Premium Text on mobile scam

digitaldr

Got this from Mount Wilson today:

H

ello Mr Morgan,
I will look into your query asap, need to find out exactly what service you were opt in etc.
I will contact you within a few days.
I will request now for your number to be blacklisted .

Will just have to wait and see.

Ozeire

Well

I paid the cheque I got into the bank today.

Wahoo I got my €6:21 back

So you can win and get your money back if you just keep at it .

mcaul

Pulse Telecom seem to be behind quite a bit of this - I had similar problem a couple of years ago. Actually got in contact with Pulse and they laughed down the phone saying I mus have subscribed to a chat line!.

A solicitors letter warning of action for deception and theft did the trick very quickly and refund was issued.

A that time they were based around the Camden St. area.


Trick with all these guys is they know that unless they can provide proof that you have subscribed for the service they can be had through the legal system - if only you could do a class action case as per USA and this would stop overnight! e.g. law firm represents thousands of users with a single court case.

claireb66

I am having the same problem as Ozeire

From my o2 account details

27/02/2007 12:29:14 353863810941 SMS In €2.50 Successful

I also received one maybe two in january and one today. So it must be around 10euro!!! It seems to happen every time i top up. I rang O2 and they said they have requested that i be unsubscribed from the service. They said it could take up to 24 hours but maybe tuesday because of the bank holiday. O2 said the name of the company was Puca so its the same thing.
Where should I begin tryin to get my money back??? I was thinking from reading the posts that I should ring O2 back to get Puca's number and take it from there and try find out where they got my details.

digitaldr

Puca's contact details are here. As far as I can tell they only provide SMS services but they should be able to give you the name of the company responsible. In my case it was Mount Wilson and from the looks of the number in your post I'd say they're scamming you too. Be sure to Email care@mntwilson.com them otherwise you might find yourself phoning a premium rate number (to add insult to injury!)

The Corinthian

The_Hustler wrote:

It would cost €15, how much are these premium texts costing?

Then you also sue for the €15 as well as any other costs incurred. That's how these things work.

The Corinthian

I would ask that posters take care with regard to the accusations they're making here. I'm not suggesting that you're not correct, but I've also seen a lot of cases where people did technically subscribe to these services, although I'd agree the means by which people are lured into doing so are at the very least unethical.

Companies such as Puca, Zamano and Opera Telecom generally only act as service providers who lease out their premium rate connections to third parties. Unfortunately these third parties are upon occasion less than blameless in their practices and will actually cause the service providers more trouble than their business is worth and tarnish the reputation of legitimate businesses.

The_Hustler

The Corinthian wrote:

Then you also sue for the €15 as well as any other costs incurred. That's how these things work.

I'm not sure you're usually awarded that. My sister went through the small claims court and didn't get the application fee back but maybe that's because it was a higher amount being claimed. Btw, I'm in the process of making a claim atm and it's actually only €9. That citizens.ie seems to have a fair bit of false information. I was told the other party has 6 weeks to reply, not 15 calender days!

The_Hustler

The Corinthian wrote:

I would ask that posters take care with regard to the accusations they're making here. I'm not suggesting that you're not correct, but I've also seen a lot of cases where people did technically subscribe to these services, although I'd agree the means by which people are lured into doing so are at the very least unethical.

Companies such as Puca, Zamano and Opera Telecom generally only act as service providers who lease out their premium rate connections to third parties. Unfortunately these third parties are upon occasion less than blameless in their practices and will actually cause the service providers more trouble than their business is worth and tarnish the reputation of legitimate businesses.

Yeah I ended up subscribed to one by entering a TV3 text competition. I had no idea it was a subscription thing but it was me technically subscribing. I managed to get out failry quickly but my kid brother wasn't so lucky and ended up changing his number because of it. He never told me until after because he had only entered the competition because I asked him to for me. A major guilt trip ensued.

Sarn

A lot of these texts tend to be quite sly. They seem to hit my phone late on a Friday night every now and then with vague messages (like spam mail) "good to see..." and a "go to" option on the menu. At this point I've usually had a few pints but have the presence of mind to delete them immediately in case I click the link accidentally later on.

The cynic in me thinks they're going to get a few people clicking them while on a night out and not realise what they did. The vague nature of the messages means you've no idea what you could be getting yourself into.

lfc1892

The Corinthian wrote:

I would ask that posters take care with regard to the accusations they're making here. I'm not suggesting that you're not correct, but I've also seen a lot of cases where people did technically subscribe to these services, although I'd agree the means by which people are lured into doing so are at the very least unethical.

Companies such as Puca, Zamano and Opera Telecom generally only act as service providers who lease out their premium rate connections to third parties. Unfortunately these third parties are upon occasion less than blameless in their practices and will actually cause the service providers more trouble than their business is worth and tarnish the reputation of legitimate businesses.

This is very important to bear in mind!

I have seen a few occasions when the subscription was done "For the laugh" by mates in the pub.

