£1.50 text charge?????

chuckles1066

alex99 wrote: »

Sorry, but you are misinformed.

Orange CAN stop this stuff and it IS a great deal to do with them.

Orange could allow its customers to block all incoming premium rate texts. Orange refuse to allow their customers to do this for the simple reason that Orange make millions and millions of pounds from the 35Ps which they get from each reverse charge text sent by the scammers.

Orange know that the premium rate firms with whom they deal are crooks, but choose to continue to do business with them anyway. BTW, Orange is nothing special here, all the main networks are in this - although one of them (T-mobile) will allow its customers to block this stuff if you really pester them. All the networks have been warned by the police that this behaviour is unacceptable but, so far, they have taken no notice.

Well I've had contracts with O2, Vodafone and Orange; the only network I've experienced any of these reverse-charged scams was Orange.

They're complicit in the fraud and as bad as the cowboy scammers.

But they're above the law.

alex99

chuckles1066 wrote: »

Well I've had contracts with O2, Vodafone and Orange; the only network I've experienced any of these reverse-charged scams was Orange.

They're complicit in the fraud and as bad as the cowboy scammers.

But they're above the law.

Well you are right that Orange are complicit in the frauds (albeit indirectly) but the other networks are just as bad if not worse and people are scammed every day in huge numbers by all of them. And you are also correct in saying that they are above the law. Plenty of laws exist which could be used against them, but (for some reason) these laws are never used against PRS fraudsters.

O2 even has its own arm "O2 online" that was seemingly devoted to perpetrating PRS scams - although they seem to have cleaned up their act in the last year or so.

The situation will only change (IMHO) if the networks start being held to account for the fraudsters on whose behalf they (the networks) collect our money.

wantmemoney

In 2000 the five mobile-phone operators paid the government £22.5 billion for 20-year licences.
The US and European mobile-phone operators also paid large amounts for operating licences. They also have massive problems with revenue sharing premium rate fraud.

The governments have kicked the consumer/criminal laws that previously protected the public from fraudulent billing into the long grass.

http://myfloridalegal.com/newsrel.nsf/newsreleases/4641E1C60FB29763852573FE004E6338
McCollum Retrieves Millions For Florida AT&T Wireless Customers Billed for "Free" Ringtones
February 29, 2008

Diamond78

I had a similar problem. Back in October last year I became a victim of hate crime. Aswell as having my home vandalised which resulted in me leaving, my name, pics, mobile number was posted on websites that I would not dream of going on. I knew the ppl who was doing it and I reported it to the police as I had enough evidence. They were issued with a harrassment warning. However I recieved my phone bill from orange to get ahiger than expected phone bill. I never go over my usuage and my bill is never high so I looked at the bill to see a txt charge for over £4. I rang orange to ask what this was and was given 2 different numbers to ring. One was to block the number and 2nd cant rememebr now.Anyway I followed the instructions and seemed to of blocked the number then some how I found out where the number came from. It was a company named i singles. I have never signed up with such a company and this was down to those who was harrassing me as I had proff previously of them posting my details on another site. I managed to email isingles and recieved a call explaining they were going to investigate and i would get my money back. I was promised a call the following week but nothing. I recieved a strange txt, shortly after talking to the bloke who was calling from abroad, i cant remember what the txt said but i deleted it staright away.
I got my bill in febuary again, well over the limit and this time 2 txts each charged over £4.50, i thought what the f@@@. I again rang orange to be told theres nothing they can do and they cannot block the numbers. I told her I was given a number and block the number those txts were coming from but she told me I hadnt blocked any numbers but I did!!! I was so cross, i explained I was a victim of hate crime and i had crime reference numbers which would prove my details had been posted on various web sites but she wasnt helpful what so ever. Im dreading next months bill in case it happens again, I mean over £9 for to txts is disgraceful. Its not fair I am paying these charges when its not me. That company still have not got back to me. My orange contract runs out in may so i will be happy to leave them as I should of been helped in this matter but they are making money out of it, so they are not going to help are they.

alex99

Diamond78 wrote: »

