£1.50 text charge?????

chrisfellows

I got a response from [EMAIL="admin@fantastic4mobile.com"]admin@fantastic4mobile.com[/EMAIL] today offering to refund £2. I'm still going to complain to ICSTIS and try and get them to take action.

I recommend that you send them an email and point out that they are in breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. Ask them what further actions that will take to prevent continued breaches.

wantmemoney

chrisfellows wrote:

I recommend that you send them an email and point out that they are in breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. Ask them what further actions that will take to prevent continued breaches.

Icstis, Ofcom and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)[SIZE=-1] are all aware of the problem. This theft as been going on for several years.
The mobile billing platforms are taking their "slice of the action".
Unsolicited reversed billed text messages

here's a recent reply Icstis recieved to their recent consultation on their Code of Practice
Somebody has finally persuaded Icstis to print the truth about the UK Premium Rate Industry
[/SIZE]

http://www.icstis.org.uk/pdfs_consult/GovCode_MW.pdf
Changes to Governance and the ICSTIS Code of Practice
(11th Edition): an ICSTIS Consultation
Introduction

The premium rate sector (PRS) is rife with fraud and criminality. Services provided by this sector include (but are by no means limited to): parcel delivery services with no parcels; competitions with no prizes or entrants; reverse charge SMS subscriptions with no subscribers; missed calls with no callers; and dialler services with no service – other than a clandestine premium rate dialling service.

Although such activities are illegal, the firms who carry out these activities are not subjected to prosecution. PRS fraud is, instead, regulated by ICSTIS. In return for ICSTIS’s role in shielding the premium rate sector from the attentions of the legal authorities and providing a complaints cul de sac for the victims of premium rate fraud, the Sector funds ICSTIS and the Treasury handsomely each year (through levies and fines) but not to an extent where the viability of the fraudulent enterprise is seriously threatened.

It is this symbiotic relationship between fraudster and regulator which lies behind the fact that the general public are so ill-served by the premium rate sector. It is difficult to imagine that the public will have any real protection from this species of criminality unless and unless wholesale structural changes are made to the industry and the bodies that are charged with its regulation and control.

The Premium Rate industry – a web of deception

In all other areas of commerce, the customer has a contractual relationship with the company who presents the bill. This is not the case in the premium rate sector. Mobile phone users who discover that they are being defrauded in some way (perhaps by receiving unsolicited reverse charge SMS) complain (naturally enough) in the first instance to the network provider who has sent the bills. The network provider denies any responsibility and directs the fraud victim to the “service provider”. The service provider also denies any responsibility and directs the fraud victim to the “content provider” who may in turn deny responsibility and blame another content provider1.

very hard hitting
I suggest it be read
http://www.icstis.org.uk/pdfs_consult/GovCode_MW.pdf

Grey_Ghost_2

Hi
I have emailed a complaint to offcom and ictis for what good that will do, and i have emailed focgifts asking for a refund and removal of my number from thier database,
It appears this country and its laws look after the criminals and give excuses and penalise to the honest citizens. Its fraud and why dont the police want to know?

knighty1

don;t most mobiles now though offer you the chance to stop"annonymous" adverts,wether it data or not ?.....should that being enabled in phone not stop it ,and anymore?

markjj_2

This same thing happened to me on 15 June. Same account number, same amount. At the same time I got a text message (see below). T-Mobile refused to believe that I hadn't subscribed to this garbage myself, and didn't help. The text message mentioned www.focgifts.com. I visited the web site and sent them a complaint. They apologised and said that if I sent them my postal address they would refund me £2 for my inconvenience. Guess what? They didn't send me anything. Fortunately I knew about ICSTIS and checked the short number on their site. No joy there either. Unfortunately I didn't make a note of the number. Fortunately Windows remembers the numbers you query on the ICSTIS site, so I can tell you it was either 78181 or 86069 or 89069. If you ever find out which one please post a reply. Cheers, Mark.

vietpup

I received one of these messages too, just out of the blue and was charged £1.50 for it. This was on the 29/06/2007

Mine came from 80708, but when I went to the http://www.icstis.org.uk/ and looked it up, it showed the company that owned the number is 'mBlox Ltd'.

It turns out that mBlox Ltd is a premium rate billing provider for some of these companies that provide premium rate text services, etc. When I gave them my mobile number they located the actual company that sent the premium rate text.

The company was called 'Outsource Logistics' trading under the name of 'Mocon'. Did a search on google and didn't find anything so I called them up on their 0870 number, they apologised and said they would cancel the services (even though I didn't sign up for them) and send me a refund in the post.

I'm certain these companys try their luck on people's mobile numbers and think that most people won't even bother to chase up the £1.50 or so. So as a matter of principle for anyone else this has happened to, chase them up and get your money back! otherwise they will continue to do it.

:mad:

asea

I've just had 2 text (am also on Virginmobile) I am registered with the telephone preference service and am VERY ticked off..

wantmemoney

Unfortunately registering with the telephone preference service does not protect you from illegal "unsolicited" reverse billed text messages.
The ICO claim that barring these would prevent companies from being able to send legal solicited reverse billed text messages.

this madness results in this
http://www.icstis.org.uk/consumers/adjudications/default.asp?mode=1&serviceprovider=Dialogue+Communications+Ltd&servicetype=&fine=0&submit=+search+
To explain why this level of alleged fraud and theft is allowed you have to realise the mobile phone companies receive 30%.
The government receive 17.5% VAT
and the rest is shared by Dialogue and their "content providers".

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/faq/
7. Will registering my mobile number on the TPS reduce the receipt of text (SMS) messages?
No. New legislation, which came into force on 11 December 2003, makes it unlawful to send an unsolicited direct marketing SMS to an individual subscriber unless the recipient has previously given their consent to such communications.
Text messages are defined as "electronic mail" under the Regulations and, as such, they should not be sent without the prior consent of the individual subscribers. Companies are therefore, not obliged to screen against TPS because they should already have established prior consent.
If you are receiving SMS marketing and have not given prior permission, you can complain directly to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), whose details are under the 'Useful links' section on the left hand menu or for more details see the Guidance Notes which the Information Commissioner's Office have produced Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
However registering your mobile number on the TPS will reduce the number of unsolicited voice sales and marketing calls you receive on your mobile

millimoo2

I got scammed by this the other day - I was furious.

I went to the web site in the first text I received - www.wewantthatfree.com, and e-mailed from the web site, which funnily enough was [EMAIL="admin@fantastic4mobile.com"]admin@fantastic4mobile.com[/EMAIL].

To my amazement I have just received a £2 postal order as a refund today, and am beginning to believe that they may actually have barred my mobile from their services in future as they stated in their e-mail.

I have also reported to OFCOM, ICSTIS and to www.mobizar.co.uk who are the company who own the short code that bills the Mobile Phone company - your mobile phone company can give you the details and contact numbers.

FINALLY.....
Steps to ensure you are barred in future:

- Contact your mobile phone service provider
- Ask them for the 5 digit shortcode the charge has come from - in my instance it was 78181.
- In captitals, text STOP to the shortcode (78181 in this instance).
- Your mobile phone operator will then bar at their end.

kltpzyxm

Got a spam text about 30 mins ago. I contacted my provider (Vodafone) to get the 5 digit shortcode to reply and was innformed that it had come from mobizar, but there was no charge to me for receiving the message.....