Premium Rate Text Services

Tasmin42

Ever received a premium rate text, charged a £1, sent STOP ALL and charged another £1 to a service you never subscribed to?

I only recently realised you can be charged for receiving texts. Last year at about 10:30pm one night in December I received a text stating 'To unsubscribe send STOP ALL to 84122' that's it nothing else to identify who sent it. I ignored it not knowing what it was until I received my bill in January stating I had being charged a £1 for receiving this text. I called 3 (the network) to ask them, they told me to send STOP ALL, not much use there. I then called OFCOM to find out what I could do about it, they said to call ICTIS (0800 500 212). ICTIS gave me details about who the company was who sent the text and their number. They also said the company had to tell me where they got my details from within 48 hours. The company is called Zamano (0871 277 9988), they provide allsorts of premium rate services. I called Zamano and explained the situation. They took my mobile number off their database, which means I did not have to spend another £1 to stop their service. They also told me where they got my number from, Finaldelta Ltd (0845 0542 832). I did a Companies House search for them (https://www.companieshouse.co.uk) and found they are based in Blackpool. I called them to ask where they got my details from but all I got was a paid call centre where I spoke to 'Kat', she wouldn't give me her surname. By the way, a paid call centre is an outside company that is paid to answer your phone and take messages. No response from them as of yet.

It seems to me that anyone can provide mobile phone numbers to these 'services' with out the owner’s knowledge and charge then £2 for the privilege (£1 to receive the text and £1 to stop it). This is surely wrong. I think OFCOM should either ban this way of charging people to receive text messages, so you can only be charged if you send a text and not if you receive one. And block your mobile number from ALL these services.

I'll let you know of the out come,

Stewart.

MickKnipfler

have a look at the ICTSIS (spelling??) site

fubar_2

Something is wrong here because to subscribe to these rip off services they need the subscription to originate from the handset, or else there is nothing stopping anyone from just sending text messages to any mobile number and charging £1 for the pleasure of it, before they can charge anything they have to have the proof that a subscription was set-up from a handset.

I would get back in touch with your service provider and ask them to obtain proof that a subscription was set-up from your handset as I believe before your service provider can bill you for this type of charge they have to receive proof from the charging company that you are a subscriber to their service (hidden codes that identify where the subscription text message came from)

Tasmin42

The spelling is ICSTIS (??).

I contacted 3 about this and they couldn't/wouldn't provide anything, but they did refund me £1. Apparently these services can be setup from anywhere - web, landline, email or mobiles according to ICSTIS. The company (Finaldelta Ltd) concerned will not respond to my phone calls.

This seems to me an easy way to make money for the unscrupulous people out there, just think up some mobile numbers sell them to premium rate services and get £2 for each one. I wonder how longer it would be before you would be found out. Most people would not complain and just accept it as a mistake.