Unwanted text messages

NFH

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the OP needs only to pursue O2 for a refund. The OP has a contract for service with O2 and has no contract, implied or otherwise, with Bluestream.

It is O2 which has charged the OP, not Bluestream, and therefore legally the OP must take action against O2. The fact that O2 passes on part of the money to Bluestream is irrelevant from a legal point of view. It is up to O2 to prove that the OP used Bluestream's service and that the charge is warranted.

Techhead_2

NFH wrote: »

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the OP needs only to pursue O2 for a refund. The OP has a contract for service with O2 and has no contract, implied or otherwise, with Bluestream.

It is O2 which has charged the OP, not Bluestream, and therefore legally the OP must take action against O2. The fact that O2 passes on part of the money to Bluestream is irrelevant from a legal point of view. It is up to O2 to prove that the OP used Bluestream's service and that the charge is warranted.

No, have a re read of the thread and visit the regulators website (phonepayplus).

Silk

NFH wrote: »

It is O2 which has charged the OP, not Bluestream, and therefore legally the OP must take action against O2. The fact that O2 passes on part of the money to Bluestream is irrelevant from a legal point of view. It is up to O2 to prove that the OP used Bluestream's service and that the charge is warranted.

There is a reason and I can't remember the exact details but it had something to do with the network only being a platform and the network gets billed from the likes of Bluestream on your behalf.
The network then passes the charges on to you (for a disgusting profit of course)
The network is only charging you for those texts that are received and know have processed ok.
There was an Ofcom report somewhere about it.

Intasun32 wrote: »

@Silk,

Not quite!

In a perfect world, yes, you would take them to court but I have yet to read of any court action being taken by a victim of such a scam, successful or otherwise. The costs involved against the loss from the mobile account would not make it worth your while and these scammers know it.

Hi Intasun,
Theres a lot of proceedings started against companies which never reach the climax in courts due to settling at the death etc hence nothing to read or report etc so it may be that they fold earlier on.
The costs involved would depend on the loss claimed ie if it's up to £300 then it's a £25 fee using MCOL.
No doubt people aren't going to spend £25 trying to get £20 back but if it's a few hundred then it would be worthwhile.

A quick search shows loads of snakes in the basket though :rotfl:
Bluestream Mobile Ltd
American Mobile Ventures Ltd
Antiphony Ltd
Cell Media International

They've all got a new Co Sec at the beginning of this year PAUL JOHN BRADFORD

Intasun32

NFH wrote: »

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the OP needs only to pursue O2 for a refund. The OP has a contract for service with O2 and has no contract, implied or otherwise, with Bluestream.

It is O2 which has charged the OP, not Bluestream, and therefore legally the OP must take action against O2. The fact that O2 passes on part of the money to Bluestream is irrelevant from a legal point of view. It is up to O2 to prove that the OP used Bluestream's service and that the charge is warranted.

@NFH,

You are so correct in what you have stated, sadly ALL the networks ignore these facts and pass the buck onto the victims that have had funds 'stolen' form their account.

If you look at what has happened with this scam in stages;

1) The mobile account holder has been sent a chargeable text which was not requested and funds are removed from the account 'without' permission' of the account holder. (THEFT)

2) The NETWORK who have taken the funds from the mobile phone account then pass it on to the party (THE THIEF) that has sent the chargeable text. The Network becomes party to the theft.

Not so far fetched.

At a meeting held in February 2005 between the City of London Police Fraud Squad and representatives of all the Networks, a section of the minutes reads;

[FONT=TimesNewRoman,Bold][FONT=TimesNewRoman,Bold]Due Diligence[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=TimesNewRoman,Bold][FONT=TimesNewRoman,Bold]• If a Network becomes aware of criminal activity but chooses to turns a blind [/FONT][FONT=TimesNewRoman,Bold]eye, the Network may fall into the criminal arena by committing an offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act.[/FONT][/FONT]


[FONT=TimesNewRoman,Bold][FONT=TimesNewRoman,Bold]•If a Network takes money (and keeps it or passes it on) that has been made as a result of criminality (that they knew or suspected was criminal), the Network may also be committing an offence.

