If you have ever been victimized by these sort of text scams, please comment below.
We just want to get an idea of how many people have been affected by this.
Last February 28, I was surprised when I received a text message from Gamepad telling me that I am suddenly registered to them.
I DID NOT REGISTER TO ANYTHING.
No way at all did I ever register to Gamepad. I never play games on my phone, it is only used mainly for calls & texts, social media, taking pictures, checking emails and Waze. I am not a gamer and I prefer to watch shows instead of gaming.
Here’s the screenshot of the text messages:
Knowing that it’s better if I show the screenshot to Globe, I chose to report it via Twitter and not over the phone. I did not have time that day to take care of it since I was out, so I only reported it to Globe’s Twitter Customer Service, @talk2globe, last March 2.
Some of my friends have already told me about these kinds of subscription scams and how their prepaid load was being eaten up by these scammy charges. Anyway, I had my screenshot, and I thought that reporting this to Globe and resolving this would be fast and easy. Well, I thought wrong!
Buti nalang I always keep my Globe prepaid balance at ZERO and keep all my prepaid money in GCASH, as I described here. Whenever I need to subscribe to something, say, Gotscombodd70, I just go to GCash and reload P70, and then promptly register to Gotscombodd70, and my prepaid balance is back at ZERO. These scams are why (and also because I don’t like my prepaid load expiring).
So, I have no idea if Gamepad is eating any of my prepaid load because my prepaid load is ZERO. But, a close friend of mine has been victimized by this, and he gets P2.50 to P5.00 deducted every day before he got that resolved.
REPORTING THE GAMEPAD SCAM
If you do a quick Google search for “gamepad scam” you’ll see that many people have already been victimized by this.
Anyway, I reported this to Globe:
To be honest, I didn’t really mind the long response time. I first reported it at around 6 PM, but their next reponse was around 10 PM. What really bothered me was the robotic response and how they did not address my concerns. They just copy-pasted their spiel! Can they not chat like a normal person? Here I am, reporting a scam, worried if my prepaid load will be deducted next time when I reload, tapos, deadma sila!
For the NTH time, I did not subscribe to Gamepad!!!
Are they kidding? Nope, unfortunately not. P2.50 BALANCE IS REQUIRED just to unsubscribe from this scam that I never subscribed to in the first place??? Not gonna happen.
OH, MY F*&$#@G %$# HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO REPEAT MY CONCERN?
I was getting really, really ballistic at this point, but still trying to be civil. Check out the time stamp, it’s almost 4 AM already! I was just happy someone from Globe was answering, even if it’s all robotic responses.
TOO PISSED OFF TO CARE
At this point, I was just too pissed off to have them address my other concerns. At least the main concern about getting unsubscribed was resolved, hopefully. We’ll see. I have not yet received any message from 2151 telling me that I have been unsubscribed from their scam.
I am not replying STOP to some scammy number that I never even subscribed to in the first place. Feedback from other people who have been scammed say that unsubscribing doesn’t stop the daily charges, anyway.
I will never, ever, ever subscribe to any of these scams. The only things I will ever register for are Globe promos to official Globe numbers like 8080.
- Is Globe aware that Gamepad is a scam?
- If so, what are they doing about it?
- Also, how did I even get subscribed in the first place?
- And is there a way to opt out of all these scams???
Sound off in the comments!
Update: March 6, 2017
I received a text message from Globe yesterday telling me that they have processed my request to stop receiving messages from gamepad. So far, I have not received any more texts from gamepad and I assume that Globe has blocked them from my number. I do wish Globe had been more specific about it and flat out told me that gamepad will never deduct anything from my prepaid load ever again.
Even though this is resolved, I am still very pissed off that I was even subscribed in the first place. Nananahimik ako tapos biglang nasasubscribe sa scam. It was also such a waste of time to report this and have it unsubscribed!
35 responses to “Scam Alert: GAMEPAD SCAM + How to Stop It”
Same thing happened to me. Globe’s MO: they spam you with free trial stuff, which you need to unsubscribe to as soon as you get them… or else you get charged daily for the unwanted service. Though you can always call Globe to get a rebate, they sure will give you a hard time before giving in. Also, imagine the amount of people who just would go through the trouble because it’s too cumbersome; they just unsubscribe after getting deducted x amount from their load. Of course Globe does not care… because they’re in on it for the extra revenue.
Thank you for sharing your experience, anon.
Automatically subscribing people to a potentially paid service should be illegal. If it’s not illegal, it should be.
Why should I, as a subscriber, have to make the effort to opt-out of something I never even subscribed to in the first place? In my eyes, THAT IS A SCAM.
