Spam Texts costing £1.50 (merged threads)

Llyllyll

Don't know if this could help anyone, especially as it's a bit limited at the moment, (I know it's forking out £6 on something else) but have you tried this: http://www.magilityshield.co.uk ?

I have no interest or involvement with the company but came across the link from a local newspaper website when I was researching this type of thing, as I've recently ordered new phones for the wife and I, and don't want to get caught up in any of these scams.

Haven't tried it myself, as yet, though.

Thanks,
L

clarkey1000

Hi,

I've just stumbled across this thread as my mobile bill came through today and I had a charge for a text from 82885. I remember receiving this and cancelled it at the time by going to their website https://www.07781485153.com which seemed to work.

What I've noticed is that I received my text on 17th July - around the same time as you Jem16 so perhaps they were short of money and making numbers up that week as I have definitely never registered with them! I wonder how many other random people got texts.

---

I have now just got off the phone from orange who have refunded my £1.50. It took a while for the lady at the other end of the phone to confirm that I hadn't registered for the texts and then she tried to get me to call an 0871 number to get the refund from the 82885 people. At this point I went off on a rant (I've been on hold for ages this evening and kept getting cut off so my patience had worn out!) basically I asked her what was the point of me calling a number that would cost me 10p per minute to claim back £1.50 and whether Orange would refund the cost of that call! She then decided to refund the £1.50 as a goodwill gesture (and to get me off the phone I think) so I'm quite pleased with the result.

Anyway just thought I'd share my experiences and let Orange people know that it is possible to get these costs refunded if you haven't regstered in the first place.

(Don't expect Orange CS to answer the phone quickly though!!:mad: )

jem16

clarkey1000 wrote:

Hi,

I've just stumbled across this thread as my mobile bill came through today and I had a charge for a text from 82885. I remember receiving this and cancelled it at the time by going to their website www.07781485153.com which seemed to work.

Make sure you complain to ICSTIS - the more people that complain the better!

What I've noticed is that I received my text on 17th July - around the same time as you Jem16 so perhaps they were short of money and making numbers up that week as I have definitely never registered with them! I wonder how many other random people got texts.

Probably lots - £1.50 x many.

---

I have now just got off the phone from orange who have refunded my £1.50. It took a while for the lady at the other end of the phone to confirm that I hadn't registered for the texts and then she tried to get me to call an 0871 number to get the refund from the 82885 people. At this point I went off on a rant (I've been on hold for ages this evening and kept getting cut off so my patience had worn out!) basically I asked her what was the point of me calling a number that would cost me 10p per minute to claim back £1.50 and whether Orange would refund the cost of that call! She then decided to refund the £1.50 as a goodwill gesture (and to get me off the phone I think) so I'm quite pleased with the result.

Seems the only way to get the mobile networks to do anything is to make a nuisance of yourself

cupid_s

Is there any way these companies can send you these messages if you haven't requested any ringtone/wallpaper etc.

My husband started getting these messages at a cost of £1.50 each time. He has never even given his mobile number out to people other than friends and family.

He texted 'stop' to the number sending the messages (which cost him £1!) and got a reply saying he is not subscribed to anything so he cannot stop anything! But they had sent him 3 texts that day, reducing his newly topped uo £10 to about a fiver.

He then called O2 who eventually blocked the number sneding messages to him.

But how can they send him stuff if he hasn't signed up to anything?

redmandarin

jem16 wrote:

I'm just off the phone to the person from Peter Erskine's department who was dealing with this. Strangely enough he didn't get a reply from HyByte and had to email them this morning.

They have sent a him a report on the "supposed" activity between HyByte and myself which has fabricated an extra 2 texts which have supposedly activated the service. He knows this is a load of rubbish as my call logs show otherwise.

He has told me that I have just to get in touch with him if this happens again and he would investigate it. Should my records confirm the complaint he would refund any charges made.

The email you want is [EMAIL="Peter.Erskine@O2.com"]Peter.Erskine@O2.com[/EMAIL].

Hi jem and others! Well done on your success so far, jem, any refund yet?

I got nowhere with Virgin! I cancelled the Direct Debit and they disconnected my phone! I spoke to Customer Services (on their expensive 0845 no. because I'm at work all day and their landline customer services is shut when I'm at home)! They refuse to go through my mobile bills (which show I haven't subscribed to anything) and they say I must have accidentally subscribed to the service by ticking (or not ticking) the bit on a form where it says "do you allow/not allow your info to be shared with other companies"? So they are implying that it is my fault! They refuse to accept any responsibility and wont give me a refund! They said that Virgin has already paid Hybte before I pay my phone bill (how on earth would a customer services worker know this?) and as the company have already had been paid, I should pay Virgin and then request a refund from Hybyte!! I said I'm very careful and I hadn't subscribed to the service and that in my view, if money had been taken without my authorisation, then that is fraud. They said it isn't. They also refuse to contact Hybyte about my account as they say this would contavene the Data Protection Act (but this can't be correct as O2 managed it in Jem's case!). I then asked several times, to be put through to a manager, but they refused, saying that in their view it wasn't warranted! Nor would they give me the contact details of any senior figure at Virgin HQ. They said that if didn't pay my account in full, they would refer the account to a debt collection agency!

Can someone please help on this? Jem, how did you find out the e-mail address of 02's CEO? I can't find anything on the net for Virgin. It would help a lot of people if we could find out how to contact company bosses in order to discuss our dissatisfaction! I feel I've hit a brick wall here!

Any help on how to pursue this further with Virgin would be much appreciated. rm

jem16

redmandarin wrote:

Hi jem and others! Well done on your success so far, jem, any refund yet?

Yes I got my refund - a whole £1.50. Wasn't the amount that annoyed me but the principle of the thing!

Jem, how did you find out the e-mail address of 02's CEO? I can't find anything on the net for Virgin.

O2's CEO has been well posted here and on many other sites. Presumably Richard Branson is Virgin's CEO?

mrs_baggins

How do you do this? a few months ago I received 3 unsilicted text messages from a web site i knoew I had not visited. even though i dod not read the messages i was still charged something like £2 just to receive them. IAt the time i spoke to my provider (o2) trading standards and ICTIS (or something like that)even though i didnt get my moeny bavk i received no more- UNTIL NOW! I received a txt message the other night with just 'click here' written- no number or guess as to who it was from. i did not open it and deleted it right away. 30 mins later I received another saying'yez please' or similar. again I deleted it but now thjink I have been charged. If there was no originating number what can be done about stopping these happening in the future? has anyone else had these type of messages?

oranabana

clarkey1000 wrote:

Anyway just thought I'd share my experiences and let Orange people know that it is possible to get these costs refunded if you haven't regstered in the first place.

Perhaps you ought to share this with Orange's CEO too: executive.office@orange.co.uk ;-)

clarkey1000 wrote:

(Don't expect Orange CS to answer the phone quickly though!!:mad: )

Indeed not... have been on hold for about 14 min now (high call volume...blahblah...). Why? In order to ask why I am being charged 10.00 more than ususal on my line rental! arrhg!!!

C_Ronaldo

i get these txts too, i try to send STOP to the numbrer but it says number failed, how do i stop them

Diekund

my sister is getting these texts now. Anyone know how to get rid of them without spending a fortune?

how can the law allow these messages to be sent without requesting them? It is just an all out scam