6 ms·
This type of predatory behavior has been happening for a long time. When I was about 9 years old, my brother and I bought Link's Awakening on Gameboy. On the ba
by andygcook 8y ago
This type of predatory behavior has been happening for a long time. When I was about 9 years old, my brother and I bought Link's Awakening on Gameboy. On the back of the booklet that comes with the game was a line that read, "Need Help? Call this number" with an 800 phone number listed.
We had access to the home phone and wanted to beat the game. So of course, we called the number a few times to get hints on how to beat hards parts of the game. This was before the internet where you could just lookup a walkthrough online.
You can imagine my mother's shock when she received a $200+ charge on her phone bill for a phone number she had never heard of. Apparently the cost of the call was about $5/minute.
We got yelled at and we weren't allowed to call the number anymore after that. I'm proud to say we still be the game though.
- bagacrap 8y ago800 numbers are toll free. Was it a 900 number?
- wccrawford 8y agoActually, not all 800 numbers are toll free. Just another dark pattern.
- jdsudo 8y agoYou sure about that? https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/what-toll-free-number-and-how-does-it-work https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/what-toll-free-number-a...
- wccrawford 8y agoPerhaps they've finally made it illegal, but I remember plenty of complaints from people about 800 numbers that were scams that charged to your phone bill when you called them, even if accidental. I remember being surprised at the time because I thought all 800 numbers were free by design.
- andygcook 8y agoGood point. To be honest, this was about ~20 years ago and I don't remember the exact phone number. Might have been a 900 number. Either way, the phone number was being primarily marketed towards children who probably didn't know that the calls would cost money.