88810 scam

abandonded

Just found an extra £20 on my mobile phone bill and when I checked my account I found that I was being chargede £1.50 a time for text I haven't receved from 88810. Be warned and if you know how I can stop the texts, please tell me.

DCFC79

What I would do is call your network operator ?

OR

Googled for an answer ?

Or do both.

vuvuzela

Normally to stop scam texts like this, you text STOP or STOP ALL to the number.

SnowTiger

vuvuzela wrote: »

Normally to stop scam texts like this, you text STOP or STOP ALL to the number.

Yes, and there's usually a charge.

A company played this game with me.

I received a full refund, plus a few extra quid from the sender, after complaining.

Elsewhere

Did you reply to a scratch card?

http://www.smswatchdog.com/text-message-from/88810/2

moxter

The first and obvious question is "did you consent to these messages?" Only you can answer that. However, even if you did consent, if you haven't been receiving the messages, and/or if there's no easy opt-out method, then they may well be breaching regulations. Obviously if you didn't consent then they're breaching regulations as well!

Don't bother contacting your phone provider. They can't do anything and they won't refund you your money. And absolutely do NOT try and contact the premium rate service direct. If they're (semi) reputable they might cancel the service and even refund you, but where would the paper trail be and would it help anybody else? No it wouldn't.

The people you need to contact are PhonepayPlus (http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/) - best to give them a call on 0800 500 212. They are the regulator and watchdog for all premium rate services in the UK.

I was in a similar situation to you recently - overcharged by >£200 over a period of several months from services I didn't sign up to. PhonepayPlus have been really excellent - call them up, they'll ask you for copies of your phone bills (email or posted copies are fine) and for full details, and they'll do the rest of the work for you: they start by investigating, contacting the company on your behalf and finding out whether you had actually consented to the texts, and if it turns out that you hadn't, a case gets processed where (1) they'll put a block on the texts and (2) put the wheels in motion regarding getting a refund. You will have to field a few dodgy calls from the companies in question but they were just asking for my name and address so they could send a cheque. But I can't praise the service of PhonepayPlus enough (admittedly it is a little bit stilted and formal).