WINPLC.com and Ltext.com text scam

penge

:mad:

I'm so mad I could eat bricks...:mad:

Yesterday I got a text message from a company I'd never heard of called Ltext.com and it charged me for a service I had not subscribed to and never heard of. The text had a link to indecent images. Apart from that fact that I'm not into !!!!!! and I certainly wouldn't pay for it, I'm not a lesbian and I don't want to see female !!!!!! or have links for it sent to my phone. I'm so angry about this and about being DEFRAUDED by the company involved that I contacted Icstis (payphoneplus) and Ofcom and even a website complaints company. I want my money that they stole from me refunded and I want justice. I did some investigating and discovered that Ltext is part of WINPLC.com. I want everybody to know that this company called WINPLC which pretends to be some great internet company is running a text scam and robbing innocent people's mobile phones. This has to stop. O2 are useless. They don't care and won't do anything about it. It's sickening. But I'm going to pursue this until justice is done. AND I WANT THE MONEY WINPLC/Ltext STOLE FROM ME RETURNED.

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

CHR15

How did they steal money from you by sending a text message??

Did you follow their link and sign up to something??

penge

Nope. I'd never heard of the company until I started to look up who owned the domain of Ltext.com so I could give them an earfull. I never sign up for services, never download ringtones or anything, because I never have much money on my phone as it is without companies stealing from me. It's disgusting.

And if you think that taking money by sending a text to your phone is not stealing then I'd like to know what you'd call it. It's FRAUD and it's STEALING when a company texts you out of the blue and takes money from your phone and you have not asked for their rubbish in the first place.

I believe they randomly generated my number. And why doesn't the government do something about these fraudsters?

CHR15

I just googled "winplc.com scam" and found lots of results of similar.

All though, seem to suggest that you have, at some point, signed up to this agreement to be sent reverse charged text messages.

There are lots of suggested numbers to send the text "STOP xxxxxxx" , there are different numbers so it's difficult to see which applies.

Have you sent in any "out of the norm" Texts recently? ringtones, phone in voting, upgrade offers etc? (EDIT: note to self, read the replies :) )

penge

Thanks,

At the bottom of the text they sent me was a c/s and a number. I wasn't sure what that was at first, but soon figured out that c/s is customer services. So I called the number to give them an ear bashing but they're protecting themselves (as all thieves do) by hiding. They won't answer the phone. Some weird voice like a hooker asks you to leave a message and your details. They must think I'm stupid.

Sorry, but you can tell I'm really really mad about this ... I'd better calm down now.

CHR15

Sorry, I have to laugh at your posts talk of Lesbians, female !!!!!! and hookers on the phone!!

I wish I got some of them :D

penge

Yeah well I'm going to make them laugh on the wrong side of their faces because I'm not going to let them get away with this.

Imitheoutraged

The exact same thing happened to me. Last night at about 11pm I received a text which was then followed by my balance tone. I wouldn't have noticed if it hadn't been for the balance tone going off that £1.50 had been taken from my phone! I always check the small print of things and always make sure my information isn't sent to third parties, I never get ringtones or any of that rubbish sent to my phone because it's all extortionate and I hate junk mail. The only people who could've given away my mobile number to this WINPLC company is o2 through their Top-up surprises website. The only other times I have given away my mobile number in the last month was for job applications, and I highly doubt they passed on my number! I want my money back! This is theft and anyone who thinks I signed up to talk to 'Amy' when I'm a woman with a boyfriend of 2 years is an imbecile. I've contacted o2 who accused me of signing up to premium rate texts! I have also contacted payphoneplus and am waiting to hear from them on the matter. I suggest anyone with the same problems as me do the same. I will not give them another £1.50 to stop texts I never wanted or asked for in the first place! It's disgusting!

http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/default.asp

wantmemoney

penge wrote:

I believe they randomly generated my number. And why doesn't the government do something about these fraudsters?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/consumer_affairs/article5002795.ece
Even more worrying, however, is the growing trend among premium-rate companies to target people who have not given them their details. Most usually a company acquires contact details by buying lists of data from other companies. “Buying and selling of contact details is big business,” Mr Bates says. “Lists of phone numbers are passed around the industry. If your number is on one of these lists, you could receive a text about anything.”
For example, many price comparison websites sell on the data of people who have asked for quotes on their sites, as do many online retailers. The premium-rate providers then pay for these lists.

