Beware of phantom SMS charges to +447786205094 (iPhone FaceTime related)

NFH

Whenever I'm roaming, I often check my bill to make sure that I'm not being charged for anything I shouldn't be. I noticed that last month when I arrived in Spain, my Orange bill showed a text message sent to +447786205094, for which I was charged 10.2p by Orange. I didn't send this text message and there was no record in my iPhone's message history of it having been sent. I then Googled the number and discovered that lots of people around the world have experienced phantom text messages being sent to this number from their iPhones.

It turns out that the iPhone sends a text message to this UK number when FaceTime is activated, and from my own experience, at other times too. While in Spain, I tried deactivating and reactivating Facetime several times, and more outgoing text message charges subsequently appeared on my bill. Apple has programmed iPhones to send a potentially chargeable text to this number without the user's knowledge or consent, which I believe could be an offence by Apple under Section 125 of the Communications Act 2003 or Section 13 of the Theft Act 1968, which cover making of phone calls without the bill payer's consent.

The many Google results on this subject suggest that iPhone users based in many other countries have similarly been billed for an international text message to this UK mobile number (belonging apparently to Vodafone). It seems that all iPhones globally use this same UK number for FaceTime activation. Because UK iPhone tariffs typically provide inclusive text messages within the UK, very few UK iPhone users have noticed this problem; however, it is always apparent when roaming. Other networks around the world have apparently configured their billing systems not to charge for text messages to +447786205094 to avoid their customers being charged unexpectedly for international text messages.

When I spoke to Orange about this, they immediately refunded the charges and told me they will configure their billing systems not to charge in future for text messages to 07786 205094.

Dan:)_7

NFH wrote: »

I believe could be an offence by Apple under Section 125 of the Communications Act 2003 or Section 13 of the Theft Act 1968, which cover making of phone calls without the bill payer's consent.

When you switch the facetime switch on and off, it does say about sms charges, thats on iOS5 though.

NFH

Dan:) wrote: »

When you switch the facetime switch on and off, it does say about sms charges, thats on iOS5 though.

It doesn't do so in iOS4, but it's good to hear that Apple are coming clean on this in the forthcoming iOS5. Having checked previous bills, I can also see free-of-charge texts in the UK to +447786205094 whenever I have started a FaceTime call.

NFH

I'm now on iOS5 too, and when I activate Facetime, my iPhone still doesn't notify me that it will send a potentially chargeable text message. For the reasons stated above, I continue to believe this could be an offence by Apple under Section 125 of the Communications Act 2003 or Section 13 of the Theft Act 1968, which cover making of phone calls without the bill payer's consent. It's legally very similar to rogue diallers to premium rate numbers, which were prevalent in the days of dial-up internet, in that a chargeable communication is made without the bill payer's knowledge or consent.

lpc_3

I have the 3GS and iOS 5. Because I have the 3GS obviously I don't get facetime with this.

But I got charged for 16 SMS to 447786205094 and it most likely has to do with imessage.

I'm doing more research on this and still waiting for an official reply from vodafone.

Fran71

I have been receiving texts from this number after downloading iOS7. It's totally un nerving. I think it's totally ridiculous this hasn't been sorted out in 10 years !

Treevo

Fran71 wrote: »

I have been receiving texts from this number after downloading iOS7. It's totally un nerving. I think it's totally ridiculous this hasn't been sorted out in 10 years !

Ten years?!

Tony5101

It's totally un-nerving having a 2 year old thread necromanced back to life!

SammeyC

i didnt know what it was and I received 10 texts from them and from those texts they have apparently used 100meg of data the reason that i know this is the fact my contract renewed several days ago and I havent been outside to use it as i'm connected to wifi in the house and also not my "Cellular Data" setting was set to off

NFH

I think the above two posts, both from first-time posters, are by future spammers and not genuine.

The references to incoming texts (the iPhone hides them and incoming texts don't appear on a bill), to "10 years", and the incoming texts' implausible consumption of 100MB of data all suggest that these posts are not genuine. Furthermore the use of the term "cellular data" (it appears as "mobile data" on UK iPhones) suggests that the author is not in the UK.