Thanks freeze , that gives me some excellent points to consider. Definitely going to give AT&T a call here after work, tell them to block third-party billing and try to head this off at the pass in case I did happen to get signed up. Hopefully I can kill two birds with one stone that way.
This would work well because I'm still wary of replying to this text myself, but it sounds like there's a greater chance that inaction could actually lead to unwanted billing than I first thought.
Hopefully the call with AT&T won't take too long.
Here's a short video on YouTube that explains the scam very well.
Just got off the phone with AT&T...didn't take long at all. I had them verify that there were no unauthorized charges on my account, then I had them set up what they call "Purchase Blocker" on both of my lines so that SMS-based billing is disallowed. Sounds like this should take care of things, though I will post back if anything else untoward happens.
Thanks to everyone here for the help; I appreciate it!
I have it so 'SMS short codes are blocked' on all of my Sprint lines. I would request this feature via eChat so you have a record that they blocked 3rd party billing
Had this same issue on my VZW phone. When I called, they also confirmed there were no pending charges. Two billing cycles later, the fraudulent charge was listed under "usage charges". I called again and VZW reversed the charge. Be sure to check your bill(s)! As an aside, I did not respond with "STOP" to the indicated short code. Member DC DSL pretty much nailed it with his reasoning about blasting.
