Text Websites

mandyi_2

Help. My daughter has managed to run up a bill of £145:00 by replying to one of her friends from a 'free' text website - it may have been free for the sender - but costs .90p to receive every one of them - has anyone any experience of this?

mcmanlyn

Wow, she gets a lot of texts! Not sure if you could get out of it at all - at least it's a lesson learned I guess. I assume its a contract phone? Have you asked if you can pay if off in installments? Then she could try to work for the money.

I'd be tempted to be quite thankful it wasn't more, I've heard of some sites that charge £5 to recieve the message...imagine that bill!!!

superjaggybunnet

This cannot be right! It surely must be illegal to do this as they are taking your money without you knowing. That is theft!!

What site is it? Have you had a look at it to see what it says about charges, etc.

crumpetman

Ah but she replied to a text from the website first, then received further messages. It could be that the first reply was something to start a ringtone subscription or something. Can't you get out of that sort of thing if you are under a certain age?

Cavey

I saw some of these not long ago, but can't remember where all of them were. One was txt party (in this thread on MSE) where you send 140 "free" sms if you accept £4.50 of reverse charged texts per week to your mobile (exactly how that is free is beyond me).

Another I saw was slightly more insidious. What happens is you send a message and, before it is delivered, the person receiving is sent a message of the form "Cavey has sent you a message, reply YES to receive their messages. For terms see...." etc.. After replying "Yes" for every message they send and you receive, you'll be billed (I'd guess at £1.50 per message), but the sender can send for free. Personally, I'd just not be best pleased, not reply and mention it when I next saw them...

Overall these are not theft and probably legal (if a little unscrupulous). If it is a contract phone and someone over the age of 18 acquired it, they are responsible for its use even if the user is not them, under the age of 18 or just an idiot.