Premium Rate Text Message Scam. Planet49 Myquiz2win Quizfever

hard_earnt_money

My friend has just received his mobile bill to find out he's been paying £2.00 for messages he's been receiving from the what appears to be a scam company, by the time he found out he was being charged for these messages the total he owes is in excess of £100, more charges will appear on his next bill.

Contacting the company concerned has been a waste of time, they just say he agreed to their terms and conditions. O2, his provider cannot do anything about this either, they cannot bar such messages or stop these payments from being taken however they are going to contact the company to try and resolve the matter.
I think its disgraceful that mobile companies allow these services to operate through their networks especially after complaints but guess they take a cut of the profits so should have some liability.

Searching the Ofcom website we found phonepayplus who appear to regulate such companies so maybe they can help recover the costs.

If anyone has had a similar experience I would like to hear from you, but the real reason for this post is a warning to anyone with a contract phone account that should monies be taken from your account by such a company it may be impossible to get it back and there appears no way to bar these premium rate sms's from your account.
PAYG customers appear to have the satisfaction of knowing that if they don't have enough credit the scum bag company don't get paid.

halibut2209

Has he replied to one with the message "STOP"?

PZH

hard_earnt_money wrote: »

Contacting the company concerned has been a waste of time, they just say he agreed to their terms and conditions.

And did he agree to their T&C's ?

halibut2209 wrote: »

Has he replied to one with the message "STOP"?

I agree - this is the usual way to stop SMS messages. (Well, the more legit ones anyway)

hard_earnt_money

Yes, after contacting O2 they advised him to send STOP to 60700 he also went to their website and unsubscribed there.

As for agreeing to their T&C's he didn't subscribe, authorise or visit their website and assumed the messages were advertising so ignored them not realising that he was being charged for each one sent.

halibut2209

From their site

"This is a subscription service; you will be billed 4 times per week costing £2 per billing (£8 total per week) until you send STOP to 60700 or otherwise terminate in accordance with clause 7.1 of the terms & conditions displayed on this site."

7Term and Termination

7.1The provision of the Services shall commence immediately upon receipt by us of confirmation of subscription from you in accordance with clause 4.3 and shall continue until you terminate the Contract, by either:
7.1.1sending to us an SMS message with STOP to 60700;
7.1.2e-mailing us at info@myquiz2win.co.uk;
7.1.3calling us at our customer service line at 08443850012 (standard rate, during business hours);
7.1.4using our online contact form;
and in the case of 7.1.2 to 7.1.4, you request cancellation of the Contract.

hard_earnt_money

halibut2209 wrote: »

From their site

"This is a subscription service; you will be billed 4 times per week costing £2 per billing (£8 total per week) until you send STOP to 60700 or otherwise terminate in accordance with clause 7.1 of the terms & conditions displayed on this site."

7Term and Termination

7.1The provision of the Services shall commence immediately upon receipt by us of confirmation of subscription from you in accordance with clause 4.3 and shall continue until you terminate the Contract, by either:
7.1.1sending to us an SMS message with STOP to 60700;
7.1.2e-mailing us at [EMAIL="info@myquiz2win.co.uk"]info@myquiz2win.co.uk[/EMAIL];
7.1.3calling us at our customer service line at 08443850012 (standard rate, during business hours);
7.1.4using our online contact form;
and in the case of 7.1.2 to 7.1.4, you request cancellation of the Contract.

:T Are you for real ?

halibut2209

Just glad to help

"As for agreeing to their T&C's he didn't subscribe, authorise or visit their website and assumed the messages were advertising so ignored them not realising that he was being charged for each one sent."

Not sure that's ENTIRELY true.

"you enter your mobile telephone number and then receive a free SMS message including your unique subscription code. By entering this code on the Site, you confirm that your mobile telephone number is correct, and you confirm that you would like to sign up for the service. After pressing the “Subscribe Now”-button, you'll be signed up to be able to play for the chance to win the prize."

So if he didn't sign up, someone else did who had access to the phone in order to get the subscription code

hard_earnt_money

Hmmm, amazingly he managed to sign up to both sites within a few seconds.

I was not asking for your opinion of HIS honesty or trustworthiness and really didn't need you to cut and paste the T&C's from their website, not at all helpful and rather insulting actually.

My point is that these services should be properly controlled and regulated and the phone companies should be able to restrict these services (Turn on or off). YOU cannot be blocked from receiving premium rate text messages.

Its his word against theirs that he did sign up for the service and how can it be proved either way ?

Again you quote their subscription signup procedure, again not helpful and its almost like your endorsing this company, I'm sorry but who in their right mind would sign up for such a stupid expensive service, its a scam.

halibut2209

You know, you're making the "please be especially nice" extremely difficult

I told you how to stop the messages and payments after you said that contacting the company was a waste of time. I fail to see how that wasn't helpful.

Oh well, I guess that's what you get when you answer someone's question. Have a nice day.

Intasun32

halibut2209 wrote: »

You know, you're making the "please be especially nice" extremely difficult

I told you how to stop the messages and payments after you said that contacting the company was a waste of time. I fail to see how that wasn't helpful.

Oh well, I guess that's what you get when you answer someone's question. Have a nice day.

@Hard_earnt_money,

From what you have said it seems that your friend has been yet another victim of the scam known as receiveing 'unsolicited reverse bill premium rate texts'.

You are on the wrong forum, post on the mobile phone section, you will find that your friend is not alone and you will get lots of advice and info from other victims.

:beer:

squeaky

Hi all,

I agree. The mobile phones forum would be the best place for this one, so I'll move the thread across.


Good luck

Forum_Team wrote:

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL='forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com']forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]