Getting charged for Spam text

HugoSP

You need to go to the Telephone Preference Service. Alternitively ask your mobile phone provider for some advice - they'll probably refer you to the same.

I can't remember the site address but if you google the above you'll find it.

It takes about 30 days for it to have an effect and it is not totally foolproof. Some cowboys still try it on but it is rare.

My numbers have been registered with the TPS since I have had them. I am now porting them onto their 4th contracts. Also my childrens' numbers are on them.

H

Polly

My 8 yo son bought a new mobile a week ago and a 'helpful' friend borrowed it and somehow subscribed him to a horoscope service from which he is receiving messages several times a day. I have texted 'stop' to the number but it has made no difference. His credit (which he paid for himself) is decreasing at an alarming rate. How can we get this stopped?

bootcampbilly

Is there no contact details for this "horoscope" service?

Edinburghlass_2

I have merged the last four threads on this problem, please have a read back for suggestions on what to do

When it happened to my daughter I think I had to text STOP at least a couple of times before it stopped.

cheapskate101

Polly wrote: »

My 8 yo son bought a new mobile a week ago and a 'helpful' friend borrowed it and somehow subscribed him to a horoscope service from which he is receiving messages several times a day. I have texted 'stop' to the number but it has made no difference. His credit (which he paid for himself) is decreasing at an alarming rate. How can we get this stopped?

Had the same problem - bet you are with T-mobile. My daughter got innundated with texts as soon as she bought the phone - some from very [/B]unsuitable for children. (We also have had Orange and O2 - no problems of this kind with these operators and O2 , according to their literature, assume that everyone is a child, so they don't get these sort of text messages as soon as the phone is livened up.)

After sorting the unsuitable messages...by texting STOP or STOP ALL to the short code that they came from...came to agreement with T - mob that the phone could be screened as it was in use by a child.

However, the problem came back with Horoscope texts just recently. After several irate phone calls to T-mob ( company almost the worst for customer service according to the Which Report) - one operator finally was of help....she said....

You have to ring M block on 0871 2230000 and find out who is sending you the horoscope texts. A bit suspicious of this company as the operator there said that she was in Holland, although she had a cockney accent and the company has an office in London.....

However, in my case the horoscope texts were coming from Mobile Messenger 0845 3553445 - shouldn't bother as it's probably a high rate tel call...... and I got no answer when I rang.

I e-mailed this company instead but they stipulated that they wanted to speak on the mobile phone in question. Said that I didn't want them talking to my daughter...

They then sent around 4 e-mails demanding to speak on this number. Since they could have given me my money back without all this - told my daughter not to answer their calls......and why would any company want to speak to a child on the phone? At this point became worried as some e-mails were from a male.

ICSTICS no help at all....most of these high rate texting companies seem to be registered abroad, so I think this is why they seem to have no power to help.

The advice from OFCOM was - change your number, which we did by running down the T- mobile acount to 0p, going to a market to have the phone unblocked (£10) - don't bother with T- Mobile as it costs around £30...you can have it done over the internet cheaper but be careful who you give your money and phone information to.

We bought a Tesco Economy SIM card for around £2, on which you can have security from these sort of predators acording to Tesco's website. (Tesco is currently top of the list for service providers in the Which Report list).

MrRincewind

if you put the short code number from the premium rate messages into the ICSTIS website, It wil give you the company contact details for either the sending company or the third part who handles the details, It will also advise the best way to stop the particular text message

http://www.icstis.org/consumers/ncd/DisplayServiceDetails.asp