I received a call from an unknown number 039-922-227 about an hour ago. After picking the call I discovered it was one of the numerous automated calls from my mobile network, which in this case is Airtel, so I promptly ended the call and proceeded to add the number to my Avast blocked numbers list.

At the same time I had ended the call I received an SMS from 922. When I checked this SMS it said:

FINANCIAL_WISDOM service has been activated on your Airtel Mobile. Charges: NGN 10.0 for 1 days.

I was sourly pissed by this message since I had not at any time subscribed to any service nor received any such service. I immediately called the Airtel customer care number (121) only to be told that I had subscribed for the service by a guy who gave his name as Salam. Try as I may to tell him that I did no such thing he remained adamant, offering only to unsubscribe me from the service without reverting my credit.

I am 100% sure that I NEVER subscribed to the service for which I was charged yet I must bear the cost of another's failure or fraud or both. This is not the first time this has happened, nor will it be last, and in each case the subscriber is made to bear the cost. I am indeed baffled and wonder under what stretch of imaginative lawyering does merely receiving and terminating a call you never initiated make you liable to paying for a service never rendered nor desired.

I have called the NCC complaints number (622) to report this issue as with many others but I don't expect I would get any redress whatsoever. However, I would be glad to be wrong. If this isn't criminal I wonder what is!