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Alleged Scam Using T-Mobile Customers As Targets

Alleged Scam Using T-Mobile Customers As Targets

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I am a T-Mobile use and July 4, 2021 I get a phone text message that appears to be sent by T-Mobile.   Next is the full text I received into my cell phone.

 

 T-Mobile / T-Mobile Limited Offer, Grab a chance to win prizes worth up to 100 USD. Visit:https://mobile1.blob.core.windows.net/74123/74123.html

 

Next is the web page that I am directed to.

 

Following are some of the survey questions.  So far, this looks to be an honest T-Mobile event.

 

 

 

I had to complete 5 more questions.

I can receive a reward up to $100 cash, if I complete a survey about what I think of T-Mobile products and service.  I complete the survey and then I am shown a very long list of alleged reward options to choose.  I think this to be really odd.  I select ear buds because I am unhappy with my newly purchased Apple Earbud Pro.  Once I choose the earbuds, I am asked to pay for shipping and handling.  I think this to be rather odd also.  I am asked to fill out my credit card information.  I complete the whole transaction and think this is done.  A short time later I get an e-mail showing that the earbuds are being sent to me as a 15 day trial.  I will then need to pay for the product.  I was lied to and am not receiving any benefit.  I am livid. I find a phone number and call to cancel the order.  

 

Particulars:

  • Cell phone message came from “notifybbh@mobilbh.com”. My search for this web site showed nothing.  When I do a search for just “mobilbh.com”, I get the warning message “mobilbh.com’s server IP address could not be found.”
  • Visit:   https://mobile1.blob.core.windows.net/74123/74123.html
  • Cell Phone:  844-995-1963. I called this number to cancel the order.  I was told that the order was cancelled.
  • Credit card charges:   Jul 4, 2021.  DANGOBUDS – ANC EARB.  $5.95.  Pending.  I am worried that they may still try to charge me.

 

I then call T-Mobile and spent well over a half hour explaining this event with them.  I was told that other customers have complained about this and that T-Mobile was tying to solve this issue.

 

My mistakes:  

  • I failed to look at the address of the party that sent me the text message.  The T-Mobile customer support told me that the address should show “T-Mobile”.
  • When I viewed the really long list of :rewards” for my participation, I should have stopped and checked the situation out further.

 

My Actions:

  • I send T-Mobile Media Relations a copy of this event, at the urging of the T-Mobile customer service person, I was on the phone with.
  • I logged a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.

 

 

Posted July 4, 2021

Blackvue DR900S-2CH Dash Camera Fails To Reliable Connect To WiFi

Blackvue DR900S-2CH Dash Camera Fails To Reliable Connect To WiFi

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I recently, (APRIL 2020) had a Blackvue DR900S-2CH Dash Camera installed in my car.  Everything about this device is quite good except it would fail to reliably connect to the cell phone WiFi.  I quickly found the solution.  I use an Android LGV30 phone.  I went into the cell phone settings and chose Network & Internet portion settings.  All I had to do was to turn Mobile Date Off.  Then the BlackVue cell phone application held a solid connection when I chose the BLACKVUE WI-FI menu selection on my cell phone.  I even drove around a while with my cell phone showing the live front dash camera signal.

Caution:  I did find a possible problem with turning off Mobile Date.  I drove over to Starbucks to buy a drink and I always pay using my cell phone Starbucks application in the phone.  Every time I open the Starbucks cell phone application I must choose “Scan in store”, a small sub menu option.  Pressing that small menu button then presents a new screen that the Starbucks people can scan to take money out of my account.  It would not work.  Was this because I turned off Mobile Data?  Or did I loose Internet?  I was forced to pay cash!  If this happens to you, just turn Mobile Data back on.

Just to check other cell phone menu options out:  I went into the sub menu of Mobile Data, after Network & Internet.  By pressing on that menu selection, “Mobile data”, I found two sub menu items:

  • Mobile: You can scroll down and view all the applications using mobile data.  BlackVue is one of them.  There are two on/off buttons you can choose.  I turned on both Background data and Unrestricted data usage.
  • Wi-Fi:  You can scroll down and view all the applications using mobile data.  BlackVue is one of them.  There are two on/off buttons you can choose.  I turned on both Background data and Unrestricted data usage.

