Is this legal?

alunp

My mum is a pensioner and has epilepsy. Its why we made her learn to use a mobile phone. She always makes sure she has credit in her phone in case of emergency.

The other day she realised she had no credit but didn't know why as she hadn't used her phone much at all.

She had however received a daily joke by text that she had never asked for.

It turns out these very unfunny jokes were costing her £1.50 a text.

O2 told her that the only way to stop them is to text STOP to the company concerned. But she was also warned that once one company has your number its common to start receiving other calls as well.

The jokes my mum was receiving gave no indication that they were sent as part of a charged service, or the amount it had cost for her to receive the jokes she had never asked for, or how to stop them.

Is this legal? How can it be? It seems that merely by letting somebody know your mobile phone number is leaving you wide open to be robbed - because theft is what this is.

I'm amazed that the phone companies allow this to happen.

What do people advise?

I want two things

a) I want my mother's pension money given back as nearly eighteen pounds was taken from her in this way.

b) I want protection for her and myself in future as it seems that all mobile users are open to this scam.

How do I get that?

Ta

Al

drahcir_2

all you can do is text stop back to the number and they are supposed to stop, although ive heard some flout the law
if it continues maybe tell the ombudsman
also add mobile number to the telephone pref service
maybe change the sim?
see here for other info
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=8772&highlight=ombudsman
and here
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=146620&highlight=ringtones

xycom1

IMHO it's legalised fraud.

Unfortunately, only T-Mobile are responsible enough to give people the choice of blocking reverse charge (i.e. theft) SMS messages.

A better solution would be an authorisation message before receiving one (i.e. like receiving a reverse charge phone call) - you get the choice before accepting the message - or a full block like the one that T-Mobile offers.

This subject really pisses me off - because I bought a new Orange phone (which had a recycled number) and in the first few days, I received a spam theft text message. When I rang CS, they treated me like it was my fault and something that I had signed up for - when I had only received one bill for the number and it was clear from the itemisation that I had sent no text messages out to request such spam. They reluctantly refunded me - but made it clear that this was exceptional circumstances.

Next time I'll sue.

Edinburghlass_2

Have a look at

http://www.grumbletext.co.uk/