• If a Network receives information that businesses further down the value chain are acting suspiciously, they should question it, tell other people they are working with and inform the regulators of their suspicions.

[/FONT][/FONT]

Yet we are still being scammed daily and no one cares or does any thing to stop it.

Silk:
Theres a lot of proceedings started against companies which never reach the climax in courts due to settling at the death etc hence nothing to read or report etc so it may be that they fold earlier on.
The costs involved would depend on the loss claimed ie if it's up to £300 then it's a £25 fee using MCOL.
No doubt people aren't going to spend £25 trying to get £20 back but if it's a few hundred then it would be worthwhile.

@Silk,

Again you are correct but in the case of the scammers who are involved in the sending Unsolicited Reverse Bill Texts they never scam too much, just enough. They then sell your details on to other scammers, it's big business, and the cycle starts again.

It's well documented.

:beer:

Sublime_2

Might be a good time to invest in a blacklist application. I use one, which has prevented a lot of nuisance calls I've been getting from places like Somalia, even though I don't text/call anyone internationally. Best to nip it in the bud, before it causes a problem.

Andy7856

What you could consider doing, and I am no way saying this is a good idea but this did work once to me when the company in question was based at a residential property.

1) Track down the company sending the message
2) Track down the address of the property via google street view
3) Email the screen shot of the property to the company (running the business from home) and basically say is this your property? does the council/insurance company know you are running a business from these premises, will you/your family be at home this week if i come down to speak to you about my unwanted SPAM messages?

I did this in a ** very ** polite manner and bingo it stopped! Of course some people may think its a bad idea but sometimes simply been direct does work.

Wintermute

Sublime wrote: »

Might be a good time to invest in a blacklist application. I use one, which has prevented a lot of nuisance calls I've been getting from places like Somalia, even though I don't text/call anyone internationally. Best to nip it in the bud, before it causes a problem.

It wouldn't help in situations like this as it's the price of the texts received, not the contents of the texts that's the issue.

Actually spoke to a woman today who was in tears after her daughter ran up £450+ of charges on her phone via these text in less that 24 hours! :eek:. I definitely think there needs to be tougher regulation for these services, maybe make them so you have to opt-in or at the at the very least have an opt-out spending cap or something although I've got to say a large percentage of the people I've come across who are getting billed for these text messages have somehow opt'd into them.

zagfles

colinicky wrote: »

Should be noted as well that if you are on T-mobile ( & I believe Orange) you can call customer services & request them to block short code text messages . As far as I know no other provider offers this facility .

Vodafone do as well but their CS will deny all knowledge. I tried phoning them and emailing them as I knew the bar existed from reading their forum, but I was told 5 times that is it wasn't possible!:mad:

I posted on their forum http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/ and they did it straight away!

zagfles

NFH wrote: »

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the OP needs only to pursue O2 for a refund. The OP has a contract for service with O2 and has no contract, implied or otherwise, with Bluestream.

It is O2 which has charged the OP, not Bluestream, and therefore legally the OP must take action against O2. The fact that O2 passes on part of the money to Bluestream is irrelevant from a legal point of view. It is up to O2 to prove that the OP used Bluestream's service and that the charge is warranted.

Yes - this happened to me twice on Vodafone - I just sent an email to Vodafone saying I didn't request the text and they refunded the money no questions both times. They suggested I send a STOP message but this didn't work as the same company texted me again.

But (as per my other post) I now have a premium rate text bar on my phone :cool: (I hope!)

zagfles

Wintermute wrote: »

Actually spoke to a woman today who was in tears after her daughter ran up £450+ of charges on her phone via these text in less that 24 hours! :eek:

This is one reason never to get contracts for kids - they can't be expected to be aware of this sort of thing.