WINPLC.com and Ltext.com text scam

Westminster

I just received one of these pathetic theiving text messages.

This is what is said:
"Hey it's Amy. Got a new cameraphone!! Look at this http://ltext.com/amy/14323 Text Back! x x

Txt CHAT to 85222

CancelSendSTOP 150p/msg
c/s01494400138
From:85222
5:34am 1-Feb-09"

We have never subscribed to any premium service, never voted in any tv competitions etc so this is entirely unsolicited.

I have lodged a complaint with Ofcom, WinPLC and PhonepayPlus and have retained the offensive text. I'll try watchdog but don't expect any response!

Imitheoutraged

After emailing o2 again to explain that there was no way that I subscribed to this service (http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/85222#pv9GDKJjwGgDBhAjLUn3VSg - more details here) a woman from o2 phoned me. She explained that after checking my records the text has definitely come out of the blue, probably randomly generated by the company, and also said o2 will give me a refund for the 10p STOP ALL text. Just texting STOP back the the number won't work as they have many other services using that number. However, she said o2 cannot refund me the £1.50 as the money was taken by an external company. She offered to give me the customer service number for the company but it was an 0845 line and would cost me. I turned her down as I have seen on this forum and the other one I previously linked to that people have had no responce from that number. I have emailed WINPLC for a refund but have yet to receive a reply. I have contacted Ofcom and Watchdog now too.

Westminster

So there are no legal checks & balances in place to stop this company sending 10 texts a day to everyone in the country. O2 et al are seriously claiming they would do nothing about this?

What a bunch of scabs.

wantmemoney

Imitheoutraged wrote:

However, she said o2 cannot refund me the £1.50 as the money was taken by an external company.

o2 are telling you a pack of bloody lies.

o2 has a billing agreement with WIN. When WIN sends you the unsolicited crap, o2 debits your account (keeps up to 50%) and sends the rest to WIN.

penge

wantmemoney wrote: »

o2 are telling you a pack of bloody lies.

o2 has a billing agreement with WIN. When WIN sends you the unsolicited crap, o2 debits your account (keeps up to 50%) and sends the rest to WIN.

This just gets worse. Maybe we need to be complaining about O2 as well, for colluding with the con merchants at Winplc

wantmemoney

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2007/09/01/2904770.htm

01 Sept 2007

Innovation in the premium SMS market is being stifled by mobile operator revenue-sharing models, with smaller content providers and aggregators being hit the hardest. But the growing interest of larger companies such as eBay in using premium SMS to charge for new services could force operators to change their business models. At present, mobile operators can take up to 50% of the revenue generated through premium SMS, but models vary widely. Jeremy Flynn, former head of commercial partnerships at Vodafone and now CEO of mobile video specialist D2see, says UK operators generally keep around 20% of revenue from premium SMS. Mobile transaction specialist mBlox confirms this, adding that while 80% is passed to the hosting content company or aggregator, 95% of this revenue share is then passed to the content provider. This is a similar model to the participation TV revenue share (see diagram). But for smaller content platform developers such as Mobiya, the revenue share model breaks down on average to 50/50. Based on the model of a premium SMS costing 1.50, Orange UK keeps 68 pence including VAT while Virgin Mobile keeps a whopping 98p. These figures relate to SMS volumes of fewer than 5000 per month, notes Martin Davis, CEO of Mobiya.

you all might also consider writing to your Members of Parliament

wantmemoney

penge wrote:

This just gets worse. Maybe we need to be complaining about O2 as well, for colluding with the con merchants at Winplc

all the Regulators (including the police) have been instructed to refer all complaints to Phonepayplus.

Phonepayplus is the 'industry sponsered regulator' and is contracted by Ofcom. They operate to the remit of Ofcom.
Last year Ofcom told the Westminster Select Committee they do not forward complaints to the police because that is 'dangerous' ground for a regulator.
The police said they will only investigate if they are asked to by Ofcom


no case of premium rate theft has ever been prosecuted by the police.
not even this one
http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/business/adjudications/search.asp?cmd=3&id=557

read this
http://www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=227146&postcount=1

and this
http://www.aimelink.org/newsdisplay2.aspx?id=1716

penge

More people are getting the same scam text from WINPLC.
See here:http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/85222
I was correct about this having some connection with Mblox.com.Apparently, it's their network that WINPLC are using to STEAL from us.

Westminster

Well I THINK I just received a £10 refund postal-order from the company. The reason why I am not certain is I received a call to the phone from a private number (which I never answer) and about 2 minutes later, I received a partially completed email from someone called Ian McClelland but from a personal email address. The email did not say he was from Win PLC but then I haven't complained to any other companies in the last 12 months. The email said:

"HI I can now confirm your number will be removed from our data base and you will not receive any more texts from us, we will also send out £10 today to reimburse you.
Please"

And today the postal order arrived from an Ayrshire postal code by recorded delivery.

So a bit of a result as long as I don't receive any more texts

penge

Well that's strange because I called Winplc and they're denying that is has anything to do with them.
They claim the texts are coming from a company called Bulletin Wireless.