Imagine how much money they already made from people who are too busy to make the effort to stop this scam?
If there is a DO NOT CALL LIST for telemarketers, there should also be a DO NOT SPAM LIST for these text spam.
I am okay with receiving text messages about promos like those from my credit card companies and from Globe, but I am NOT OKAY with receiving these kinds of spam that you NEED TO OPT OUT OF OR ELSE THEY WILL SCAM YOUR MONEY.
Do you know that out of the 5 pesos (or 2.50 pesos as the case may be) that is scammed out of you, Globe gets at least 70% while the content provider, in this case – gamepad, gets 30%?
could you be the ‘voice’ of all the poor prepaid subscribers who have been continuously scammed? Please report this to NTC ….. though again, i doubt anything would happen…
has change really come??
Omg, kaya ba deadma lang sa scam?
Unfortunately, I don’t have any contacts at NTC. That’s why I am sharing this on the blog, so people who have also been scammed can share their experiences in the comments, too. Hopefully, when somebody sees how many people have been scammed, this gets to the proper people and changes can be made.
Same thing happened to me! In my experience it was 2151 (gamepad and gameworldph)
March 9, 2017: I visit Globe and ask information from CSR for my unexplained prepaid consumption. I was informed Globe’s 3rd party Content Providers has been deducting. CSR created report and I was given (rebate) P80 load.
March 10, 2017: I received an SMS from 2151 Thanking me for subscribing to gameworld and I have been charged P50.
March 10, 2017: I email [email protected] and for ask explanation why I was charged P50 for something I did not subscribe to. Their reply:
“Dear Sir Cesar,
Good day!
Sorry to hear that Sir.
We have different campaigns online that maybe one time you encountered this while using your mobile data and might click our ad campaign that will lead you to subscription.
To assist you in this concern, can you please let us know your mobile number so we can check your subscription and we can also facilitate the opt out?
Thank you so much and if you have any other concern, don’t hesitate to contact us.”
(I never opted in, never signed up for ANY service in the first place! Accidentally “click” your ad campaign on my mobile? That is pure bovine scatology!)
I report this to Globe 211, they said they are investigating.
I emailed gameworld again stating my intention to lodge a formal complaint with DTI. I have already gotten in touch with DTI and they referred me to NTC.
March 12, 2017: I receive an apology from gameworld and they promise to blacklist my number from their service. They are also sending me a refund of charges they made against my mobile number. Lo and behold, they credited P1,300! yes, they must have billed be on 26 different occasions in the past that I did not even notice.
I am just one victim, who was scammed P1,300. How many others are out there, who have not complained, or have not noticed this?
Globe, this has been happening for several years now. Why have you not blocked these predators?!
@baratako I can send you screenshots if you wish so we can help everyone.
Cesar, thank you for sharing! What a story! You may send me the screenshots at [email protected], I can add them to your comment.
Paano niyo po naireport sa DTI? Nakakabadtrip na kasi yung mga ganto eh dapat nirereklamo na talaga….
I just received this subscription now. Good thing I still remembered off the top of my head what I did on my phone and looked at my Android Firefox history. There it was, in a coded URL, a call to gamepad. It was triggered via a popup call from a website claiming “how to secure your phone”. (ironic)
Okay, after some deeper analysis, I found something disturbing. After searching the web on the feasibility of being able to know a user’s phone number I came across a discussion on StackOverflow. As it turns out, there is this thing called an MSISDN being used by your mobile network. This metadata is used by your phone when connected via mobile data (on wifi this obviously will not be there). What is MSISDN, you ask? It’s your f*cking phone number! I looked at the GamePad url again and as my suspicions became true. There it was, as plain as day, passed in the URL’s parameters, was my freakin’ phone number! We need to bring this to their attention!
Also note that trying to “debug” your phone with a website like mulliner.org won’t yield your phone number. It appears that they selectively disclose your phone number to Glboe partners like, say, GamePad.
Yikes! I knew it! I use Globe for mobile data but I never intentionally visited any gamepad URL. So they are doing something underhanded to make your phone visit their site.
Thank you very much for sharing, Gerard. Technical, but something we need to know! At this point, I don’t know what we can do, but let’s keep on sharing and hope that more people see this.
Anyway, I’m still doing my practice of keeping ZERO BALANCE on my prepaid account and only loading exactly how much I need to register to a promo. I find that is the best defense against load stealing.
It is because some ads displayed in some websites link to Gamepad which in turn makes it a subscription activity. The sad part here is that Globe allows this to happen.
