Premium Rate mobile phone rip-off
national |
consumer issues |
news report 
Monday April 27, 2009 11:38
by Plato
Last year, Minister Ryan indicated that he would soon bring legislation forward so as to stop the rip-off by "subscription services" Alas.nothing has happened
The premiunm rate mobile phone rip-off is actually getting much, much worse, A report today indicates that the known problem has tripled. This is a quote from the report,
"Premium rate service complaints trebled in 2008
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McGuinness tells of his face-to-face showdownFive people die on roads over weekendPAUL CULLEN, Consumer Affairs CorrespondentCOMPLAINTS BY phone users about premium rate services more than trebled last year because of bad service and the “dubious” activities of some operators, according to the regulator for the sector.
RegTel received 6,062 complaints in 2007/08, compared to 1,704 the previous year, according to its latest annual report.
The biggest concern was the number of consumers who denied having subscribed to expensive premium rate services.
Another 22,000 people contacted RegTel seeking advice on how to unsubscribe from such service".
Can anyone out there give any explanation as to why this rip-off is being allowed to continue unchecked? Has Minister Ryan had a change of mind regarding his promise to stamp out the exploitation or has he been got to by those that are making a fortune out of these rackets?
Comments (1 of 1)
Jump To Comment: 1In an interview on RTE 9th july 2010, the Minister claimed that he has stopped the "exploitation of children" by mobile phone operators. This is not true, in fact the situation is going to get worse as Zamano are now running a new campign using pop-ups on the internet which target indescriminately. To lure the unsuspecting into opening these ads they state they use the line "you have won a prize". This method of misleading advertising is the same that was used when this problem first rared its head some years ago. Remember, "you have won €100 free credit" scams?
What the Minister needs to explain is why he refuses to ban altogether the use of the "reverse billing" facility for so called "fun" mobile phone activity. So long as he fails to do that, these problems will persist and with it the view that the comnpanies invovled in these scams are big contributors to political parties and that is the reason they are let behave in this disgraceful manner.
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