Anyone else getting charged for supposed text messages received from 700034153?

Karmal

My young teenager has a contract mobile for £15 per month and for the last 4 months the direct debit has been in excess of £30pm. I am tearing my hair out. I have been in touch with Virgin who were very sympathetic and suggested texting 'STOP' to a number they gave me would do the trick. Fat chance. I have googled the problem and I am not alone in paying out hard earned cash on this scam but no one seems to have a solution. Any suggestions gratefully received. If Virgin can't do anything I don't think they leave me with any option but to cancel the contract - they will have to whistle for early cancellation.

sporedude

No Early term fee, No contract cancellation.

Simple as.

nepenthes

Google comes up with a site with comments by people who are receiving these premium-rate texts. I can't posts links, but if you search for 700034153 and check the first site, there's a number of people with the issue (and some fixes).

gjchester

Karmal wrote: »

If Virgin can't do anything I don't think they leave me with any option but to cancel the contract - they will have to whistle for early cancellation.

If you cancel payment they'll bill you for the rest of the contract. If you try and ignore the early termination fee they'll add on charged for non payment then pass it to debt collectors.

From Virgins point of view they have done the right thing, you need to take it up with phonepayplus who regulate this industry. A google search indictes it's Jamster, and your son could have signed up for a ringtone service. It's also entirely possible your son DID sign up just hasn't told you he did so.

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/700034153

Browntoa

yes, its Jamster , the adverts on the TV have the small print that you are signing up to a "club" at £xx a week ( maybe he or one of his friends decided that they wanted one of the ringtones or screensavers)

if the remembers setting it up

http://www.jamster.co.uk/fw/goto/my-area/packages

will cancel

if password forgottent then enter mobile number here

http://www.jamster.co.uk/fw/goto/user/send-password

Browntoa

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Intasun32

@Karmal,

There have been many posts regarding 7000xxx premium rate numbers appearing on T-Mobile & Virgin, who use T-Mobile network, monthly bills. They are the codes used by TM & Virgin for the chargeable part of a premium rate text. It usually follows a five number short code text which has been sent from the senders account. It is sometimes chaged at the normal rate (eg: 10p for the text sent by short code (12345) and, for example,£1.50 for the premium rate section of the charge (7000xxx)) but it may sometimes be included in the total cost. (Sounds complicated I know)

There have also been many posts on MSE and other forums where accounts have been scammed and the 7000xxx number appears on a bill without the account holder sending a text by short code. If you are sure that the teenager has not subscribed to any service or downloaded ringtones or music contact Virgin customer service to complain and demand confirmation of any short code that has been sent, these should really be on your bill with the 700xxx number. From what has been posted on 'Whocallsme' it seems that all the posts are from Virgin customers, very odd!!!

You say that you have sent a STOP text and they are still being sent, you now also need to contact Phone Pay Plus, the premium rate regulator, to make a complaint.

Good luck.

gjchester

[QUOTE=Intasun32;35993575 From what has been posted on 'Whocallsme' it seems that all the posts are from Virgin customers, very odd!!!
[/QUOTE]

Most likely the provider send a text to a block of number that virgin owned. ie "reply now for a free ringtone" to 07xxx xxxxxx and went from 000001 to 999999 in that range. If the 07xxx code belongs to Virgin stands to reason the people replying will mainly be on Virgin. If it went to Vodafone then you'd get voda customers complaining.

I don't think it's anything to do with Virgin per se, just there dial code block used.

Oscar_The_Grouch

This is JAMSTER. Text "STOP" to 88888 from the "infected" phone and it will stop the membership and the texts arriving.

Your teenager MUST have signed up to JAMSTER for a ringtone, game or wallpaper and until you cancel the membership (as above) they will continue to send texts at a minimum of £1.50 a pop.

There is nothing you can do to get your money back, but hitting your teenager over the head with their mobile whilst shouting "never sign up to anything on your phone again" is a recommended form of therapy.

Intasun32

gjchester wrote: »

Most likely the provider send a text to a block of number that virgin owned. ie "reply now for a free ringtone" to 07xxx xxxxxx and went from 000001 to 999999 in that range. If the 07xxx code belongs to Virgin stands to reason the people replying will mainly be on Virgin. If it went to Vodafone then you'd get voda customers complaining.

I don't think it's anything to do with Virgin per se, just there dial code block used.

With regards to the complaints regarding this number on 'whocallsme', how could you not be 'suss' that all the posts were from customers of TM or Virgin?

You are incorrect regarding the 7000xxx number, from my own experience I can tell you that this is a number (or reference) which is used by T-Mobile on bills for many premium rate numbers. It is not a short code but a TM reference. As I have said it normally shows in addition to the five number short code. In some cases the short code charges the normal text rate and the 7000xxx number is the premium rate part, what ever the content provider has charged. The 7000xxx in used by TM on the TM network, Virgin 'piggy backs' the TM network hence the same reference showing on their bills.

There have been several threads on MSE (and other forums) on this subject, the fact this only happens to TM & Virgin customers is too much of a coincidence. There have been several threads where the premium rate charge has been found on bills and the account holder is adamant that they have not subscribed or sent any short code texts. Once can be an error or mistake but several times sounds fishy.

7000xxx is not recognised by Phone Pay Plus as a premium rate number as it is a TM reference.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=1275199&highlight=7000

:beer:

stefano

Same thing happened to my daughter. SHe sneakely signed up to something by text, oblivious to the amount of texts she would receive and pay for. We stopped topping up her sim, and got her a new one.