86868 "Multimedia Services Recd" - £1.28

r.cordrey

During last month I received two text messages on my mobile, both from an anonymous number - 86868 - and each one a poor text joke. When I received my Orange bill I had been charged £1.28 for each of these messages. Orange say that I must have signed up for these "Multimedia Services" with a company called Opra Telecom.

I have never heard of Opra Telecom, and certainly have not knowingly signed up to receive junk texts from anyone. Orange gave me a number to ring (0871 8725169) but said I could stop the texts by sending the word 'Stop' to 86868. I have no wish to incur more cost by calling an 0871 number so I left it at that.

Has anyone else been the victim of this scam, and what can we do about it?

Beano

Try http://www.grumbletext.co.uk/

It's a site with useful advice to stop SMS spam

r.cordrey

Thanks for your pointer re: grumbletext, but they cannot deal with Orange customer service problems. I have emailed Orange, but expect little help from them. The point is, why should we have to pay to receive an unsolicited text message, and then have to pay to send a 'stop' message?

Edinburghlass_2

You will receive no help from Orange. Best to just send the stop text and be done with it.

digp

that's a rather lame view to take. speak to ICSTIS - can they help? dispute the charges with orange. complain to orange by telephone on a daily basis until they give up and refund the money

bbb_uk

I agree, Orange (or any other network) wont help much.

If you haven't already then text the word STOP to 86868 and if your phone saves any texts you send automatically then keep hold of it as proof (if required). Wait a few days and see if this stops the texts from that number. If not then it is best to visit the ICSTIS (Independant Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services) and lodge a complaint with them.

In the mean time don't delete any text you receive or the one that you send to stop them in case the ICSTIS need it as proof.

Most of the time though, the STOP command generally works and you hopefully wont have any trouble from this company.

Edinburghlass_2

digp wrote:

that's a rather lame view to take. speak to ICSTIS - can they help? dispute the charges with orange. complain to orange by telephone on a daily basis until they give up and refund the money

Perhaps it is a lame view to take but despite phoning Orange on a variety of numbers all of which cost me time and money I decided that life was too short :wall: to waste any more of my precious time on it.

johnk

I suffered from this premium text scam as well but from another thirdparty provider (82260). Phoned Orange but the CS rep insisted that I must have subscribed to the service and refused to do anything. This is rubbish as my phone is a new subscription and I haven't used SMS/Data yet. The CS rep wouldn't listen and even refused my request to talk to a manager. I sent STOP and STOP ALL to the number to stop things from getting worse, and followed by an email complaint to the executive office of Orange. I should say that the executive office was very helpful. They came back within a day with an apology. They had apparently contacted the thirdparty by then to stop any further text, and promised me a refund for those already charged.

My case is probably more straightforward, as it is evident from my bill that I could not have subscribed to the thirdparty service. I could be wrong, but I believe, as least from the Orange CS rep's "advice", that such a subscription can only be materialized by either a SMS or WAP contact to the provider directly from your phone.

Edinburghlass_2

Yes John, this is certainly the Orange standpoint on these types of texts they say you must have signed up for them. However, the only people that I had texted on this phone (apart from personal texts) was Orange themselves for the Orange Wednesday cinema tickets :mad:

bbb_uk

Edinburghlass wrote:

Yes John, this is certainly the Orange standpoint on these types of texts they say you must have signed up for them. However, the only people that I had texted on this phone (apart from personal texts) was Orange themselves for the Orange Wednesday cinema tickets :mad:

I believe the other networks would act the same was as Orange. They automatically think we have subscribed to the service to start with.

Although that may be true in some cases it is not always. All these text companies have to do is make up a series of numbers starting with 07.. and 11 digits long and the chances are with that many people having mobiles they are bound to get a valid mobile number that is in use.

r.cordrey

Many thanks fellas - I have lodged a complaint with ICSTIS and sent an email to TPS {Telephone Preference Service} on the advice of Orange to register with them, but I would dearly like to be able to stop this sort of scam. Surely this practice must be against the law.