02 free SMS Xmas offer - Genuine?

Cerdito

Hi,

I'm after receiving a text message supposedly from 02:

"As a valued customer, 02 would like to offer you a Christmas Gift of 20 FREE texts every month for 5 months! To register, reply THANKS before 19th Dec. From 02"

This came from 51101. I'm a pay-as-you-go customer. Has anyone else on 02 received this? I'm just a bit suspicious it could be from spammers, seems a bit good to be true!

Any advice would be appreciated.

garthv

20 free txts a month isnt all that much so it sounds exactly like o2 but then again.....
ring up o2 and ask!

wheresmybeaver

My father got a txt similar to the one mentioned: "O2 would like to wish you a Happy Christmas! To celebrate, we would like to offer you 20 free texts. To avail of these texts, please text GIFT to 51101"

Notice no "From O2"
Sender on his Nokia came up as "O2"

Unfortunately, he replied, but it looks quite suspicious as the reply to this was "Thank you. Your 20 free texts will be applied to your account on 15th December."

The number this time was +353863832032

This all looks highly suspicious, I'm going to call o2 tomorrow about it. Usually, O2 never give you something for free then ask you to reply to them? I'm woried it might have ben a con; that reply text might have cost my father a couple of euro.

Meanwhile, can anyone confirm these texts are actually from o2?

Barrie

Em yes i got them a while back its genuine all right to check if they added them try *#106# or *105# it will show if your free texts have been added

flywheel

Cerdito wrote:

This came from 51101.

just an fyi: the ComReg SMS Number Search can be used look up short-codes - and their Register to look up info on Authorised companies

wheresmybeaver

Well its a bill phone so he cant check if he got any free texts or anything until the bill comes in

wheresmybeaver

Hmmm... 51101 is registered to "Mobileway", an authentic enough looking company, but still not O2 communications.. Are they acting for O2? Well a call will be made to O2 anyway. You can never be too careful I think.

Cheers for those links DubWireless

Barrie

"I'm a pay-as-you-go customer"-Surely thats not a pay later:-)
Why do they call it a xmas offer?I have received free texts from them before?Ah well must be starting up again!!

wheresmybeaver

Cerdito is pay-as-you-go, my father is bill, 2 seperate people there Barry!
Besides 20 free texts is hardly an offer.. why would they bother? just a few quid! If ur that valued, maybe 40 txts?

Cerdito

It's all very strange.....

My father got the offer as well and replied to it (he's bill). He rang up 02 to check if it was genuine and they said they'd never heard of it!

Here's hoping the reply hasn't cost him premium rates and/or he hasn't been added to some spam list.....

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

wheresmybeaver

Um,alright my father called O2 and apparently the offer is real. Hmmm.

Still, dont like the way it panned out. I've warned my father now not to reply to those things in future! In fairness, 20 texts is not worth the risk.

He'll also be checking his bill carefully when it comes in, just in case..

flodis79

i havent got this offer... seems it's only for certain customers... y?

LoBo

51101 is a standard rate shortcode, so you can't be charged any more than what you pay for normal texts when you reply to it.

Strangely enough I can't find the price bands for sms shortcodes on comreg.ie, regtel.ie or even askcomreg.ie, but in any case 50xxx is free to text to and 51xxx costs whatever you normally pay for SMS. 53xxx and up are the premium ones.

Saruman

got it on my work mobile... did not bother replying

oh lobo the main problem with those numbers i think is you might be signing up for something by replying without knowing...

ferryman

I'd say it's a genuine offer. I was with O2 (bill-pay) up until June, and a couple of weeks ago I received some promotional material through the post from them offering me these "20 free texts". To take advantage of the offer, I had to text some message to some "51***" number. A bit silly them sending me this crap with me not even being a customer, just goes to show that they haven't a clue...
Ciaran

flodis79

So that means there are two different "schemes"

GIFT to 51101 gives 20 free texts 15th December
THANKS to 51101 gives 20 free texts every 23rd of the month, beginning Dec and lasting five months...

I tried to text these codes to 51101 and I got the messages back that I will get the messages, so let's wait and see!

Tony_ire

My dad got this last week, so now the rest of the family have replied to it. Somehow i think they will have a system whereby only the people who they actually sent the message to in the first place will get the free txts. o2 could actually end up making more money out of this by getting so many people to sign up for them!

flodis79

Today, I got 20 txts on two sims where I didnt get the originating txt offering the 20 free texts.... So they don't have that system to filter out and give the freebies on to the ones they offered them to..

Also, its very funny now, i dont actually have a text bundle when i check *105# but when i check *106# there is a bundle with 20 txts..

Anyone else experiencing the same thing?

Vodascum

it is a genuine offer and i'd like to thank O2 for the gesture. I was on Vodafone for yaers and never got a thing apart from excessive bills and woefull customer care ! To all those complaining about getting something for free try to forget that u're irish for a minute and u might appreciate a freebie little more !

Tony_ire

I got the 20 free txts from GIFT and i also got 20 for Thanks and will continue to get 20 a month for the next 4 months