Unsolicited text messages

[Adrian Brezhnev]

From time to time, I get SMS messages sent to my phone, and I've no idea who they're from- like this one:

Todays (sic) auction winner won 30 Apple iPod 4 only 37. Only a 3rd of the rrp of 225! Pease join us again 4 the next auction where u 2 coud be a winner.

Please join us? I didn't chose to join whoever these people are in the first place, I wouldn't know how to, nor would I want to join them for the next auction.

Then last night, I got this, out of the blue:

Hi there :-)
http://w03.vkap.net/app/dispatch/dWtfd2QwMg==?c=998022703839&jid=-69064

I get these things occasionally, and have always deleted them straight away in the past, but this time, curiousity got the better of me.

It's a WAP site- "Meet singles in your area tonight. Just click to pick!", followed by five thumnails that I'd imagine are certainly not singles in my area. I've absolutely no wish to meet someone new, especially through an SMS dating service, but I was intrigued and wanted to find out what this service is, I've heard of so many people being ripped off by these things and since I am currently involved with campaigning to stop people being exploted by their phone and utility companies, I thought I'd investigate, even though this made me feel a little like Pete Townshend.

I clicked on the first photo, to see what happened. I was asked to confirm that I was at least 18 years old by putting in my age.

Next, I got:

I'm 5ft9, dark hair and blue eyes. I'm easy-going, confident, and thoughtful. I like kind but funny men, around my age please.

Terms and Conditions:

1. Mobile Date is restricted to over 18 consenting adults only.
2. Registration & your first SMS match is FREE.
3. Customer Service 08706091720
4. Additional use of the service costs just 100p/msg.
5. Reply STOP any anytime to stop your session

Clicking on "Meet me" brought up this-

We will now put you in contact with your choice. You will receive a message shortly. Good luck!

So, as the first match claimed to be free, I thought I'd just try it out for the hell of it. And sure enough, a nice sounding girl called Emma started sending me messages. I replied, saying that I was only looking in to this, and would not send many messages as I feared that I could get ripped off. I also sent her my real phone number, but similarly to what they Friends Reunited, it was automatically edited out.

A few messages later, I got the message:

Hi, we hope you are enjoying Mobile Date! This service costs just 100p per msg. To stop txt STOP. Thanks and keep having fun!

So, I immediately texted STOP.

Yes, it's all rather sad I know that I should have wasted half of Friday evening looking in to this, and I should have just ingored it, but I was curious about how this all works.

Who are these anonymous companies that send out text messages? How do they get our numbers? What are the mobile phone companies and OFCOM doing to regulate them? I'm sure other people on the forum have had unsolicited text messages and later found unexpected items on their bill...

[TOCMFIC]

I would imagine it generates the numbers to send too automatically. I'm not sure how SMS spam works, but you may have made a very bad mistake actually sending that "STOP" message. With email spammers, when they get a "please remove" or whatever, it's actually just for them to confirm the address so they can send even more spam.

You are, quite possibly, totally fucked now.

[Labian Quest]

It sounds like a scam. I would check your mobile phone bill to see that you haven't incurred any charges for any of that:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/sci_tech/newsid_2451000/2451163.stm

I would also try and find out where they got your number from and why whoever that turns out to be decided to give it to a load of spammers.

[domesticgoddess]

I got a random text message the other week. The number of the sender came up, but not one in my phone book and I have been too scared to call it.  What if it is some psycho luring his next victims via weird texts?

i am an egg.i have five heads of ascending size.i like beans on toast.When it rains i shrivle up like a prune.Must go need the toilet,i am very regular.

I mean, WTF?

[Adrian Brezhnev]

It sounds like a scam. I would check your mobile phone bill to see that you haven't incurred any charges for any of that:

Rather than wait for the bill to arrive, I'm going to phone Vodafone and ask them to look in to it.

I did hesitate before texting STOP to them- whenever I receive email SPAM I just ignore it, rather than emailing back with "please remove", thereby proving that their pointless emails get through to me.

[Circusfire]

i am an egg.i have five heads of ascending size.i like beans on toast.When it rains i shrivle up like a prune.Must go need the toilet,i am very regular.

[/quote]

Was the punctuation exactly like that? Maybe Boing is branching out to text messages.

[Hugo Rune]

I got a random text message the other week. The number of the sender came up, but not one in my phone book and I have been too scared to call it.  What if it is some psycho luring his next victims via weird texts?

i am an egg.i have five heads of ascending size.i like beans on toast.When it rains i shrivle up like a prune.Must go need the toilet,i am very regular.

I mean, WTF?

I dream about receiving SMSes as interesting as that.

Be careful how you respond. The message might've come from an alien civilisation making its clumsy first attempt to communicate with an Earthling. Your reply could mean the difference between telling your story on the GMTV sofa and the total annhiliation of the human race.

[Mister Cairo]

ignore

[EFB]

I would imagine it generates the numbers to send too automatically. I'm not sure how SMS spam works, but you may have made a very bad mistake actually sending that "STOP" message. With email spammers, when they get a "please remove" or whatever, it's actually just for them to confirm the address so they can send even more spam.

You are, quite possibly, totally fucked now.