Other Settings: 

  • Special Access > Modify system settings:  BlackVue showed “No”  (I have no opinion for this setting except to say that it was set to “No”.
  • Special Access > Wi-Fi Control > BlackVue “Allowed”  Allow app to control Wi-Fi.  It looks like you had better turn this on if not on already.
Google, Allegedly, Rather Stupid Sports Cell Phone Option

Google, Allegedly, Rather Stupid Sports Cell Phone Option

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July 6, 2019:  Tomorrow I want to watch the final women’s soccer match with the Netherlands.  I did a search on my cell phone to find out when the game would start.  Google presented a new cell phone option called “Sports”.  I decided to give this desktop option a try.  After I installed it into my phone, an option appeared: “Who you’re following” and World Cup was right under that text at the top of the cell phone screen.   “World Cup” thus showed up as the most prominent option.  I chose that menu option but it only showed 2018 games only.  I think those games were men’s.    I could not find 2019 games.  I had to go into “News” menu item and scroll down to find The Washington Post story “Locked on and still hungry, U.S. soccer enters World Cup final aware of its legacy.”  I click on that option and the news article shows.  I sill can NOT find the rather impossible male chauvinist, obfuscated, rather incompetent path to find any information on WOMEN”S SOCCER”!  I gave up looking for women’s soccer.  I deleted the Google option form my cell phone.  I am looking for news not history.  Simply incredible.  Simply stupid!  Simply incompetent.

LG V30 Cell Phone Does Work With Fitbit Ionic

LG V30 Cell Phone Does Work With Fitbit Ionic

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LG V30 Cell Phone Does Work With Fitbit Ionic

I had a Fitbit Blaze and was really disappointed using it with my LG V30 cell phone. I did research and found some people claiming the Ionic would properly marry with my phone.   I found a good price in a local store and purchased it.  I have since found the Ionic to be pretty good marriage to my LG V30 phone.

Ionic wrist strap: Odd concept and a bit hard to attach. I personally do not like it. I found that the wrist band needs to be very tight to get best heart rate readings.
Link to phone: Good. Way better than the Blaze.  But, my wife and I went to Alaska where there was no WiFi.  We were in a location where the time change was one hour and the Ionic would not sync with the phone as to time for the whole trip.  I find it incompetent that the Ionic needs WiFi to sync and can not rely on Bluetooth.
Messages between phone and Ionic: Acceptable
Fitbit Cell Phone Application: Very good. (See below)
Global Position System (GPS):  Yes

Ionic Applications:

I did remove all the paid to use Ionic applications. I am nearly totally against paying monthly fees when not a necessity. I make it a habit to check my monthly credit card payments to see if there is any charge that I do not recognize. This is how I discovered money being sucked out of my bank account.  It is really easy to remove or add applications when using the cell phone Fitbit software.

Time: Accurate.
BPM or heart rate beats per minute: Way better than the Blaze but far from being accurate most of the time. The user understands that the unit not tight to the skin can make for a bad reading. For me, this feature is useless.  It is almost always in error.
Steps: I can only guess it to be somewhat accurate.  When I get to the steps I set for the day, 10,000, the Ionic gives you a short fire works award display and it vibrates.
Calories: I have no idea how the Ionic comes up with this calculation. On the cell phone, you need to input what you eat using the cell phone application and then the cell phone unit does the math to deduct your exercise to come up with your calorie total.
Timer: Very good. Stopwatch and countdown included.
Alarms: Very good.
Tips: Not impressed.
Wallet: No verdict as I have not used this feature.
Relax: Never used this.?Exercise: Very good. You need to go to your Fitbit application on your phone and look for “Exercise Shortcuts” when viewing the Ionic sub menu. You can choose up to 7 items out of 9. You slide the one’s you like the most up to the top by placing your finger on the short 4 horizontal lines just to the left of the exercise.
Coach: Not impressed. I do not use it.
Settings: Includes some simple settings for you to consider and set.
Vibration: This occurs for alarms, rewards, notifications, etc.  Very good.
Display:  I found this display to be clear, sharp and detailed.  Very good.
Mileage: This pops up when you choose to walk or hike from the Exercise option. No way so far to determine how accurate it is but I just love to see how many miles I walk or hike.

