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Mobile phone scam warning

Posted on August 18, 2008, 3:03pm
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Local mobile phone users are being ripped off by a new text message scam being charged to their monthly bill.

Federal Member for Wannon, David Hawker, today urged all mobile phone users to look closely at their bill for separate charges at the bottom of the account.

“My office has received several complaints about these scams,” Mr Hawker said.

“The scam works by sending an unsolicited SMS (text message) to an unsuspecting mobile phone user.

“Unless the SMS is carefully read and refused as indicated at the bottom, it is automatic billed to the receiver’s account, often at a rate of $6.00 per message,” he said.

Mr Hawker said if you receive an unsolicited SMS out of the blue, it is important that you unsubscribe by replying with the word STOP.

He said merely deleting the unopened SMS does not stop the charge on the next bill.

“This is daylight robbery and I have already taken it up with the Federal Government. As a matter of urgency; this practice must be outlawed immediately,” Mr Hawker said.

Mr Hawker said the individuals or groups who send these messages often don’t live in Australia, making it difficult to charge them. It is therefore important that mobile phone users are vigilant and question any unfamiliar charges that appear on their accounts.

“I believe mobile phone providers also have a duty to co-operate with Government to help stamp out this fraudulent practice immediately,” he said.

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Comments

One Response to “Mobile phone scam warning”

  1. Brin from UK on August 18th, 2008 11:49 pm 1

    I strongly advise the author of this article to check the information they have been given. This looks identical to the mass marketed billing frauds we have in the UK and US.
    The receivers account is automatically billed on receipt of the unsolicited SMS irrespective of whether the SMS is opened, read, replied to, or deleted.

    This type of reverse billed SMS can only be sent and billed if the ’scammer’ has entered into a revenue share agreement with a company who has a billing/revenue share agreement with the Mobile Network Operator.
    The ‘STOP’ command is the Industry mechanism intended to be used for opting out of subscription services. It’s not intended to be used to avoid charges for SMS already received.

    In the UK the Network Operators take up to 50% of the billed revenue before passing the rest on down the revenue chain.
    A few weeks ago a class action in the US forced AT&T to refund millions of their customers who had been defrauded with the receipt of unsolicited reverse billed SMS.

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