Unsolicited Text Messages

wantmemoney · 29 March 2008 at 2:59PM

http://www.three.co.uk/personal/contact_us_/advice_/detail.omp?cid=1153999096579

Where a charge is made for a Premium Rate Service on a Shortcode number, we share the revenue with the Service Provider directly. That's how the Service Provider and the person who provides the information contained in the service (Information Provider) receives payment for the service that you've used.

Up to %50 according to Vodafone.

Intasun32 · 29 March 2008 at 3:03PM

If they take a share the profits with the scam company, then don't they share the responsibilty & blame?

chuckles1066 · 29 March 2008 at 3:15PM

wantmemoney wrote: »

PhonepayPlus has the following information about the number 81303.
Tanla Mobile Ltd
39 Charing Cross Road
London
WC2H 0AR
Tel: 08719 180 999
[EMAIL="customercare@tanlamobile.com"]customercare@tanlamobile.com[/EMAIL]

Oooooh, Tanla..........they're one of the worst offenders at scamming people!

You're in for a long battle :eek:

They got fined £50000 in September - doesn't seem to deter these crooks....

Scousebird_2 · 29 March 2008 at 5:30PM

Yes-the network do get profit from the reverse billing messages so def escalate a complaint

wantmemoney · 29 March 2008 at 10:17PM

Intasun32 wrote:

Yet again more '3' customers receiving unsolicited reverse bill texts, what is going on?

The five UK mobile operators recently paid the UK government £22.5BILLIONfor 20year operating licenses. ('license to bill').
In return the government supplied them a 'self regulated' market place that is absolutely devoid of any effective consumer protection.
This market place now drives the revenue used to pay (plus interest) back the city investors that lent the money.

The exact same problem can be seen in other countries where the mobile operators paid governments exuberant operating licenses.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/02/29/couricandco/entry3894579.shtml
February 29, 2008
Rring…rrrring. Gotcha!
CBS News.
In four short years, the ringtone industry has emerged from nowhere and has become a billion-dollar market. And just as fast, scam artists found a way to tap into the line. That's what's behind a major settlement of a fraud investigation announced today by Florida attorney general Bill McCollum, and it will impact cell phone customers nationwide.

Here's how it works: customers are charged for ringtones, wallpaper, joke-of-the-day, you-name-it on their cell phone bills ... charges they never authorized and services they don't want. The charges aren't properly identified on the bill as to what they are or where they came from.

Because of the very nature of the scheme, investigators say you may not even realize you've been cheated. Here are some of the ways those unuathorized charges may have been labeled, disguising what they really are:
"Direct Bill Charges""
"3rd Party Downloadable Content"
"Premium SMS Messages"
"Premium Text Messages"
"M-Qube"
"M-blox"

chuckles1066 wrote:

Oooooh, Tanla..........they're one of the worst offenders at scamming people!

mBlox also has an impressive PhonePayPlus fines record.

of cause if you have troubles with mblox you can always report them to the regulators PhonePayPlus(aka Icstis)

http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/about/PhonepayPlus/board/default.asp
sir alistair graham, chairman
robert chilton
andrew bud
edward boddington
david clarke
nicholas higham
stephen locke
sara nathan
mike short
mike tully

http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/about/PhonepayPlus/board/Andrew_Bud.asp

Andrew Bud is Executive Chairman of mBlox Inc, the largest premium rate SMS aggregator in the UK and the USA. He co-founded the company in 1999 and, as CEO, built it to become a leading provider of text messaging and billing services. Strategy and public affairs are among his current responsibilities. He is also Vice Chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), the global trade association of the mobile content and services industry. He has been an MEF Board member since 2001 and leads its regulatory activities.

chuckles1066 · 29 March 2008 at 10:19PM

wantmemoney wrote: »

if you have troubles with mblox you can always report them to the regulators PhonePayPlus(aka Icstis)

Or he could pi$$ his money up against the nearest wall..............same end result.

SJ_Jones · 28 April 2008 at 10:04PM

I've been getting texts from 86000 for the past month or so, inviting me to enter competitions - I had no clue I was being chrged them for them - I didn't even know I could be charged for RECEIVING texts. I only found out cos I clled 3 to see if they could block them cos they'd started annoying me.

3 were distinctly less than helpful - they were obstructive & rude. I've now stopped them (using "STOP"), and have recived a confirmation text that they've stopped. I've reported it to the PhonepayPlus and have my fingers crossed.

MARTIN - can you/we start some kind of campaign o get these companies stopped?!? Or get the mobile providers to take some kind of responsibility to us, the consumer, for them - it's disgusting that someone can choose to take my money without me knowing anything about it!!

SJ_Jones · 29 April 2008 at 11:23PM

I got this reply (amongst other less useful ones) from a very nice man at 3....

Hurrah!

Intasun32 · 30 April 2008 at 8:54AM

SJ_Jones wrote: »

I got this reply (amongst other less useful ones) from a very nice man at 3....

In looking at your billing records, I can see that either yourself or someone with your phone sent two text messages to shortcode 86000 on 24th March at 20:23 and 20:27. After that, several chargeable messages were received by yourself and billed at £1.50 per instance (11 counted to the end of your last bill).

In normal circumstances, I would treat this as an opt-in to charging (very similar to you signing a direct debit mandate),

If you did reply to a text or enter your details on a web site, then 3 are correct in saying that you have opted in. On the other hand if you did not send these texts, check your bill, then that is another story.....

Even though they have refunded you look into it, don't take their word for it.

This is yet a further example of how we mobile phone users are being scammed, in this case by a company not showing full subscription details. When is something going to be done in order for mobile phone users to be protected against the Premium Rate Cowboys?

SJ_Jones · 30 April 2008 at 12:13PM

I know - I think the whole thing is disgusting! And the only reason I think 3 has actually done anything is cos I sent an email to EVERY email address I could find for 3 (including those of their parent company) - and probably annoyed them so much, they decided it was easier to placate me!

At the end of the day I'm getting refunded, so for this small battle it's success for me - but on the larger scheme of things, something's got to be done!

Unsolicited Text Messages

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