I know. It’s terrible 🙁
This thing happens when I browse using mobile internet an a webpage or app I am using shows an ad powered by Gamepad. For some reason, simply having the ad loaded automatically subscribes you to their paid service.
They are now auto subscribing you to a 50 pesos per week service
Thank you for your subscription to Game World! Download 3 games from http://gameworld.ph Valid until 05/07/2017! You’ve been charged P50 valid for 7 days. Quit? Text GWPH STOP to 2151 for free. Qs? Email [email protected] or Call/SMS 0917 610 2623 M-F 9am-6pm.
Why the hell is globe allowing this???????????????????????
To anyone reading this:
I will not get technical, but basically, in order for a certain website to get your phone number just from visiting it, a) you will have to be on Data and b) your ISP has to allow that specific website to get your phone number. As others have noted above, detector sites like mulliner’s will not yield the phone number because your ISP did not whitelist that site.
Globe then sells this “privilege” to be in that whitelist to their so called 3rd-party partners, giving them access to your number just from visiting their site. These “partners” then distribute their online ads everywhere, from facebook, to file-sharing sites, torrent sites, adult sites, online shopping, forums, etc. They don’t even have to display ANY VISIBLE ADVERTISEMENT, they just need your browser to make an automatic call to their site, usually done with a popup window that closes itself immediately.
What I’m saying is that these blatantly privacy-invasive and morally evil practice of these shady 3rd party partners are being done WITH THE EXPRESS CONSENT OF YOUR ISP. There is also no clear law on online commercial practices here in the Philippines. That is why they cannot be called out on it, nor can this be labelled as “scam” or “illegal”.
And Globe, being one of the two worst ISPs in this country, is not about to pass up on this opportunity. Morals be damned.
As for how I personally protect myself from this and other malware-related issues when browsing, I simply DISABLE JAVASCRIPT on my browser.
If you use Firefox, type this in the URL bar:
about:config
Search for javascript.enabled and toggle its value to “false”.
I don’t use Chrome on mobile, but here’s a guide to do the same thing on it: http://ccm.net/faq/39964-google-chrome-for-android-turn-off-javascript.
The disadvantage is that you will lose interactivity to sites and most of the time they will lose formatting so things are gonna look weird. You will have to re-enable javascript whenever you plan on visiting a site YOU KNOW IS LEGIT/TRUSTWORTHY and where javascript is absolutely needed. If you’re just planning on “browsing the web”, you should almost always disable javascript.
IMHO, with a few exceptions, a website that is unreadable without javascript has no right to exist.
Thank you very much for such a helpful and informative post! 🙂
Man, that sucks about not having any teeth to go after the ISP for this.
I just got subcribed like everyone else who got affected. i just emailed them @ [email protected] and attached my phone #. They where able to reply and unsubscribe me ASAP.
Heres my email sample:
Good Evening,
I have not subscribed to your gamepad daily vip club. Please cancel this subscription! Thanks!
Here’s my number #___________ . Please reply once my false subscription has been cancelled thanks!.
(Subscription sms)
GAMEPAD: You’ve successfully subscribed to GamePad DAILY VIP Club. Free for 3-days and you will be charged P5/day after FREE trial. More games at http://www.gamepad.ph. Quit? Reply Stop GD. Help? Email [email protected]. Or call 09176437770, M-S 9am to 6pm.
(Unsubscribe sms)
Youve unsubscribed from GamePad Service. Send ON GD to 2151 to join again. Reply GAMEPAD HELP for help. This message is free. More games at m.gamepad.ph.
(email response)
Greetings!
We have checked your account and unsubscribed you from the service. Once process completed you will receive a confirmation text saying that you are Successfully Unsubscribed from Gamepad. We suggest to clear your browsing history to eliminate any possibilities to be subscribed again. .
Again, we apologize for the confusion this issue has caused you. Thank you for contacting Gamepad support.
Thank you,
GamePad Support
Wow, thank you for taking the time to post this. 🙂
My pocket wifi globe prepaid sim was also automatically subscribed to this yesterday and I just replied Stop GD and also got the unsubscribe message.
But the issue is that we shouldn’t have to make the extra effort to unsubscribe when we did not even subscribe in the first place. Also, what about those who have already been deducted P50 or more from their load? That is “eaten” load already. It’s still a scam as far as I can tell.
Hi. Same issue here. To whom did you report this and how? I messaged Globe Telecom in FB, gave them details and screenshots but replied that no deductions was made from my account but I checked my load balance when I received the text from 2151 and it deducted 50pesos. I’ve been deducted before, 2.50 or 5 pesos but I ignored it. But now they’re getting more and I can’t take it. I’m not happy with their customer service and I want this issue to stop. Please help. 🙁
Hi, take screenshots as evidence. You can try FB again or Twitter. Their hotline is useless because you can’t show them the screenshots so they won’t believe you.
