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Soylent Black Text Messages From 45751
Have you received text messages from 45751 – a “premium” text message service known as Soylent Black? If so, you may be wondering what this service is all about and why they are texting you.
Soylent Black, which can be also be found at soylentblack.net, is a run-of-the-mill “premium” text messaging service that charges $3.99 a month for “movie alerts.” The website claims that it is run by Black Soil, LLC. A whois record of the website shows that it was created on April 15, 2010. Or, as the website claims:
Get the skinny on what is going on in Hollywood! Get your Soylent Black text alerts every day, just $3.99/month for a recurring monthly subscription.
These “premium” text messaging services seem to exist for the sole reason charging a subscription for things you can get online for free. Most of these types of services rely on customers not realizing that they’ve even signed up. I’ve heard stories of customers tracing back a year or more of charges by these services. Modern phone bills are so lengthy that most people don’t bother looking at them closely. It’s not uncommon for phone bills to reach 100 pages, and such charges can be hard to locate.
Soylent Black, to their credit, does list an 800 customer service number, which is 1-800-575-4045, and an email contact of support@soylentblack.net. It’s unclear how responsive these contact methods are.
Personally, this author finds these types of services to be a waste of money at best. It’s hard to fathom that a text messaging service would be any faster, accurate, or more detailed with “what’s going on in Hollywood” than Twitter or even just TMZ – both of which are free.
The best option is to call your carrier and request that they block all such text subscriptions. This will avoid any rogue charges or accidental subscriptions. I’ve found that most people have never wanted these types of services, so blocking them is rarely an issue.
It should be noted that short code 45751 appears to have belonged to a “hip hop” alerts service in 2011.
What is your opinion?
We want your input. Have you used Soylent Black – either on purpose or by accident? Tells us about your experience with it, if you found it useful, or if you feel you were subscribed to it without your permission.
Here are a few other text services we’ve discussed recently:
Filed under: Consumers
I just got a spam from this short code. This needs to stop, this is illegal!
What did the message say?
I also received a text yesterday from this number. Then I received another one today. I never signed up for this service which is $3.99 a month as per their website.
Today’smessage said:
Soylent Black Movies:
James Cameron bought 2,500 acres of New Zeland farmland to be the set for “Avatar 2.” I SEE EWE.
Thanks for the info Michele!
I received SEVERAL messages from this group whom I never signed up with and also sent SEVERAL “Stop, Quit, End, Unsubscribe” replies and it was not respected. I will report them to the BBB since this is illegal. Their email and phone number DO NOT work and nobody will contact you back.
Let us know how this is resolved. Also, did you try to contact your phone company and have them reverse the charges?
I received a series of messages from “Soylent Black” (45751) in the early hours of the morning. First they sent me a pin code to sign up for their service. Then a one sentence text about Sleepless in Seattle musical. Along with another movie title that appears to be an adult move. Later a third message saying the I subscribed at $3.99 per month. Finally a forth message about another movie.
A called T-Mobile and they said Soylent Black is in fact a scam. They also blocked all pay-per-text for me. They also said that this sort of thing is common.
Another warning T-Mobile said to me is that even Free Text messages service will charge you. Worse yet, Free Text messages will automatically sign you up for Pay Text services.
On another note. Many of the free apps on the Android Market are spam generators. If you down load one they will start spamming from over seas casinos to viagra.
Thanks for the additional info!
This is THEFT. They were able to get AT&T to charge me $3.99 despite that I had NEVER signed up. I had NEVER given my phone number to any company (since I use google voice). It’s frustrating that companies get away with such obvious theft these days. What can we, the people, do?
This is ridiculous how can the carrier charge you a service without the permission or even notice of the line holder! There should be a punishment to both theft and carrier who actually helped them to steal.
I just had this company try this scam on me. Five texts in a two day period. I called my carrier ASAP to get the charges blocked, as well as this number blocked. My carrier informed me that they had already started billing process. I also contacted the BBB of Washington as well as the Soylent Black website and lodged complaints against them. Ridiculous and a time waster.
I have had premium messages blocked through VZW for years. Received a text today that these messages are blocked, the account holder has to make changes to allow.
I looked the short code up online. Their site says to text “stop, cancel, end, quit OR unsubscribe” and you will receive a cancellation text. I had already done STOP. No confirmation. So I sent several more, one with each of the other “codes” they gave. I got 2 confirmation of cancellation texts back.
This is a growing issue. Easiest way to stop it is to call your carrier and block these services altogether.