Text Message Rip Off

meer53

simax wrote: »

Who in their right mind gives an 11 year old a contract phone?!?

My daughter who is 10 has had a contract phone since she was 7. She has the phone because it came as part of Daddy's business phone package. She understands exactly how the contract works and that she is not allowed to play any games on her phone unless i have looked at them first. She also knows to ignore any texts from anyone who she doesn't know and deletes them immediately. She downloads free apps, and understands that anything that involves "credits" usually means that someone somewhere has to pay for them.
Most kids these days are very savvy when it comes to technology, some more than their parents. Maybe this is what the problem is, many parents don't know what their kids are up to. (no offence to the OP)

Wintermute

wantmemoney wrote: »

it's wrong for peadophilesc type 'businessmen' to target children(or anyone) with swindle scam. and fraud irrespective of whether their parents are good or 'bad'.

some of you people are on the wrong forum

Just because the user (or "victim" if that would make you happier?) was a child doesn't mean it that they were being targeted because they're a child. If the person that agreed to the service was an immigrant that wouldn't mean the number operator was racist and targeting immigrants.

Intasun32

El_Gringo_on_The-Scream wrote:

Amounts lost to premium rate fraud in the UK mobile market greater than the biggest ever Euromillions lottery win - every year!

A new report from BillingScore shows that the UK mobile sector is losing £140 million a year to premium rate fraud. The report adds that, unless the industry takes a determined stand against it, the incidence of such criminality will only increase with the popularity of in-app payments and the spread of mobile devices with embedded NFC (near field communications) capabilities. Martyn Warwick reports.

This gives you some idea how big the fraud / scams business is!

Who are the losers?

Us, the mobile phone users. The £140 million comes from our accounts!

The Winners?

The Networks take up to 50% of the unsolicited chargeable text, The Government takes 20% VAT, the Scammers share the rest! Not a bad days work.


(Many thanks to El Gringo)

:beer:

Mrs_Arcanum

DS (who only has PAYG) had charges using all his credit for calls saying yes when the phone was SWITCHED OFF. These were refunded once the problem was discovered. So not all down to irresponsible parenting.

simax

meer53 wrote: »

My daughter who is 10 has had a contract phone since she was 7.

My eldest son is 11. Although I trust him with a lot of things, there is no way on this planet I'd get him a contract phone at his age.

PAYG all the way until he is old enough to get his own contract. Then any bill problems are his.

Would you trust a child of that age with £500 in £10 notes? Because that's what you're effectivley doing.