s from a number I don’t recognize.  A five digit number.  And it’s a nugget of trivia.  One was, fingernails grow 4 times faster than toenails.  It’s been mildly amusing and although I know I didn’t sign up for weekly trivia to come to my phone, I didn’t give it much thought.  After all, noon is the end of my day and Friday is the end of my week.  You might say I’m not at my best.

Foolish me.

On Friday when my trivia text came in (a newborn baby’s head accounts for one-quarter of its weight) I was still sitting in the newsroom with my news colleagues, waiting for our friend from Wingham to arrive to go for lunch.  I shared the contents of the text and remarked on how I couldn’t remember authorizing this intrusion.  My coworker Avery asked, “Have you checked your phone bill?”  “Not very closely”, I admitted.  Avery said she had received something similar and was being charged $1.99 for each text until she put a stop to it.

I made a mental note.

That night I took a close look at my phone bill.  I wasn’t being charged $1.99 per text.  I was being charged $5.  Each!  $20 a month!!! And I had let this go for at least a month.  Now I owed a second month’s worth. 

I called Rogers.  They explained that they weren’t able to prevent an incoming text without preventing ALL incoming texts, but if I texted “stop” back to the number, it would be blocked.  So I did.  And I got a confirmation text.  Wonder what that one cost.

So I’m about $40 poorer but infinitely wiser.  It appears that somehow this “third party” got my cell number and without my say-so billed me for the “service” through Rogers and in turn, Rogers happily added the amount to my cell bill.

Notes to self:  Don’t be blasé about unsolicited text messages.  Second note to self: Listen to Avery and her generation when it comes to the use of technology.  And third: there is no trivia in the world that’s worth $5 a pop.