.............................................................
Phonepayplus has just brought in new rules :rolleyes:

http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/news/articles/nr_20090122_industry.asp
Marketing lists: companies that sell or otherwise trade third party marketing lists must provide evidence upon request by PhonepayPlus that recipients have agreed to receive promotional text messages for particular types of services;
.......................................
Aime the trade body that represent the crooks are squealing like pigs being dragged from the trough.
http://www.aimelink.org/newsdisplay.aspx?id=2022
However, the trade body says it's 'concerned' that the current trend of PPP is to continue down the road of prescriptive regulation.

In a statement AIME chairperson Sally Weatherall, said: "[We] consulted closely with [our] members and PPP in respect of the mobile review and made several recommendations which we note have been adopted.

................................
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/100/a18
Sally Weatherall
MD New Media - WIN plc
Hemel Hempstead, United Kingdom

Current

• Chair at AIME (Association of Interactive Media and Entertainment)
• MD New Media at WIN plc

................................................
and this WIN's 'fine' record
http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/business/adjudications/search.asp?AD=08%2F01%2F2009&SP=Wireless+Information+Network+Limited&ST=&SpLookup=Search&Keywords=&cmd=2

penge

Wow thanks for that link on the WINplc fines.

I can hardly believe the amount of times they've been fined. More than 34 times and totally over £200,000 (by a quick estimation). Yet they're still carrying out their illegal activities. Somehow they aren't getting the STOP message. Someone needs to stop them from operating fullstop. Why hasn't this business been prevented from operating? The people running WINPLC are obviously a bunch of crooks. Payphoneplus knows it. And a look at the last "fine", all they got was a slap on the wrist - I mean a fine of £2,500 is nothing to a bunch of crooks that can make that amount within an hour of sending out fraudulent text messages. What the hell is going on here? Someone needs to come down on these thieves harder because they're just not getting the message. Last fine was December 18 2008, when they were told to "seek compliance advice". What kind of !!!!!!!! is that? That's like telling a bankrobber, be quiet when you do the job. For crying out loud, Payphoneplus need to deal with this rubbish once and for all. I'm writing to Payphoneplus tonight to let them know exactly how I feel.


Something I brought up with O2 is that I can't see why the phone companies don't put into place a different system, one in which the sender of the charging text has to receive a confirmation text from you before they're allowed to take(steal) any money from your phone.

penge

Imitheoutraged wrote: »

The exact same thing happened to me. Last night at about 11pm I received a text which was then followed by my balance tone. I wouldn't have noticed if it hadn't been for the balance tone going off that £1.50 had been taken from my phone! I always check the small print of things and always make sure my information isn't sent to third parties, I never get ringtones or any of that rubbish sent to my phone because it's all extortionate and I hate junk mail. The only people who could've given away my mobile number to this WINPLC company is o2 through their Top-up surprises website. The only other times I have given away my mobile number in the last month was for job applications, and I highly doubt they passed on my number! I want my money back! This is theft and anyone who thinks I signed up to talk to 'Amy' when I'm a woman with a boyfriend of 2 years is an imbecile. I've contacted o2 who accused me of signing up to premium rate texts! I have also contacted payphoneplus and am waiting to hear from them on the matter. I suggest anyone with the same problems as me do the same. I will not give them another £1.50 to stop texts I never wanted or asked for in the first place! It's disgusting!

http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/default.asp

Just to let you know that I've written to Watchdog as well. http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/

If more people write to them perhaps they'll feature it and expose the conmerchants at Winplc.com for the filthy crooks that they are.

You can complained to Ofcom here by submitting a consumer monitoring report: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/mobile/subscriptions/?itemid=285869
Complain to Payphoneplus here (enter the phone code and then click on complain): http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/numberchecker/ComplaintForm_Numbercheck.asp
Email the crooks at winplc.com here [EMAIL="customerservices@winplc.com"]customerservices@winplc.com[/EMAIL] ... they'll probably ignore you though. If anybody gets a response from them I'd like to know about it, thanks.

Sick joke calling themselves WIN when you look at the number of fines they've incurred.