WARNING!!!

I am super duper peeved with this...but let this be a lesson for those that got involved in this and a warning for those that haven't. 3 weeks ago while I was "busy" browsing blogs, this pop-up came up on my screen (makes you wonder if IE's pop-up blocker actually works). Anyway it caught my attention as you can see why.

Evil pop-up window (click to enlarge)

And yes, being a Singaporean, I lived up to it. Its amazing how we all take part in something knowing that it winning has a lower chance compared to getting stricken down with a live threatening illness. I'm not calling this a "scam" but I have my reservations when i'm typing this post. I'll leave it to my dear readers to interpret this on your own.

So I followed the own screen instructions...simple enough. Choose the correct answer and click submit with your mobile phone number. Harmless...no need for personal details and you can choose to ignore sms adverts or unknown callers if your mobile number ever gets sold to some marketing company.

Mistake 1: Never read Terms & Conditions (Typical of me...maybe most people in this situation).

Mistake 2: Trusting a pop-up, especially when your IP address is used (Notice the SG flag on the page).

Shortly after I submitted my answer I recieved an SMS with another no-brainer question stating that I will be charged $4.00 per SMS...so I assumed that meant if I replied to that SMS with my answer I will be charged $4.00. CRAZY!!! Of course I ignored the SMS and happily lead my life. But noooo...few days later I recieved another SMS question and ignored it and after recieving the 3rd SMS, I scrolled down and followed the unsubscribe instruction...it was getting irritating. Imagine my shock when I recieved my SingTel bill and was charged $12.00 for the 3 SMS!!! At first I was wondering what was this "Sybase 365" charge and after googling, I realised I wasn't alone in this. Other people have also fallen pray to this and apparently SingTel has been alerted to it but they claim there isn't much they can do about it. I'm not so sure about M1 or Starhub. But according to my sources within SingTel, this particular company rented an SMS pipeline from them therefore the sender's number 72288. I personally called up SingTel's billing department and they promised to get Sybase 365 to contact me back regarding this but it has been 3 days and I haven't heard anything.

My take on this whole episode? Be very careful when providing personal information and READ THE BLOODY TERMS AND CONDITIONS!!! Even if you don't know what those funky terms are, you should check what they mean (Singapore Code of Practice for SMS service??? WTF). Quite disappointed that any Tom, Dick and Harry can abuse the above mentioned. They don't do background checks like they used too...the thing I'm most pissed about is that anyone can just enter a mobile number and the person recieving the SMSes have totally not idea what is happening.

Another bullshit advert from the same company (click to enlarge)

Stumbled upon another version of the "contest" while I was trying to track down the pop-up window by browsing blogs again. Another advice is to remove adsense from your websites...you never know what kind of advertisement you are harbouring on your sites.