Massive Unauthorized VAS Activation Fraud at Bharti Airtel

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Lately, there have been increasing number of complaints against Bharti Airtel for unauthorized activation of value added services [Unlimited SMS, Caller Tunes, etc]. Well, I normally don’t resort to writing about pennies, but having had first hand experience myself and two other instances in front of my eyes, I am intrigued to write and expose the fraudulent business practices at Bharti Airtel.

I don’t remember the date [read within the past 30 days] but, I received a SMS [despite subscribing to NDNC –Offense -1] from Bharti Airtel saying that ISD Tariffs have been revised and I could check the revised tariffs by sending a SMS. I did that and bingo, they activated Unlimited SMS 99 pack on my number [Offense -2]. I then had to call their Paid Call Center [yes All Calls to Bharti Airtel 121 are no more Free] and this guy tells me that I activated the service [Offense – 3, Your executives are LIARS], I asked him to go Audit your system, but he wouldn’t understand and upon shouting he took a complaint to deactivate – They generated 4 complaints and REF #s are –  31505446, 31492296, 31486937 and 31469369. Finally, the service was deactivated. [Ofcourse they’ll, because they are guilty of attempting to rob me, but caught]

In another incident, it happened with my brother [some VAS was activated without consent] and him being from the US was totally pissed off the way customer care spoke and refused to credit the amount back [Oho! well I told him, not worth the pain as we had other priority task on hand]

The third instance was with a distant relative, a Man in his 70s with barely Rs 100 in his pocket traveling all the way from his village to visit my mom who is recovering from a surgery. I took his mobile and asked him why had he activated Caller Tune [there was a message in his Inbox] and he cursed them saying they keep ripping him off, but he wants to stay connected. Mr. Mittal and team shame on you guys for robbing an innocent Am Aadmi.

If the Average Fraudulent Activation amount  Rs 30 / Subscriber and if they have done it on 10% of their subscribers [on a rotational basis, with a complex algorithm doing the fraudulent scheduling] at any given instance they will be making Rs 360 mn a month.

The act of Fraud at Bharti Airtel goes on – Read the comment at the end of article here by V Ravichnder, Read the List of Complaints against Airtel Prepaid,  Airtel Network, Airtel etc] I would like to enlighten Ravichander that TRAI is a laid back with incompetent employees who do not feel the necessity to fix fraudulent business practices, even though they are empowered to. It is a state of pity that TRAI doesn’t even consider opinions and issues raised by subject experts.

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16 Comments

  1. MASSIVE FRAUD AT RELIANCE COMMUNICATIONS AS WELL!

    1) Out of the blue, I start receiving SHAYARI on my phone. No SMS about activation, etc at all [Offense 1]. 5 days later, I receive an SMS, saying your SHAYARI pack is ON at charges of Rs. 30 per month [ARGH] – SMS XYZ to PQR to unsubscribe. I SMS SXY to PQR – response – this is not a valid number [BIG CHEATING]. Finally, I went to their shop and got it deactivated. I have no clue if my money was refunded.

    2) My mom (doesnt speak good english), got a call – “Madam, you will receive some health related information on SMS in couple of days, please read”. Mom, thought some government public service or something, said yes. 3 days later, reliance activates some “health pack”, at 30 rs / month. [HOW SICK CAN RELIANCE GET? And now we know the morals of the Indian tycoons]. After an angray call to their customer center, they deactivated – money did not get refunded :(. No enthu to crib to them. I just hope God likes justice. My mom and I shared same feelings after the incident – imagine, the poor bhajiwala or plumber, who takes a mobile connection with his savings, thinking its cheap enough for him to afford – and gets robbed at rate of 30 rs per month?

  2. No wise comments about the SXY typo please 🙂 – I did SMS the correct thing to them .. honest 🙂

  4. Selective Online stories of Customer woes against Airtel Reveals

    How rigorous and consistent swindling of small amounts through “Sensuous lip- service marketing”, utter disregard to TRAI billing norms and ably backed up by COCKROACH APPROACH to customer service, day after day, month after month, since 1996 made the Airtel Empire today!)

    While I was browsing online to air-and-share my experience with Airtel, stumbled upon (Typing Airtel+fraud or Airtel+cheat in Google) their consistent and systematic swindling of retail customers, most of whom have silently borne their brunt. For many, like the first listing below, it has been an awful and disgusting experience. The list of pages and the individual listings would require years to read! I made a sample study after going through 100’s of pages – Primarily understood the magnitude of this SCAM, done without batting an eye-lid, year after year.) Here are the voices of some of them…

    Am sure ‘wise-and-clean’ men in TRAI and visionaries in GOI would take cognizance of this, in the larger interests of this MIGHTY nation!

  5. Calling all CITIZENS OF INDIA WHO ARE CHEATED/DEFRAUDED BY AIRTEL

    Dear Bretheren,

    Kindly view 15th April Indian Express and The Hindu (Both Chennai edition)

    http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/customer-files-complaint-against-airtel/165478.html and

    http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/15/stories/2010041559660300.htm

    While we applaud Mr.Infant Dinesh for his bold initiative, my heart goes out to the rural folks AND other lesser mortals who otherwise won’t have any clue to the “gullible” marketing techniques of Private operators like Airtel. The sections in which the cases are registered by the Chennai Suburban Police shows the seriousness of the case, as I whistle-blowed couple of weeks ago, after hearing the language against Airtel, posted in various online forums by all of you.

    Can we do together and make Airtel kneel-down and pay-up? Shall we have people volunteering from each state to file a police case and others following up with their complaints based on the Infant Dinesh model? Concentrate on VAS related frauds, they are huge, we found after a research. It’s against the LAW, charging without customer’ consent. Hence the police are taking it seriously and are looking at more evidence.

