How to protect yourself from paid subscriptions of telecom operators

Where do paid subscriptions come from?

Let's say you wanted to listen to music on your smartphone and entered the corresponding request in your mobile browser. The search returned a list of relevant sites. Going to one of them, you saw a stub with a transition proposal for listening. You cannot close it.

After tapping on the stub, you were thrown somewhere on the side of the cellular operator, which is clearly indicated by the address bar of the browser.

The picture was made correctly. An underdressed young lady with a musical instrument is a good distraction. White text on a light gray background is more difficult to see. One more tap, and you already have a paid subscription. 30 rubles a day or 900 rubles a month. By the way, there can be as many subscriptions as you like. Do you understand the scale of the problem?

Some more or less technically savvy people may be indignant: "But what idiot would SO look for music?" A question like this is a good indicator of immaturity of thinking.

There are 146.5 million citizens in Russia. Not all of them are tech-savvy. We must not forget about children and the elderly.

Cellular operators, of course, pretend to care about their customers and pretend to be trying to make a difference. What they just don't come up with: applications with which you can check for subscriptions, new tariffs with the illusion of protection from subscriptions, and so on.

But what about changing the process itself? Why not make the confirmation of consent to withdraw money more explicit? For example, by sending SMS?

The problem is that operators profit from paid subscriptions, and imitation of customer care is typical hypocrisy. Bees versus honey.

How to protect yourself from paid subscriptions

The only reliable way to protect yourself from paid subscriptions is to create an additional (content) account.

Federal Law No. 229-FZ of July 23, 2013 “obliges operators to create, at the request of the subscriber, a separate account to pay for content services of third parties. Withdrawing funds from the main account to pay for the content services of third parties attracted by the telecom operator becomes impossible.

Simply put, after creating a content account, the telecom operator will no longer be able to charge money for paid subscriptions to partner services from your main account. You just have to keep the balance of the content account at zero.

Therefore, make sure that you have not enabled auto-replenishment of your content account from your main account. The telecom operator can impose this service, and then the whole idea will lose its meaning.

Please note: the content account protects against paid subscriptions to the services of the telecom operator's partners. If a paid service is provided by the telecom operator itself, then the money for it will still be debited from the main account.

How to create a content account

Unfortunately, the procedure is different for different telecom operators and may vary even depending on the region. In one case, it will be enough to send a USSD request, and in the other, you will have to go to the salon with a passport. Call your operator's support service and ask for clear instructions. This is your right guaranteed by law.

Support phone numbers (call within Russia is free):

Beeline - 8 800 700 06 11.
Megafon - 8 800 550 05 00.
MTS - 8 800 250 08 90.
Tele2 - 8 800 555 06 11.

How to protect children, parents and grandparents

If possible, help them create an additional (content) account.
If the creation of such an account requires a visit to a communication salon, and the person cannot come there, issue a new number for him in your name.
Control the account of another subscriber through your personal account. Thus, you can check the availability of paid services and, if necessary, disable them. However, this is a less reliable option.