Here are the free Ionic applications I have added:

News: Fair. Not as elegant at the NY Times
NY Times: Very good.
Weather: Pretty darn good. You can also add more than one weather reporting location for a total of 3.
Stocks:  Good for stocks that it offers but it does not track all stocks.
Torch: In case I need a flashlight the Ionic screen turn white and bright.
Med ID: A very nice simple application to show emergency responders some of your important medical information.  The problem for me is all the data disappeared from the Ionic.  My cell phone shows all the correct data but none of it transferred to the Ionic for some reason.  I sent the developer an e-mail concern and here is his reply (December 25, 2019):

“The data missing from your phone was not your fault. With fitbit’s new release of their 4.0 operating system I needed to change the way that the data is transferred between the mobile device and the watch to accommodate the new Versa 2. Unfortunately that means the data needs to be re-entered. I apologize for any convenience that causes and I didn’t try to work around that issue but there was no way to avoid it.
I’m including a link below to my support page with detailed instructions on how to make sure that your data gets saved back to your watch.
Jason Olsen”

Wiki Places: Shows local places to consider visiting.
JayPS Maps: I can not use this application when I walk because I always run Exercise > Walk or Exercise > Hike. The Ionic is not able to run two applications at the same time so this application has never been used.  I am keeping this application as a backup to help me find my location in Alaska.

TIP: when looking at the clock face, use your finger and swipe downward and you should see news and notifications.  It took me quite some time to discover this.

NOTE: I gave my Fitbit Blaze to a friend who has a Apple cell phone and it works perfectly with that phone.

Disappointments:

  • When I set my Ionic to track my walk or hike, the unit seems incapable to multitask.  I can not see my messages or any other application.  Only one application at a time seems the rule.
  • A friend of mine, sent me a image with text message.  The text went to the Ionic.  The image did not and I do not expect it to. But, I think the image locked the text message into my Ionic so I could not get rid of the message.  I tried everything.  Nothing worked to erase the text message.  Finally, I had to press the left side button switch and the bottom right side button for a very long time to initiate a device reset.  The reset did erase the message.

Summary:  I have slowly warmed up to this device partly because it has taken me a lot of time to explore it’s many capabilities.  I have slowly grown to appreciate this Ionic and the cell phone Fitbit application because the marriage between the two really expands beyond them rated and used separately .

 

Posted April 18, 2019
Updated: December 27, 2019
LG-V30 Glass Screen Protector & Case Protection Review

LG-V30 Glass Screen Protector & Case Protection Review

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I just upgraded my phone to an LG-V30 and being just over $800, I wanted to protect my investment.  I purchased an OtterBox case which comes with a belt clip.  I then decided to add for $44.99 a PureGear High Definition Tempered Glass screen.  That added screen protection decreased the screen sensitivity to my finger touches.  When I tried to type text, I had to keep going back and hit a particular key again.  I found this product quite annoying.

Otterbox LG-V30 Case Protection = Recommended for men.  For women, this might not look appropriate as it adds more thickness and side bulk.  For women, the belt clip, I just can not see any women using.

Otterbox case protection problem:  The LG-V30 comes with Qi technology that allows you to just set your phone on a wireless charger.  Problem is that there are many reports that Qi chargers fail to work with the Otterbox due to its thickness.   Here is my results so far (November 24, 2017):

  • I just happened to go to my local shopping mall and one of the vendors, Zagg, was selling Otterbox cases.  I asked about Qi chargers.  They had one and allowed me to put my cell phone on it.  It worked.  I did not see the box it came in but using a web site I think this is it – Mophie “charge force wireless charging base”.  Problem with this particular Qi charger is that there are a LOT of complaints that the company, Mophie, does not stand behind its products.
  • Still looking

PureGear screen protection = Not Recommended for careful users.  If you are in some business like construction or you think you might drop your phone a lot, then consider this product.