    To start with Kindly email your complaint against Airtel to infantdinesh at gmail dot com infantdinesh@gmail.com or gatesandwindows at gmail dot com gatesandwindows@gmail.com with subject Airtel. Write in brief a) Your basic details-Account or phone no, b) Your complaint c)Response from Airtel d) Quantify the tangible losses e)
    What are the intangible losses – Like losing connection, time waste, mental torture etc.,, if possible quantify that as well.

    People in Chennai please contact Mr.Infant Dinesh @ 98413 14812(Folks, he’s an advocate as well) or myself @ 98410 47174 RIGHT NOW. With you, together, we’ll be meeting the Police Commissioner next week as per plan for the next steps.

    Please pass on this message to your near and dear as well so as they can share their experiences as well.

    Look forward to everyone’s support.

    Good day!

    Warm Rgds
    V.Ravichander

  6. Excess Data Charges without Supporting Documents during International Roaming
    I am a customer with Airtel Karnataka for the past 3 years+ and have been regular and prompt payer of bills. My Mobile Number is 9972043211.
    I traveled to Japan on 27th November 2009 and reached on 28th November 2009. I returned to India on 12th December 2009. THERE IS OVER RS.5375/- AND RS.9700/- CHARGED FOR DATA, WHEN I HAD NOT USED DATA TRANSFER / DATA CONNECTION.
    Again, I traveled on 19th December 2009 late evening and reached Japan on 20th December 2009. I returned to India on 23rd December 2009. I received an SMS alert on 20th December tell me my outstanding as over 25000/- On 21st December 2009 afternoon I received another alert stating my outstanding as Rs.36000/- Within a span of 1 day without using data connection, I do not know how Rs.11000/- can be the increase.
    I had disputed these data charges and till date without resolution, i keep getting calls from Airtel at all times and every time i need to explain the same story to their CSRs. Meanwhile, I kept Paying the Regular Plan, Call and SMS charges.
    On 17th March 2010, my outgoing calls and SMs were barred even though I had paid all the phone charges except for the above disputed amount asking them to provide breakup of the sites that I am said to have visited. Till date they did not provide me the breakup, but had barred my Outgoing facility.
    I hope at least now they will resolve, failing which need to highlight this kind of money making in press and take up legally.
    NOW AIRTEL IS SENDING GOONDAS AND ROWDIES TO COLLECT MONEY WHO KEEP ABUSING AND THREATENING US INCLUDING MY AGED MOTHER WHEN I AM NOT AROUND. THESE GOONDAS ARE THREATENING TO KILL MY MOTHER AND BURY HER APART FROM KILLING MY OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS.
    BESIDES, AIRTEL HAS BEEN CALLLING AND HARASSING SOME OF THE PERSONS FOR PAYMENT OR INFORMATION, WHOSE NUMBERS APPEARED ON MY ITEMIZED CALL STATEMENT IN THE PAST.
    THERE NODAL OFFICER DISHES OUT STANDARD ANSWERS.
    INSTEAD OF BEING LAWFUL, AIRTEL IS RESORTING TO CHEAP AND SHAMELESS TACTICS OF SENDING MESSAGES TO ALL THE NUMBER, WHOM I MIGHT HAVE CALLED AT SOME TIME DURING THOSE 3 YEARS.
    NOT CHOICE, BUT TO GO TO THE POLICE AND HIGHER UPS FOR THESE THREATS.

  7. hey i was also cheated by the airtel compnay for rs.225.
    once i got a free 2gb download limit from airtel and after sum days they deducted 175 from m y a/c and when i asked why they did they sai sir u have downloaded the games from airtel live but i have not even entered d airtel live service. after sum days i activated the net recharge of rs.89 again the same thing happened and they deducted my 50 rs.
    i fighted a lot with t he customer care but they just kept on saying our system is telling u have downloaded.
    i just have to say that “BHARTI AIRTEL IS A BIG COMPNAY BUT A BIG ROBBER BIGGER THAN A DON WHO ROBS, CHEAT PEOPLE LEGALLY AND WE AAM ADMI CANT FIGHT BEACUSE FIGHTING ALSO CAUSE A LOT MONEY”

  8. Airtel is running a scam wherein they activate services on consumer’s prepaid account and start deducting the charges without the customer’s knowledge. This is usually a small amount which is not noticed by the customer. I noticed that a charge was being deducted from my Airtel account. When I called up Airtel consumer care, they informed me that I had activated the following services : Picture Post and Jokes. According to them, these services were activated on July 1st and I was being charged daily until today, i.e. October 1st. I informed them that in the first place, I had not activated the service and in the second place, I was not even receiving the jokes and movie info that I was supposed to receive with these services. If I had been receiving these messages I would have realised that I was being charged for them and I would have instantly called to deactivate these services. This is not the first time this has happened to me. About 6 months back I had the same experience but at that time I received the messages that I had supposedly subscribed to, hence I became aware of the deduction and deactivated the service immediately. When I spoke to the customer care executive today, he informed me that apart from deactivating these services, he could not do anything regarding the amount that I had been fraudulently charged in the last three months. Though the amount is not a large one, I feel cheated and upset that a large company like Bharti Airtel has to resort to such a scam to make money off its customers. I have found many similar complaints online from Airtel prepaid customers. I also have prepaid accounts with Vodafone and Reliance and have never faced such a problem with them. To avoid having to pay such unauthorised charges, the only option left to me is to stop using Airtel services. Airtel has definitely lost a customer and if they do not want to lose any more, they should stop cheating their customers in this manner.

  10. Almost each and every airtel customer is facing this and number portability has recently started in Haryana, so, at last I’m switching my operator.

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