Protect: Paid subscription warnings

Paid subscriptions are one way to pay for online services. For instance, you can use a paid subscription to set up an answering service on your cell phone or sign up for weather forecasts sent by SMS. To subscribe, you simply follow a link to your mobile service provider's page and tap a button to confirm. Some content providers abuse simple subscription setups and sign users up for services they don’t know they’re paying for.

Although mobile subscription pages are hosted on the websites of mobile network operators, their content is determined by outside content providers. Some providers do everything in their power to hide the fact that they're signing you up for a paid service. For example, the payment button might be labeled Play or Login and the message informing you that this is a paid service may be written in small letters or hidden beyond the visible part of the screen. By pressing just one button on one of these sites, you might initiate daily withdrawals from your mobile balance.

It is particularly easy to end up in this position if you get to such a site using a computer rather than a mobile device. This is because it is harder to notice small letters on a bigger screen.

According to Yandex's data, about 20% of users land on pages with a mobile subscription from their computers. One of the reasons for this is the popularity of 3G modems that are often used with Wi-Fi routers. Additionally, malicious extensions may open pages containing paid subscription extensions.