Zamano

geffkane

Mod Edit: If you intend to make claims, especially of a serious nature, at least point to a credible source backing them up, otherwise you are simply making unsubstantiated claims of a defamatory nature.

This is the second time you've made unsubstantiated claims against the same company. Next time you're banned.

mentalson

Thats not going to happen. They have been doing this for a few years now and Regtel has always covered for them as have the mobile operators who make a lot of money from them. I doubt that the data protection Commissioner will be allowed to undermine Regtels authority in this way. It's just a publicity stunt to show that they are "doing something"

geffkane

The company just received another fine and a formal reprimand from Icstis today. This is addition to the fines of £45,000 and £5,000 that they received last month, although these fines are insignificant considering how much they are making.

http://www.icstis.org/communications_providers/adjudications/default.asp?node=&id=646

interestingly both companies found today by Isctis to be acting illegally in the UK, are based in the Digital Hub in Dublin, which is an Irish Government iniatative. payback for 800 years of oppression I assume.

geffkane

geffkane wrote:

Mod Edit: If you intend to make claims, especially of a serious nature, at least point to a credible source backing them up, otherwise you are simply making unsubstantiated claims of a defamatory nature.

This is the second time you've made unsubstantiated claims against the same company. Next time you're banned.

look at the Isctis website to see how many times this company has been fined for acting illegally. This is despite the fact that Isctis has come in for heavy criticism for covering for and protecting the industry.



http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/ireland/article2786577.ece

Friday, July 20, 2007

The (Irish) Data Protection Commissioner has carried out raids on the offices of a number of mobile-phone text marketing companies.

The snap inspections were made in response to a large number of complaints made to the commissioner's office by members of the public.

It is illegal for a marketing company to contact anyone by SMS without their permission.


http://www.icstis.org/communications_providers/adjudications/default.asp?node=&id=646

The Panel considered the evidence before it and was satisfied .....that ...... complainants had received chargeable reverse billed SMS text messages from the service without requesting them.
Decision: UPHELD





http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/investigates/2007/06/21/zama-no-money-89520-19331014/

BIG business certainly moves in mysterious ways.

In March telecoms outfit Zamano announced a massive 71 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £1.5million. The following month it found almost £6m to buy a mobile content firm.

In May it was fined £45,000 over £1.50 text jokes that the recipients said they hadn't ordered.

A small fine for such a big firm, you might think. But Dublin-based Zamano actually wanted more time to pay it.

We're pleased to say that the watchdog ICSTIS responded by saying Zamano should "meet the necessary payments immediately". Quite.

alex1234

What Zamano do is not (by and large) illegal under UK law - although see http://www.icstis.org.uk/consumers/adjudications/default.asp?node=&id=639 and scroll down to "LEGALITY".

Zamano make a living by teaming up with "information providers". The Information providers are the ones who acquire the lists of mobile numbers (or perhaps generate them randomly) and send out the unsolicited reverse charge texts using Zamano as the conduit. Contrary to popular belief, it is not illegal (under the UK 2003 Communications Act) to send unsolicited reverse charge text messages, it is only illegal to send unsolicited promotional text messages. Since Zamano's "services" are usually unsolicited, they don't normally require any promotion.

Zamano's behaviour is, however, against the ICSTIS Code of Practice and Zamano are regularly fined for acting as a service provider to firms that send unsolicited reverse charge texts and repeatedly banned from providing a specific "service" in concert with a specific information provider (see ICSTIS adjudications against Zamano, but Zamano simply team up with a new information provider and carry on as before. It would seem that Zamano make more than enough money from their operations to keep paying the ICSTIS fines.

Whether Zamano's behaviour could be described as "ethical" is, of course, another matter.