Premium SMS Fraud

chaupt

Hi,

I seem to have experienced Premium SMS fraud and would be interested to know if anyone else has faced a similar issue?

It appears that one or more players in the Premium Rate Services Industry has hit upon the idea of sending very small charge premium rate text messages to 1000's of randomly generated UK mobile phone numbers claiming that the message is free and relying on consumers to either not notice or to be prevented from resolving the issue by the frustration of trying to do anything about it.

I am exceptionally careful with my personal information, have never used a premium service and have opted out of direct marketing to my mobile number on the telephone preference service. I have also let my phone operator (EE) know that I do not want to receive any calls or text messages that are not directly related to my account with them and would like a block on all premium services to my phone. They have confirmed to me that they have done everything that they are legally obliged to do and are not willing to do anything further. I do not believe there is any other protection currently available to me today that I have not used.

Despite all of this I was the recipient of one such message and have
now spent over five hours trying to file a complaint and get the charge removed. I have spent hours on hold, been accused both implicitly and explicitly of lying about subscribing to a service, been told by the operator and regulator (PhonepayPlus) that I had to directly contact the people who had defrauded me, who I had never dealt with before and who I had to get a name and contact details for, before they would even consider recording a complaint. I know of no other situation where a victim of a crime is told that they have to confront the suspect themselves before anything will be done. It was only when I mentioned to PhonepayPlus that I would be left with no other option than to wrote to my MP that they agreed to open a case.

The day after raising a complaint with the originator of the premium number and the regulator I received another premium rate text at 4am, I find it highly unlikely that this, only the second premium rate number I have ever received arrives at such an anti-social hour the day after I complained.

I am prepared to put time and effort into investigating this further and any additional information would help. Given that the industry appears to deliberately create and switch between multiple company names, short codes and messages to obscure who they are it is difficult to pin them down but this is what I do know:

Message 1 from 88311 - Free Message: Reply WIN to 88311 to complete your entry to win the new iPad. Please ignore if not requested

Message 2 from 82288 - Reply SHOP to 82288 to confirm your entry to the Shopping Voucher Prize Draw. Please ignore if not requested.

The company for both is apparently Remote Games who you can call on 0333 20 26 342 however when you call them they claim to be 727 Games.

I would appreciate any other stories and suggestions on how to deal with this and, if it is as a big an issue as I suspect how to consolidate the information in one place.

Castle

According to Phonepayplus:-
The shortcode 88311 belongs to Remote Games Ltd

The shortcode 82288 belongs to Xinion Limited:-
http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/about-us/number-checker/check-a-number-results

Ian011

You will not have been charged for the initial message.

If you have been subscribed to a weekly, or other such message send STOP to end the subscription.

PhonepayPlus are correct. A refund comes from the premium rate service provider, not from your phone company.

You may have inadvertantly clicked an advert shown in an app on a mobile device, without even noticing. These providers can be very sneaky.

chaupt

Ian011 wrote: »

You will not have been charged for the initial message.

If you have been subscribed to a weekly, or other such message send STOP to end the subscription.

PhonepayPlus are correct. A refund comes from the premium rate service provider, not from your phone company.

You may have inadvertantly clicked an advert shown in an app on a mobile device, without even noticing. These providers can be very sneaky.

Hi Ian011,

Thanks for replying, I was in fact charged for the first message, it appeared on my bill this month. There is still some confusion as to where the charge originated PhonepayPlus and the Remote Games are both claiming it was zero rated and it must be an admin fee while EE are claiming it is a charge from Remote Games. EE last night agreed to goodwill payment significantly higher than the charges and I am chasing a formal written response from PhonepayPlus.

I checked my phone last night and aside from the default Android apps I have no advertising driven apps on my phone. I plan to contact Xinion Limited today and see if I can get them to tell me where they got my number from, otherwise I will then raise another complaint with PhonepayPlus.

bod1467

PhonepayPlus, not Payphone plus.

chaupt

I have received another one today despite all EE's assurances. This one looks very like a link to scam site

sent by: TESCO_VOUCH with the message "FreeMsg: Grab a £500 Shopping voucher today? http:voucher-claim.luckywinner.club... opt out text noinfo 82288"

Time to call EE and find out why this is still not blocked despite their assurances yesterday

Castle

Xinion Ltd and Remote Games Ltd are associated companies; i.e they are both owned by the same company:-BMCM Digital Ltd. It's very likely that your details are being shared around.

You may also want to contact the ICO as none of the above three companies appear to be registered with them; and therefore, they are breaking the law by processing your personal data.

Browntoa

looks like you are not the only one


http://www.unknownphone.com/search.php?num=82288


http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/82288/11

Ian011

The "Tesco Voucher" scam is widely reported.

chaupt

I cannot post links but Companies House has a great feature allowing you to look up the office holders in a company. It looks like both Remote Games Ltd and Xinion Ltd have the same directors:

Carl Barker
Gary Cooper
Colin Mc Caffery
Robert Morley

Companies House also allows you to look at any office holder and see what other companies they are associated with. Between them they also seem to be involved with:

EYEGAMES LIMITED (08320399)
GEAR DIGITAL LIMITED (09512370)
BMCM MOBILE INNOVATION LIMITED (07530891)
BMCM DIGITAL LIMITED (09259025)
STANROSE SOLUTIONS LIMITED (07703324)
IN-NUCE LIMITED (07118472)
MCC VENTURES LIMITED (07713595)
RJM CREATIVE LIMITED (06167749)

chaupt

Castle wrote: »

Xinion Ltd and Remote Games Ltd are associated companies; i.e they are both owned by the same company:-BMCM Digital Ltd. It's very likely that your details are being shared around.

You may also want to contact the ICO as none of the above three companies appear to be registered with them; and therefore, they are breaking the law by processing your personal data.

Thanks Castle, at the moment they do seemed to have passed my details between companies, do you know if my number in isolation constitutes personal information? (That is they have no other details about me )

Incidentally I called Xinion on the number EE gave me 0333 202 6452 and asked where and when they got my number. They claim that a form was filled in yesterday afternoon, when I pointed out they had sent me a message before then the man hung up on me.