Stop Spam Texts Discussion Area

chrisjuk12

xpi0t0s wrote: »

From the article: "Spammers do it because they are getting responses. They can sell these details on to debt management or claims firms. They get paid big cash for these 'leads'. If nobody replied, there would be no data for them to sell, making what they do pointless."

OK, so as they ignore TPS, and they use disposable numbers (so blocking them doesn't work), and simply ignoring the messages doesn't work (I still get spammed if I simply delete the messages), what about fighting back another way?

Reply to the message; they get their cash, and the company who paid for your number calls you, whereupon you simply say you're not interested. If enough of us do this then the value of the leads will drop and the exercise will become pointless. Obviously there's a sucker born every minute and there will always be a supply of new businesses who get hoodwinked by the spammers into buying a poisoned database but this should still impact the spammers - or at least their idiot customers, and maybe the idiots will start demanding refunds from their "data providers" for selling them useless leads.

And my response to "Mobile Professional" is to ensure your TPS download is kept up to date. If I've ignored their advice that they allow spam to mobiles and still registered my number then I expect any company that wants a business relationship with me to take that into account and find some other way of advertising their junk.

I kind of think you missed the point with your post. To reply to these messages just keeps the wheel turning and in doing so you no longer have the one company spamming you with unwanted texts but you now have all the people that they sold your details to calling and sending emails and texts.


It would be a nice idea to think that telling an ambulance chaser or PPI solicitor you are not interested but you can guarantee for every 10 or so "not interested" you would get some poor soul that they harass and bully into making a claim that they most likely wouldn't have claimed for in the first place. Not only does this strengthen the claim to carry on the spam texting business but it also raises insurance costs for the rest of us.

cheshire_womble

i begrudge sending 'stop' to opt out of spam,as you usually get charged, never mind confirming your number etc, i have an i-phone, when i get a spam text message, i open up messages, information, and block caller. presume there is something similar with other brands.

JayZ

For a while I couldn't understand why my husband's phone bill was so high and had been moaning at him for going over his data limit. It turns out that he had been receiving premium text messages for £2.50 each for some time! Having read this article, I checked the number on phonepayplus which gave me an email address for the company in question. I decided to start gently and emailed them directly on Wednesday night asking for proof that we had in fact signed up for such a service (to confirm, this is a business mobile number so it is available on websites and all of our business stationery). The company telephoned my husband on Thursday to apologise and by Saturday morning we had a £66 refund in our paypal account. It cost me about ten minutes of my time and I would say is worth a try. If you don't get a response, you can go on and report them through the phonepayplus website.

MrsGfree

Can anyone advise please. My daughter has an EE Osprey wifi box and is receiving spam SMS messages from 700146099 charging £4.50 a time. She has received 2 so far. She did not click to read the messages. I have spoken to EE and they cannot suggest how to stop them! Thank you

grumbler

EDIT: Wait.... she can't be charged for receiving texts from a long number. That's why Payphoneplus don't have it. IIRC, 0700 are 'personal' numbers and are very expensive to call to and, most likely, to send SMSs to.

What does the WiFi box have to do with this? Is it not just for mobile internet only? I guess your daughter has a phone on EE as well.

https://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/about-us/number-checker (doesn't work in Firefox)

Unfortunately PhonepayPlus does not have any information about the Payforit ID/ShortCode 700146099.
You should contact your mobile phone network and ask them for details about this number and service and get in touch with the service provider.
If you cannot get in touch with the service provider, then please contact us either online or by phone on 0800 500 212.

So call EE again and if they keep fobbing you off take the name of the idiot and complain: http://ee.co.uk/help/safety-and-security/my-digital-life/ways-to-complain

After all, it's EE that collects this money on behalf of the fraudsters and is happy to keep the lion share of the loot.

Then follow Payphoneplus' advice:
https://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/for-consumers/unexpected-phone-charge
And don't settle just for charges/texts being stopped. Demand the refund of all stolen money and complain to the regulator if they refuse.

MrsGfree

Hi thanks for your reply and information. Yes box is for internet use but has a SIM card & that's what is making it so hard to sort out as not connected to a phone. First she knew about it was when billed by EE. Her mobile is not with EE.

Ian011

MrsGfree wrote: »

Can anyone advise please. My daughter has an EE Osprey wifi box and is receiving spam SMS messages from 700146099 charging £4.50 a time. She has received 2 so far. She did not click to read the messages. I have spoken to EE and they cannot suggest how to stop them! Thank you

Is it possible that the message is from 70014, and that 6099 is some sort of further ID that's not relevant to looking up the source?

Having said that, most mobile shortcodes starting 70 are used for charity donations.

orrery

grumbler wrote: »

EDIT: Wait.... she can't be charged for receiving texts from a long number.

Interesting. I've had to deal with a company phone that was receiving chargeable texts from some scam company. It turned out that someone had (possibly, or maybe not) downloaded a free ringtone that had a lot of small print saying that "by doing so you subscribe to receive chargeable notifications on a weekly basis".

In this particular case we had to reply to the message with STOP, or STOP ALL to end them. EE again said that they were not responsible.

diamonds

orrery wrote: »

Interesting. I've had to deal with a company phone that was receiving chargeable texts from some scam company. It turned out that someone had (possibly, or maybe not) downloaded a free ringtone that had a lot of small print saying that "by doing so you subscribe to receive chargeable notifications on a weekly basis".

In this particular case we had to reply to the message with STOP, or STOP ALL to end them. EE again said that they were not responsible.

If the spam company is a licenced merchant here: http://www.payforit.org/merchants/

.

Then if you are with the big 4, as EE, then they are liable as they 'the big 4' authorise their own merchants through ownership of payforit


https://www.phonepayplus.org.uk
MVNO customers must go to Ofcom approved phonepayplus as they are not like like the big 4 who own 25% each of payforit

grumbler

orrery wrote: »

Interesting. I've had to deal with a company phone that was receiving chargeable texts from some scam company. It turned out that someone had (possibly, or maybe not) downloaded a free ringtone that had a lot of small print saying that "by doing so you subscribe to receive chargeable notifications on a weekly basis".

I don't think that the chargeable texts came from a long number. Incoming texts from all numbers except short ones are free.

MrsGfree wrote: »

Yes box is for internet use but has a SIM card & that's what is making it so hard to sort out as not connected to a phone. First she knew about it was when billed by EE. Her mobile is not with EE.

How can a data-only SIM receive texts? Most likely it's just EE's misleading notation in the bills. EE really owe an explanation to your dauthter