Can be bad news in the middle of nowhere:

(Mail reply from Thuraya FillFull <straight bankcard refill service>)

>
>
> Hi,
>
> We regret to inform you that our services are temporarily suspended because
> of credit card frauds that happened on our platform. Some people have used
> stolen credit card details to purchase credits through our system and now we
> are facing charge backs amounting to more than 100,000USD.Because of this
> our services are temporarily suspended since we are in the process of
> identifying the fraud registrations and the internet police investigation is
> on at the moment.
>
>
>
> Please contact the following service provider for the purchase of the cards.
> You will require to send the money to their account in advance to get the
> pin numbers send to you by e mail.
>
>
>
> Green Leaf General Trading
>
> Thuraya International service provider
>
> Tel-2255402.fax-2256024
>
> Contact person Mr Sha.
>
> E mail- m_sha@greenleafsp.net
>
>
>
>
>
> Sabu Jose
>
> Sales & Marketing Manager
>
> FillFull.com
>
>
>
>
>
> MVP Tech FZ LLC
>
> Knowledge Village Office: +971.4.367.21.48
>
> Block 13 Fax:
> +971.4.367.27.47
>
> Suite F21-22 Mobile: +971.50.7387419
>
> P.O. Box: 500704
>
> Dubai.UAE.
>
> Email: <mailto:sabu@fillfull.com> sabu@fillfull.com
>
> Web: <http://www.fillfull.com/> Fillfull - The automated pre-paid mobile phones recharging system <http://www.mvp.ae/>
> MVP TECH

Quote ends

Geopoki
http:\\eszeleny.lapok.hu

In case anyone is worried this only applies to Fill Full service provider in Dubai not Thuraya overall - other Thu SPs are fine - eg: Sim Reg (part of the UK Satcom group) who I just topped up with.

Ch

__________________
Morocco Overland 4 pre-order for Xmas • Trans Morocco Trail

Thanks Chris!
Brilliant!

I've just seen the above thread - since I use FillFull I checked & it seems to be working - but then it may be that it's only existing accounts still working, or maybe there is a nasty surprise at the end of the top-up process (I didn't need to top up so I didn't complete the sequence...)

Don't forget though, that you can always put a 'normal' SIM into a Thuraya & roam onto the Thuraya satphone network - it's quite reasonable for UK Vodafone certainly (especially if you just do SMS) and it means you can always check your home voicemail too...

Tony