£1.50 text charge?????

Hootie19

Husband and I are both on contracts with Orange.

We have each received two text messages saying:

Thank U. You have purchased game credits, your PIN code is 98481279, you may now update your game account by entering the code on the Purchase Credits page...

Both texts on my phone (different PIN codes) were sent from number 84010 and were sent two minutes apart.

Neither my husband or I have made any purchases for any game credits, and neither of my teen sons have any idea what they are about.

Anyone else with any ideas?

Browntoa

http://www.grumbletext.co.uk/vt.php?p=20179&subj=lsh+2212+0102+complaints+84010+Dialogue+Communications+and+82040+Hybyte+complaint&highlight=
84010 84010
I complained to http://www.ico.gov.uk soon after I realized that we were receiving unsolicited reverse charge spam from Dialogue Communications Ltd (84010), Zamano Ltd (80122), and Hybyte Solutions and Services Ltd (82040). This was a mistake as it turns out, because it seems that the ICO only "regulate" the free spam which advertises the spam you pay for. As soon as you begin paying for your spam, you have to go to ICSTIS instead.

I think, however, that my experience is worth reporting on. Initially, ICO repeated the there is no such thing as unsolicited reverse charge SMS mantra:

</SPAN>Quote:We have been advised by OFCOM that such reverse charged messages cannot be randomly generated by the sender. You are probably receiving such messages as a "result of a service that you have, at some point, signed up to, e.g., a downloaded ringtone, a sports results service, a daily joke/horoscope. If you do not recall doing so, you should consider the possibility that a friend, family member or colleague may have signed up to this on your behalf. You may also be receiving these messages as a consequence of entering a competition. If you do not recognise the name of the sender it may be that they are another trading arm of a company with whom you have had contact.

When I pointed out that OFCOM's reported "advice" here is somewhat difficult to reconcile with the actual facts of the matter - citing my own experience and dozens of adjudications on the ICSTIS site in support of my position - ICO changed their tune (slightly):

"I certainly appreciate your concerns about this issue and am aware of the problems with reverse billed messages in some cases and of ICSTIS adjudications relating to this issue." [my emphasis]

They also repeated their initial statement that ICO "deal specifically with direct marketing by electronic means, including direct marketing by telephone, email and text message." [ICO's emphasis]

As a parting shot, I invited them to provide me with the name of one single company which markets weekly £1.5 jokes by text message and which is not guilty of malpractice or fraud. Needless to say, they declined my invitation.

Strange that all three regulatory bodies in this field are (until reminded of the facts) so keen to pretend that there is no problem with unsolicited premium rate spam

Browntoa

1. Go to ICSTIS
2. Type in you short code (eg 80122) into the "look up a number" field and get the details for the "service provider" (eg Zamano).
3. Ring the number provided by ICSTIS for for the "service provider" and tell the service provider that you want the texts to stop and that you want your money back. The service provider may deal with you or (more likely) will give you the name of an "infomation provider" (eg Goldeford) and their number or (even more likely) the number of a call centre acting for the infomation provider.
4. Ring the infomation provider or the call centre and demand your money back and an email detailing when and how you were signed up for the "service" - you should receive a cheque in the post and a "log" of your "sign-up".
5. Go back to ICSTIS and submit a complaint about the company.
6. Complain again if the texts do not stop or you do not get your money back.
7. Tell everyone you meet about this scam, about ICSTIS, and about how to get his/her money back if he/she becomes a victim of it.

Browntoa

Dialogue Communications Ltd (84010),

Hootie19

Replying to my own message here - probably bad form, but what the heck.

Whilst I was typing my message, my husband (who is out walking the dog) spoke to Orange. Orange, of course, wouldn't speak to him about my account, so they called me.

They are "third party generated" text messages, and are being charged to my account. The man at Orange didn't know how much, and won't know until the next bill is generated. When I do receive the next bill, if these charges are on it, I should call Orange and they will refund them. Orange have blocked that number from contacting me at their end.

He also told me to reply to one of the text messages with "stop all" (which I have done). (I will never remember when I did this if it is disputed, so I am putting it into this message as an aide memoire should it be needed!)

So hopefully that will be an end to it.

Hope the above helps someone else if they receive similar messages.

Browntoa

In August 2006, Dialogue Communications Ltd, 08717002211, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S1 2BX were (by ICSTIS) found guilty of and fined for and barred from providing services to B4U who (inter alia) had sent unsolicited reverse charge SMS and lied about how its customers had “signed up” for the SMS.

Following the bar, Dialogue Communications Ltd continued the reverse charge SMS business on 84010, but are now using “information providers” "Gabriel Investments”, 08712316594.

Browntoa

ring them and complain, ask for the date you "signed up" and from which number.

you can prove that the "sign up" date is wrong by looking at your bill for the month/date stated, the same applies for the "text2 if you are supposed to have signed up that way

miss_vicki

You must text STOP ALL to the 84010!
Orange can't stop them from there end, it's nothing to do with them, its the third party charging you, your need to go to them to get your money back not orange. third party texts charge from 10p to £2.50.

Dickieburd

There are a couple of recent posts regarding reverse charge texts

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=481389

and

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=670875

and

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=442631

John_Youles

Czarina wrote: »

Unbelievable!!! First, Phoneboxdirect has gone bust without paying even a penny of my cashback. Rang Vodafone last December (as they are my providers) asked if I could change my tariff to a lower one because of what happened, the man on the other line said, yes, he said I can have it for around £21 (75mins free). I agreed and I made it clear to him that I will have this tariff disconnected on the 12th month of my contract and he said, yes, I can write to them just before the 6th of Feb to have it disconnected.
And yet, today, I got my bill and they have extended my contract to 18months. I am really furious.
Apart from that, I started getting unsolicited texts from a 88850100001155 since the 9th of this month, Rang vodafone straight away, their advise is to ignore it because I won't be billed bec when I open the texts it says cannot be viewed. I decided to check my bill 3 days ago and I noticed I've been billed. So, I rang Voda again, this time the man said to text back STOP and it should do it. Today, three days after that call, I'm still getting the text messages around 5-10 a day.. AArrrGGHH!!!! I'm really really annoyed. I thought, I'd post here just to lighten my anger a bit.
Any suggestions or anything you can say about the matter will be most welcome.

There's a contributor to a Usenet forum who claims to have squeezed money out of Orange (ho-ho) when he threatened to report them to the police. Also, do your T&Cs mention anything about being liable for third party charges ? If not, is it worth consulting a solicitor with a view to taking the telco to the small claims court ?
The reason I did not do this, I hasten to add, was because I had just one message so my loss was minimal, and the scammer compensated me with £5 in cash.