Key Post Check your mobile bill. Are you being charged for unwanted texts? e.g. Tarot cards

This is still going on.

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone if the current regulator ComReg is taking this any more seriously than the last one: I believe responsibility transferred to them last year from RegTel.
 
After following up some more, there looks to be a nice little loophole here:

- premium rate text service provider can break regulations at will
- regulator says "deal with service provider first"
- service provider agrees to an immediate refund, hence customer is OK
- regulator has nothing further to do

I wonder how many people actually complain?
I’m following this up with ComReg to try and get this stopped, but based on other people’s experience of them, I’m not exactly holding my breath on this…..
 
Yes, it is still going on. And, like other contributors I have had absolutely no joy from Vodafone or ComReg.

I believe that this is even more serious that Vodafone will admit. Their approach seems to be that - " well you asked for an then got the text".

But here;
' the thing. I NEVER RECEIVED ANY OF THE TEXTS. So this could be a cause of fraud as well as everything else. Has anybody actually received these Premium Taxts ?
 
I have just discovered that I have been caught by these guys since August. I look at the total of my mobile bill but don't check it in detail unless it seems larger than usual.

There is no way I subscribed to a tarot service. I don't even know how one would go about subscribing to it.

I have never lost my phone. No one else has ever had it.

I got these texts but did not realise that you could be charged for receiving texts.

I had seen this thread headed Zamano - but that meant nothing to me

Up to the end of November I have been charged €65 and presumably more for December to date.

How do I get my money back?

To whom do I complain?

Which government department is responsible for stopping these guys?
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Up to the end of November I have been charged €65 and presumably more for December to date.

How do I get my money back?

To whom do I complain?

Which government department is responsible for stopping these guys?
Click to expand...

Hopefully, you've sorted this out by now.

My reason to bring this up was to ask people's opinion on the following:



When I had my run in with Zamano, I was told by ComReg that they were updating the regulations so that this kind of activity (where you could subscribe unknowingly to something) would be stopped. Fair enough, I thought: late, but better than never.

It now turns out that Zamano and other took ComReg to court, and there's a stay on the relevant section of the new regulations.

Personally, I think this is outrageous. What are people's thoughts? What can be done to ensure the new regulations go ahead?
 
Hi Ang

Yes, I got sorted in that I got my money back. They never told me how I managed to subscribe.

I don't understand the bit you have posted. What regulations were proposed?

I am surprised that I have not seen this covered in the media.

We badly need a consumers' association in Ireland.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Hi Ang

Yes, I got sorted in that I got my money back. They never told me how I managed to subscribe.

I don't understand the bit you have posted. What regulations were proposed?

I am surprised that I have not seen this covered in the media.
Click to expand...

The code is at:

http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg1229.pdf

This updates a previous one, which basically wasn't strong enough. It allowed someone to subscribe unknowingly (i.e. without human intervention).

I noticed the court case being covered in the Irish Times last month, but missed the result. It was only today I checked: see the press release. The good news is that the code is now in place, the bad news is that the most important section of it isn't.

Fair play to ComReg for pushing this through and defending it in the courts: I understand there was very significant lobbying for them to drop the provision.

In every other transaction involving payment you have to make an explicit request for a product or service (e.g. type in a credit card number, PIN, or sign a piece of paper or whatever): this seems to be the only case where this isn't the case, and the fix for it is being blocked by the courts (hopefully only until they reach a sensible conclusion).
 
This issue is still going on.

I am currently in the USA and before I left Ireland I stopped my phone from being able to dial home to Ireland (Due to roaming costs)

Havng checked my mobile bill online I note that I received a number of Texts from 57030, which is listed as being Zamano

I have never subscribed to any subscription services ever and am trying to sort this issue out with Emobile with limited success so far

Being away from Ireland makes it very difficult to deal with these issues and when you are paying by direct debit, there is not a lot you can do to stop the payment which you suspect are wrong
 
Seems like this stuff is still going on almost a year since the last posting on this.

My wife just got her bill from emobile today and it was twice the normal amount. Twelve SMS charges from 57030 at €2 each (before VAT). We have absolutely no idea where these came from. And the timing is crazy (see below). Six all at one time, and another six
at another time.

I just texted STOP to 57030 and there was an automated response saying "You are not subscribed to any services". I got charged €2 for that text by the way.

Should I be seeking refund from emobile or Zamano?

Date Time Called Number Call Duration Amount
25.06.2013 07:04:43 SMS from 57030 2.032520
25.06.2013 07:04:43 SMS from 57030 2.032520
25.06.2013 07:04:45 SMS from 57030 2.032520
25.06.2013 07:04:45 SMS from 57030 2.032520
25.06.2013 07:04:45 SMS from 57030 2.032520
25.06.2013 07:04:45 SMS from 57030 2.032520
25.06.2013 10:02:17 SMS from 57030 2.032520
25.06.2013 10:02:17 SMS from 57030 2.032520
25.06.2013 10:02:17 SMS from 57030 2.032520
25.06.2013 10:02:17 SMS from 57030 2.032520
25.06.2013 10:02:17 SMS from 57030 2.032520
25.06.2013 10:02:20 SMS from 57030 2.032520
 
You can lookup the number to see who it is (and yes, it is our old friend Zamano), see:
 
I Just got a response from Zamano after I emailed them. See below. To be fair to them, there's no messing around and a refund is on the way. These Smartphones are a curse, anything could be getting downloaded in the background.

"Thank you for your email. This mobile number subcription to RedCircle was activated when we received a subscription using the mobile phone to dowload(videos). Your number has been unsubscribed from all the services as requested. We have placed a permanent block on your mobile number from our database to avoid further subscriptions. Please provide your complete name and postal address where we can send your cheque refund."
 
Hi Squonk

I don't think that this is good enough. People subscribe unknowingly and then get a refund if they ask. But most people don't ask.

Brendan
 
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