The lesson is. Do NOT ignore unsolicited texts. Do NOT delete unsolicited texts. Contact your SP, check that you weren't charged, arrange to be unsubscribed and the contact details for the company that sent it to you. Your mobile phone company will either need the short code or the phone number you received the text from.

Contact the sender and ask where they got your details.

Mobile phone companies are obliged to provide access to these Value Added Services and therefore cannot take responsibility for them but the marketing firms attached to the Premium Numbers are obliged to follow the code of practice laid down by RegTel.

RegTel takes breaches very seriously.

lfc1892

Sarn wrote:

A lot of these texts tend to be quite sly. They seem to hit my phone late on a Friday night every now and then with vague messages (like spam mail) "good to see..." and a "go to" option on the menu. At this point I've usually had a few pints but have the presence of mind to delete them immediately in case I click the link accidentally later on.

The cynic in me thinks they're going to get a few people clicking them while on a night out and not realise what they did. The vague nature of the messages means you've no idea what you could be getting yourself into.

Many of these companies cynically send you an uncharged link on a Friday. If you select this link you will be subscribing to their service.

Keep the text and when you've sobered up, contact your phone provider who will arrange for you to be removed from the mailing list of the sending company.

Or, (at your own expense) respond with the word STOP (charge is 11c for O2 or 13c if your with Vodafone)

digitaldr

Finally got a cheque for €22.50 today from Mount Wilson - €4 more than than I was looking for:) Needless to say they didn't include any proof of me having entered a competition. Anyway here's a copy of the correspondence - start at the bottom as I couldn't be bothered to reformat it:

Hi xxxxxxx,

thanks for that. I have no recollection of entering this competition and am puzzled as to how this resulted in me being subscribed to a premium rate text service in 2007! Maybe you could provide me with a hard copy of my alleged competition entry together with my refund cheque which I still have not received.

Thanks

Kind regards

xxxxxxx

xxxxxxx wrote:
Hi xxxxxxx,
You entered the flights to New york competition on the 12/12/03 11:02:14. with a company called Pulse.
xxxxxxx.

---

Original Message

---

From: xxxxxxx
Sent: 25 April 2007 09:14
To: care@mntwilson.com
Subject: Re: Refund

Hi,

my address is:

No junk mail please! By the way how did you get my mobile number in the first place?

Thanks

Regards

xxxxxxx

xxxxxxx wrote:
Goodmorning xxxxxxx,
your refund is going out in the post today, jus need an address please.
many thanks
xxxxxxx

---

Original Message

---

From: xxxxxxx
Sent: 23 April 2007 23:33
To: care@mntwilson.com
Subject: Re: Refund

Hi xxxxxxx,

any news on my refund?

Thanks

xxxxxxx

xxxxxxx wrote:
Hi there,
Sorry i havent reply yet, but i have got two negative answers saying they didnt find your number so i need to keep looking into it for you, my manager is away at the moment he will be back after the easter holidays so I will try to resolve this as soon as i get a report from him. Once i get the report the refund should be done straight away.

xxxxxxx.

---

Original Message

---

From: xxxxxxx
Sent: 28 March 2007 17:32
To: care@mntwilson.com
Subject: Re: Refund

Hi xxxxxxx,

more than a few days have passed - any news?

Regards

xxxxxxx

xxxxxxx wrote:
Hello
I will look into your query asap, need to find out exactly what service you were opt in etc.
I will contact you within a few days.
I will request now for your number to be blacklisted .
xxxxxxx


Sent: 09 March 2007 18:36
To: care@mntwilson.com
Subject: Refund

Dear Sir/Madam,

I was surprised to see that I had been billed for premium rate texts despite the fact that I am very careful with my mobile number and have never subscribed to any such service. Details below:

National 07/02/07 12:30 Premium Text 12353863810941 00:00:00 SMS 2.07
National 07/02/07 13:28 Premium Text 12353863810941 00:00:00 SMS2.07
National 07/02/07 13:53 Premium Text 12353863810941 00:00:00 SMS2.07
National13/02/07 17:50 Premium Text 12353863810941 00:00:00 SMS2.07
National20/02/07 17:49 Premium Text 12353863810941 00:00:00 SMS2.07
National24/02/07 16:03 Premium Text 12353863810941 00:00:00 SMS2.07
National27/02/07 18:03 Premium Text 12353863810941 00:00:00 SMS2.07
National06/03/07 18:03 Premium Text 12353863810941 00:00:00 SMS2.07


I phoned O2 customer care who were able to unsubscribe me (even though I had never subscribed in the first place!). They referred me to Puca technologies who in turn gave me your contact details. Needless to say I was reluctant to contact you by phone given that I would be billed at 30 cent/minute.
I want to know how you got my number and why you think you have to right to charge me a total of €16.56. I am also puzzled as to what "service" you actually provide to your "subscribers". Obviously I also want a full refund.

Looking forward to hearing from you in the very near future

Yours Sincerely

xxxxxxx
Mobile number xxxxxxxxxxxx