Mobile Shortcode Scammers

phil33eod

I am not new to the site but am new to the forums.

I have been receiving "spam" text messages on my mobile, some have been billed to my acount. Orange, my provider, customer care are very sympathetic but cannot refund or block these texts. All they do is give you the company name and contact number. Obviously this entails long waits on hold costing me money and with varying results. As yet I have received no refunds and am totally dismayed that this mobile spamming is not illegal.

So I asked how these firms got my number and heres the thing........if you text into something like the xfactor etc or even take a test drive for a car read the small print. Apparently many of these things have terms and conditions allowing the sale of you mobile number to third parties.

I have registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), they are on the web and hopefully this will stop unsolicited texts.

Martin if you see this I respectfully request that there may be grounds to start some sort of campaign to outlaw this menace.

Stuart_W

I similarly hate such text messages. I have an onld BTCellnet payupfront for life phone that I only ever use for outgoing calls using 141 first, have given the number to no one (ever) it is not directory listed, it is TPS registered and I still receive junk texts - I have not had one that has charged me yet, but they would do if I replied.

To avoid this I have simply left my phone full with text messages so there is no "room" for new ones.



Seems to have worked so far!

Steve_xx

You might be interested in the following site which is dedicated to this sort of scam. Also ICSTIS are interested too:

http://grumbletext.co.uk


See the item below featured on BBC news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4208873.stm#

seaniboy

Steve_xx wrote:

You might be interested in the following site which is dedicated to this sort of scam. Also ICSTIS are interested too:

http://grumbletext.co.uk


See the item below featured on BBC news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4208873.stm#

Last Updated: Wednesday, 26 January, 2005, 15:04 GMT

Steve_xx

seaniboy wrote:

Last Updated: Wednesday, 26 January, 2005, 15:04 GMT

Correct..............

zx2011

Icstis is the regulator of premium rate numbers.

See http://www.icstis.org.uk/consumers/how_to_complain/default.asp