£1.50 text charge?????

Marymouse · 4 December 2007 at 12:20PM

millimoo2 wrote: »

I got scammed by this the other day - I was furious.

I went to the web site in the first text I received - www.wewantthatfree.com, and e-mailed from the web site, which funnily enough was [EMAIL="admin@fantastic4mobile.com"]admin@fantastic4mobile.com[/EMAIL].

To my amazement I have just received a £2 postal order as a refund today, and am beginning to believe that they may actually have barred my mobile from their services in future as they stated in their e-mail.

I have also reported to OFCOM, ICSTIS and to www.mobizar.co.uk who are the company who own the short code that bills the Mobile Phone company - your mobile phone company can give you the details and contact numbers.

FINALLY.....
Steps to ensure you are barred in future:

- Contact your mobile phone service provider
- Ask them for the 5 digit shortcode the charge has come from - in my instance it was 78181.
- In captitals, text STOP to the shortcode (78181 in this instance).
- Your mobile phone operator will then bar at their end.

- I did this several times and instead each time received yet another unwanted text back immediately! So far they have cost me about £30 and I still haven't stopped them!:mad:

mikeupd · 8 December 2007 at 12:21PM

Yep, I've received these SMS messages, also a Virgin customer. The mobile companies get a slice of the fee, so they don't want to cut off a revenue stream. It's sort of fraud or money demanded, not a bad little earner. Speed diallers make it an easy source of money; set a range of mobile numbers and sit back for a connection which equals an income. I plan to challenge these systems as being illegal. Watch this space.

Intasun32 · 8 December 2007 at 3:46PM

mikeupd wrote: »

Yep, I've received these SMS messages, also a Virgin customer. The mobile companies get a slice of the fee, so they don't want to cut off a revenue stream. It's sort of fraud or money demanded, not a bad little earner. Speed diallers make it an easy source of money; set a range of mobile numbers and sit back for a connection which equals an income. I plan to challenge these systems as being illegal. Watch this space.

Hi Mikeupd,

Before you start, do some research into unsolicited reverse bill texts/sms, which is what has happened to you. You will be shocked in what you find. These 'Cowboys' scam/fraud in what is called a 'grey' area, not legal not illegal. The Premium Rate Industry Regulator allows them to continue as these companies actually fund the Regulator with their ill gotten gains. Ofcom do not want to know. The Police can't act unless the Regulator asks them to intervene, which they never do and you can guess why. I could go on for hours.

Good luck.

:eek:

wantmemoney · 8 December 2007 at 5:56PM

Intasun32 wrote:

The Premium Rate Industry Regulator allows them to continue as these companies actually fund the Regulator with their ill gotten gains. Ofcom do not want to know. The Police can't act unless the Regulator asks them to intervene, which they never do and you can guess why.

just about sums the problem up.

The regulator Icstis (PhonePayPlus) obtains it's funding from the Premium Rate Industry in two ways. A 0.34% levy on all premium rate services billed and the "fines" it collects from the Industry.

The level of fines is set by Ofcom in the Communications Act 2003
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2003/20030021.htm

97 Amount of penalty under s. 96

(1) The amount of a penalty imposed under section 96 is to be such amount not exceeding ten per cent. of the turnover of the notified provider’s relevant business for the relevant period as OFCOM determine to be—

(a) appropriate; and

(b) proportionate to the contravention in respect of which it is imposed.

The "fines" are in fact a "tax" on fraud. (The victims are in fact paying the "fines" )

That's why the "fines" are not acting as a deterrent to companies like Zamano.

The Icstis/industry fines con gets worse. Each year the fines are used to calculate the level of industry levy that is collected to cover the cost of "regulation". The more fines the regulator collects, the smaller the levy from the Industry.

If premium rate fraud was reported to the police and became subject to criminal investigations the Industry and Regulators would not be allowed to touch this money.

raptorman · 9 December 2007 at 12:50PM

My daughter has signed up to one of those mobile services that
sends messages to her phone everyday( despite being warned not to ).

The number sending the messages is 41125, does anyone know who this
is and how to stop it?

espresso · 9 December 2007 at 12:59PM

Send a text with STOP to the number.

Intasun32 · 9 December 2007 at 9:34PM

raptorman wrote: »

My daughter has signed up to one of those mobile services that
sends messages to her phone everyday( despite being warned not to ).

The number sending the messages is 41125, does anyone know who this
is and how to stop it?

I have checked the Premium Rate Regulator web site, www.PhonePayPlus.org.uk, and no knowledge of this number is know. I suggest that you call them on:

Contact Centre on 0800 500 212 between the hours of 8.00am to 6.00pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays)

Good luck

andy_g_4 · 11 December 2007 at 4:20PM

Interestingly I had a similar thing from Tamla Mobile.
I spoke to T-Mob who denied everything.
Then I called Tamla (having seen this thread).
They said the person wasn't around and would call me back - which they did an hour later and promiosed to e-mail the supplier (as they are not the originator - they just do the mailing).
The supplier, in this case Talplus, then called me back another hour or so later and promised to remove me from their list and post me a cheque for the call charge I had incurred.
Of courses - it may never arrive - but I have to say I was very pleaasantly suprised.

So many thanks to this thread!

lisyloo · 7 January 2008 at 8:13PM

Hello - would be grateful for any help.

I have 3 texts on my bill that I don't recognise (1 sent, 2 received at the same time) to 89388.

I did text STOP to one number which I though was free and legally binding.
Am I right about that?

What general happens in this situation?

I've been holding onto orange for 5 miuntes but I'm pretty sure I have to pay to phone them so I don't want to hang on for ages (as I'm on the virgin tarriff).

Are they likely to help me?
Is there an email I can use that they answer?

Any help appreciated as I've never been in this posistion before.
I'm pretty sure I haven't subscribed to anything and I'm careful about giving away my number.

chuckles1066 · 7 January 2008 at 8:29PM

lisyloo wrote: »

Hello - would be grateful for any help.

I have 3 texts on my bill that I don't recognise (1 sent, 2 received at the same time) to 89388.

I did text STOP to one number which I though was free and legally binding.
Am I right about that?

What general happens in this situation?

Orange have gotten into bed with some very dodgy characters in the reverse-billed SMS market.

Write to their Customer Services Director asking for an audit trail proving you subscribed to the "services" you received. Tell them that if they are unable to provide the said proof, you WILL report the matter to the Police as theft from your account.

Been there and done it; the Police will be obliged to either investigate and/or provide a CRN........but if the charges are fraudulent, Orange back down long before it gets that far.

£1.50 text charge?????

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