I'm always skilled at smelling scams and scums from hundred miles away
but how this scam eluded me is still a puzzle to me. First I would like
to apologize to everyone for not playing my informal role as the "public
watchdog" properly and alerting Kenyan users of the Mobile Zone
Wireless scam.
Before I continue, here is how to UNSUBSCRIBE from the service: Send an SMS with the word "
STOP" to
5503 . These scums will charge you a final Ksh.30 for unsubscribing!
The fraudulent company offered some captivating ads asking users to
answer questions such as "Who is the real Obama?" blah blah. When you
click the link, it takes you to a page where you are asked to answer the
question and then enter the phone your phone number to be entered into a
draw to "win" cool mobile phones or an iPadetc. No terms of Service are
even displayed during the entire process but you will begin knowing the
Terms of service soon enough when Ksh.30 begins to disappear from your
phone mysteriously, everyday. The parent company, Orangino is based in
Stockolm, Sweden and owned by one Ulla Osterman but it seems they have
some minions in Kenya to do their bidding. You can tell the scammer,
Ulla Osterman, what you think by emailing them at this email
ulla@businesscompetence.com .
Subscribing for this service is quite easy but unsubscribing is another
matter altogether.Once you are in, there's no easy way out as there is
no readily accessible info on how to unsubscribe. If you are a busy guy
like me, you might be stuck with this service for a month before you can
find time to get through to your mobile phone company's customer
service(In my case, Safaricom). It's like signing a deal with the
devil!
The moment you subscribe, you automatically accept their obscure Terms
of Service(TOS) that they will be deducting Ksh.30 from your account
anytime they send useless ringtones etc to download, and they can do
this as frequently as everyday. They ask you to click the link
http://m.ke.orangino.com. That means every day you will be losing sh.30
to an unsolicited service that you have not asked for. They use strong
arm tactics to fleece consumers and how Safaricom allows something like
this within their network beats logic. I guess for mobile companies,
every revenue stream is acceptable, there are no ethical considerations
on protecting consumers from fraud. So now thousands or even hundreds of
thousands of consumers are stuck with Orangino, losing millions of
shillings every day to some obscure company based in Stockholm!