One of my previous jobs was actually for a telecoms company that had a side business doing this type of stuff. Once you send STOP they HAVE to stop. They can tell if the text message has reached your phone whether you reply or not, so its not a verification technique. It's a legal requirement that they stop when you ask.

SMS spam is unlike email spam in that there is no hiding behind false whois info or forged email addresses. Everything is accountable and companies can be heavily fined or even shut down for not complying with regulations.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

And it looks like you may be right. I've just spoken to Vodafone, who told me who these tossers are.

The company responsible for the text messages is the "award winning"  Wireless Information Network (http://www.winplc.com).

Customer Service at Vodafone assured me that as I texted STOP as soon as I received information about charges, I shouldn't have any trouble.

We'll see....

[gazzyk1ns]

It looks like your curiosity was to blame in this case, but something does need to be done about these text services; a year or two ago, I received three texts in quick succession. As I'm on PAYG and receive the little balance update thing after every call/text, I saw that each mesage I received had cost me 50p. I called O2 and they told me to do the stop thing, which worked. They also told me that I must have typed my mobile number into a website (one which provided ringtones presumably, the texts contained URLs for me to download them), which I absolutely had not done. After reading some stuff and browsing similar sites, it became clear that someone else probably had typed my mobile number into one of these sites - with some of them, all you need to do is give "your" details (which obviously aren't verified in any way), put "your" mobile number in, tick a disclaimer box and hit a button which will send charged texts to that mobile number. It's ridiculous, people could screw other people over with a click of a button, intentionally or not (i.e. people probably sometimes mis-type their mobile number, which is what I assume happened in my case).

Like I said, it was a couple of years ago, maybe something has been done by now. My memory is a bit hazy, but I think I figured out at the time that this type of company were apparently getting away with it because they were "verifying" a person's "membership to the site" via an Email address... which of course is very easily done by any old idiot, and doesn't prove in the slightest that they own the phone number in question.

[Pinball]

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/faq/#seven

7. Will registering my mobile number on the TPS reduce the receipt of text (SMS) messages?

No. New legislation, which came into force on 11 December 2003, makes it unlawful to send an unsolicited direct marketing SMS to an individual subscriber unless the recipient has previously given their consent to such communications.

Text messages are defined as "electronic mail" under the Regulations and, as such, they should not be sent without the prior consent of the individual subscribers. Companies are therefore, not obliged to screen against TPS because they should already have established prior consent.

If you are receiving SMS marketing and have not given prior permission, you can complain directly to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), whose details are under the 'Useful links' section on the left hand menu or for more details see the Guidance Notes which the Information Commissioner's Office have produced Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.

However registering your mobile number on the TPS will reduce the number of unsolicited voice sales and marketing calls you receive on your mobile.

So if you haven't consented to receive SMS spam, complain about the company. If enough people do so, hopefully these tossers can be closed down.

[gazzyk1ns]

Yeah I can't remember the site now, I certainly would have done something about it at the time if they'd got more than £1.50 from me. The fact that they didn't get a fortune out of me is no excuse for them being cunts, of course, you know how it can be though. I think I was just relieved to stop it at the time.

[TOCMFIC]

I would imagine it generates the numbers to send too automatically. I'm not sure how SMS spam works, but you may have made a very bad mistake actually sending that "STOP" message. With email spammers, when they get a "please remove" or whatever, it's actually just for them to confirm the address so they can send even more spam.

You are, quite possibly, totally fucked now.

One of my previous jobs was actually for a telecoms company that had a side business doing this type of stuff. Once you send STOP they HAVE to stop. They can tell if the text message has reached your phone whether you reply or not, so its not a verification technique. It's a legal requirement that they stop when you ask.

AH! That's good then.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

So if you haven't consented to receive SMS spam, complain about the company. If enough people do so, hopefully these tossers can be closed down.

Just to let you know, complaining does eventually get someone to sit up and notice. I emailed WinPLC last week, basically saying what I had written in the first post to this topic.

After emailing them again at the weekend, asking them to please get someone to respond, I got three text messages this morning saying:

FREE MSG. Thank you for your STOP message. The last service from the short code requested will be stopped for your phone within one working day. www.winplc.com

Then I got a call from someone calling himself  "SMS customer service" this morning, saying that he had received a copy of my email, could confirm that it was clear to him that I had never signed up for the service, and that he should hopefully be able to get me a refund.

Then I got an email from Win PLC-

Thank you for your email.



Please be advised that I have barred your mobile number from the database to ensure that you receive no further messages from any service sent via the WIN platform.



I have also forwarded your email to the two clients that you were receiving these messages from, and have asked them to investigate your issue and contact you directly to discuss a refund.



Their details are as follows:



Shortcode 81819

Client name: Cumulus

Email address: info@smsdigitalfuture.co.uk

Phone: 0871 872 0200



Shortcode 69009

Client name: Venista

Email address: info@venista.co.uk

Phone: 0870 609 1720



Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further enquiries.



Kind regards,



Catherine Dumbarton

Customer Services Supervisor

I've written back to her, thanking her for dealing with the matter, but also asking to look in to how they got my mobile phone number in the first place.