If you check my post, I contacted Globe’s Twitter account.
Done. They processed my request to unsubscribe me to all the VAS. I don’t receive messages from 4-digit numbers anymore. Thanks. Though lost load was not refunded.
I’ll try to make this short as possible
Well in my experience in globe, there is no warning you got subscribed into something. The load of my father just get being eat up. And so I leave a message in globe fb page. They said it was VAS. I told them that I/he never subscribed into anything. After days and then it’s like we going back to the start of the conversation and they forgot all we have talked about when I told them to unsubcribed it themselves. They already said that they can opt it out if I give a go signal. When I gave the go. They saying that I need to try and unsubscribed it myself first. Trying to make me load 2.50php =_=. It’s just a big loop hole. They did say they will process it in the end. Maybe because I said “it’s not like my load will be refunded right?”.
Chances are this kind of thing happens a lot. Me and all my siblings had experience this issue. Makes me want to change to another telcom but I heard some people experience this in smart too. Although when I search the net, it seems this issue happens a lot on globe recently.
Over all, I really think it is safe to say globe is a scam.
I have only read about this issue 2 days ago sa forums. Today I received a message from gamepadph scam kahit di ko ginagamit yung mobile data since mahina signal.
I immediately sent a “stop GD” pero knowing scams yes means yes at no, stop, quit means yes din.
I have left a comment and message on their globe fb page and deadma na sila after their canned comment mali pa name na nilagay(ginagaya barista ng starbucks).
I have emailed gamepadph.com cc’ed to [email protected]
I hope to hear a favorable reply.
Me and my father are both victims of this. However I will never buy the Globe Company’s excuse. Kase papano naman mag kaka accidentally subscribe yung Papa ko eh keypad phone yung sa kanya kaya imposible talaga na ma accidentally click nta sa browser nya eh wala nga syang browser. Haaaay, ayus-ayusin nyo naman tu Globe
That’s terrible 🙁 Magtataka ka talaga paano na subscribe when the phone used is a dumbphone…
I think we should make a campaign or warning on our social media with this damn gamepad scam. I’m wondering why my load is eaten everyday and I just realized that it’s because of that 2151. I lost 20 pesos already, I’m okay with that but imagine of how many people got scam with this shit. It’s really unfair. We should call the attention of NTC, DTI and Globe via social media. Kung pwede nga lang magsumbong kay Tulfo! 🙂
Oh no! I hope this does not happen to TM accounts.
Can simply sending “STOP GD” stop everything?
OMG you too? On xmas nonetheless. Hopefully it does. But if it doesn’t, I’m not afraid of lodging a formal complaint. Because as consumers, it’s our right!
Hi guys,
Merry Christmas!
Even though it’s christmas and I did not subscribe to anything, I was sent a text message from 2151 and it reads as follows:
“MOMOKO: Please enter PIN code 7538 to continue your purchase. Valid for 3 mins. This message is free. Helpdesk:[email protected]”
Thankfully I didn’t have enough load they can deduct.
So 3507 sent me a text stating: “Sorry, your balance is not enough to complete this transaction. Please reload and try again. This message is free.”
Seeing this as a threat, I became wary of reloading. I started digging around and after a bit of checking, like Gamepad, Momoko is a third-party site of Globe. I tried accessing it on the computer and the fishy thing is that the site wants me to connect using my mobile data instead of our wifi.
I’ve sent an email to the customer support and I hope I won’t be bothered by this scam again but I feel bad for other people who constantly get their load eaten so is there a way we can bring this to other people’s attention? Maybe we can start an online campaign to get globe to stop them? To go a step further and really let them know we’re serious about our money getting stolen, maybe we can also start getting people to submit formal complaints to NTC? Since TM is a sister company of Globe, I won’t be surprised if the same companies scam people out of their money.
Do you know GLOCO? He made a video about this issue…
Hello,
Be careful of adf.ly links cuz i clicked the 5 sec skip but instead of sending me to the download page, it instead go to a series of links that stop at me subscribing to gamepad. Thankfully I have been scammed by gamepad before and have noticed that it subscribe me again, otherwise i might have flipped out as the incident before cost me 100+ load.
Globe is clearly in cahoots with Momoko in this scamming activity. My prepaid TM was deducted P10 today supposedly for subscribing to Momoko’s Weekly Games Pass service which I never did. I am sure NTC is aware of this scam but it is still going on.