I had a similar problem. Back in October last year I became a victim of hate crime. Aswell as having my home vandalised which resulted in me leaving, my name, pics, mobile number was posted on websites that I would not dream of going on. I knew the ppl who was doing it and I reported it to the police as I had enough evidence. They were issued with a harrassment warning. However I recieved my phone bill from orange to get ahiger than expected phone bill. I never go over my usuage and my bill is never high so I looked at the bill to see a txt charge for over £4. I rang orange to ask what this was and was given 2 different numbers to ring. One was to block the number and 2nd cant rememebr now.Anyway I followed the instructions and seemed to of blocked the number then some how I found out where the number came from. It was a company named i singles. I have never signed up with such a company and this was down to those who was harrassing me as I had proff previously of them posting my details on another site. I managed to email isingles and recieved a call explaining they were going to investigate and i would get my money back. I was promised a call the following week but nothing. I recieved a strange txt, shortly after talking to the bloke who was calling from abroad, i cant remember what the txt said but i deleted it staright away.
I got my bill in febuary again, well over the limit and this time 2 txts each charged over £4.50, i thought what the f@@@. I again rang orange to be told theres nothing they can do and they cannot block the numbers. I told her I was given a number and block the number those txts were coming from but she told me I hadnt blocked any numbers but I did!!! I was so cross, i explained I was a victim of hate crime and i had crime reference numbers which would prove my details had been posted on various web sites but she wasnt helpful what so ever. Im dreading next months bill in case it happens again, I mean over £9 for to txts is disgraceful. Its not fair I am paying these charges when its not me. That company still have not got back to me. My orange contract runs out in may so i will be happy to leave them as I should of been helped in this matter but they are making money out of it, so they are not going to help are they.

@Diamond78

Sorry to hear your story. Your experiences draw attention to another aspect of the problems discussed on this thread. Your texts were solicited, but not by you.

Of course, out in the real world, somebody could maliciously order goods or services pretending to be you. This would be a nuisance, but (unless they had stolen your credit card or whatever) they couldn't (simply by knowing your address) force you to pay for these goods and services. Even if they had stolen your card (or its details) you would be able to get your money back.

In the world of PRS things are much less secure. Just by knowing someone's phone number, you can force them to pay for all sorts of things that they don't want. There are no safeguards whatsoever to prevent this.

I your case, I should continue to pester Orange. They must take ultimate responsibility for the fact that the services they offer are open to this kind of abuse. If you are persistent, I think that Orange will capitulate and refund you "as a gesture of goodwill" rather than try to defend business practices which they know are indefensible.

@Lawbunny
Any thoughts?

Diamond78

Im sorry this has happened to you. Its not just vodafone this happens on. I had this with Orange and even though I sent a txt to stop it happened again.I was charged nearly £5 each for the txts i received.
What he told you was right, that it is not the companyies fault but the company that sent it to you(really the phone company should do something-but they dont)
A spiteful so called friend signed me up on a website without my consent or knowledge which is how they got my number and thats why I was sent the txts.There is another thread somewhere on here and it gives details of how you can complain about the company that sent you the txts.

lawbunny

Sorry to hear about your problem.

It is physically possible for companies to block these texts. I work for T-Mobile, and with literally a 2 second click of a button a bar is added to a customer's account to stop these chargeable messages. Unfortunately, from reading this forum it does not look like any other networks offer this service, probably so they will not lose profits!

agsnu

lawbunny wrote: »

Sorry to hear about your problem.

It is physically possible for companies to block these texts. I work for T-Mobile, and with literally a 2 second click of a button a bar is added to a customer's account to stop these chargeable messages. Unfortunately, from reading this forum it does not look like any other networks offer this service, probably so they will not lose profits!

Threads over at 3GForum indicate that Vodafone is planning on providing a similar bar feature from summer. It does require some implementation at the network level, and most of them haven't bothered so far - which is a bit ridiculous tbh.

bicycle_repair_man_2

I think the only way you'll get your money back is to report the sms number to www.phonepayplus.org.uk, they will then tell the company responsible to refund the charges to you.

BexTech

lawbunny wrote: »

Sorry to hear about your problem.

It is physically possible for companies to block these texts. I work for T-Mobile, and with literally a 2 second click of a button a bar is added to a customer's account to stop these chargeable messages. Unfortunately, from reading this forum it does not look like any other networks offer this service, probably so they will not lose profits!

T-Mobile have being offering blocks for a couple of years or so now, you'd think others would too.