This is a particularly nasty Scam so watch out!
The way this scam works is that a company in California (M-Qube) tricks you into giving them your cell phone text address, then once they have it, they send you unsolicited junk mail every day (SPAM), in the form of a "joke of the day", and charge you money for the priviledge of receiving the unwanted jokes. They charge $1.25 per joke and it amounts to about $25 to $30 per month. The good part is that you have no choice but to pay. How can they do that? Well they are in bed with Rogers, and the way the billing is done is that Rogers tacks the charges onto your cell phone bill under "Premium Services". So you have no choice but to pay for the junk mail or Rogers will cut off your cell phone service, and ultimately ruin your credit rating if you continue to try and defend your rights by not paying. Obviously Rogers gets a cut of the take for doing the "collections" and acting as the "enforcer".
Extortion is a criminal offense, which occurs when a person obtains money, behaviour, or other goods and/or services from another by wrongfully threatening or inflicting harm to this person, reputation, or property. (Wikpedia definition)
Does this Scam qualify as extortion? Well let's see...Someone is trying to make you pay them for nothing at all (SPAM qualifies as nothing.... or perhaps even less than nothing since it has a negative or nuisance value). But are they threatening you harm? Well, cutting off my cell phone would harm me, I need it to do business, and damaging my credit rating would most certainly harm me... I need it to get loans, or even to qualify to get cell phone service elsewhere. Yeah, looks like it fits the definition.
Edit : Rename to proper title.
The way this scam works is that a company in California (M-Qube) tricks you into giving them your cell phone text address, then once they have it, they send you unsolicited junk mail every day (SPAM), in the form of a "joke of the day", and charge you money for the priviledge of receiving the unwanted jokes. They charge $1.25 per joke and it amounts to about $25 to $30 per month. The good part is that you have no choice but to pay. How can they do that? Well they are in bed with Rogers, and the way the billing is done is that Rogers tacks the charges onto your cell phone bill under "Premium Services". So you have no choice but to pay for the junk mail or Rogers will cut off your cell phone service, and ultimately ruin your credit rating if you continue to try and defend your rights by not paying. Obviously Rogers gets a cut of the take for doing the "collections" and acting as the "enforcer".
Extortion is a criminal offense, which occurs when a person obtains money, behaviour, or other goods and/or services from another by wrongfully threatening or inflicting harm to this person, reputation, or property. (Wikpedia definition)
Does this Scam qualify as extortion? Well let's see...Someone is trying to make you pay them for nothing at all (SPAM qualifies as nothing.... or perhaps even less than nothing since it has a negative or nuisance value). But are they threatening you harm? Well, cutting off my cell phone would harm me, I need it to do business, and damaging my credit rating would most certainly harm me... I need it to get loans, or even to qualify to get cell phone service elsewhere. Yeah, looks like it fits the definition.
Edit : Rename to proper title.