Unsolicited texts not even arriving & being charged for them.

lucy2010

Im sure there is a million posts on this one but I got the greatest shock of my life today.
A friend noticed a charge for premium services on his bill & following huge hassle discovered it was going back to June 2009 at a total of €72.
We all know the stories of kids putting €20 credit on a phone & it disappearing due to a subscription of ringtones etc. The difference here is not one text has ever been recived to his phone. Fair enough if a text had come in saying you are being charged thats bad enough but not getting anything at all & being charged seemed a bit odd. There is no chain even of a subscription in the first place.

So under his warning I decided to check my bill. I just get a txt off o2 saying bill is overdue & x is to be paid & i ring up & pay . I dont get anything off them. I purely just pay it ( very lax-a -daisy on my part I know).
So I went online last night & started going back over the last year ..
The grand total for premium services: €176.81. I nearly collapsed.

I used to work for o2 so I know a premium message when I see one. You send back stop or unscubscribe & it goes away till the next time. But in the last 12 months apart from receiving the concert ticket alerts I have recived nothing of the kind to my phone. Nothing to alert me that im subscribed to anything. So I dont even know i was being charged.

I also was pretty browned off at the fact that if I was being charged where was the stuff I was supposidly buying ? Where was my billing message?

I contacted o2 & unfortunatly its up to me to contact these companies. So I went off & started ringing. This 3rd party company refused point blank to tell me what I am buying, they couldnt find me at all in their system, the wouldnt tellme anything. I reverted back to com reg who sent me to Reg Tel. Noone can advise me on where to go & get my money back. But it just shows €1 here or there on the bill of half the population is a sure way for a company to get rich & fast !!

Has this happened anyone else or has anyone even noticed they are being charged let alone for something they never even received. Thats over €240 on 2 bills. How much are they making off of everyone else in the country

amen

This 3rd party company refused point blank to tell me what I am buying, they couldnt find me at all in their system

send a letter to their data protection officer asking for all data that they hold on you. They have to reply within 3 months. At the same time contact the Data Protection Commisioner in Ireland. I have found tem very helpful.

When the data protection officer from the company comes back to you they will either
a: have no data on you so should not have charged you so off to small claims court and claim your money pay
b: they have data on you but no proof of signing up to the service so they should refund you. If not off to the small claims court

lucy2010

amen wrote: »

send a letter to their data protection officer asking for all data that they hold on you. They have to reply within 3 months. At the same time contact the Data Protection Commisioner in Ireland. I have found tem very helpful.

When the data protection officer from the company comes back to you they will either
a: have no data on you so should not have charged you so off to small claims court and claim your money pay
b: they have data on you but no proof of signing up to the service so they should refund you. If not off to the small claims court

Ah very clever Amen.... Thank you. Another question I should be ashamed asked WHO are Enterprise Ireland?????

DrumSteve

hey whats the 5 number shortcode you are receiving them from?

lucy2010

DrumSteve wrote: »

hey whats the 5 number shortcode you are receiving them from?

Hey there is actually 3 different numbers - 57782, 57131( i think) & cant remember 3rd. 1 is MBlox & other Zamano but Zamano owns Mblox . Rang again & no joy. Waiting for Regtel to get bak to me. Friend is still battling as they are refusing despite refunding him to tell him what he was subscribed to ....

lucy2010

Ok an update..

the company he was receiving the texts from in ZAMANO. He called last Monday & was advised 24 hours callback. No callback rang again Tue. same thing Wed, Thur , Fri still refusing to give him any info. On Friday they said every time they ring his number they get through to the ambulance service ????? Like what ???? So he gave my number & said ring that back if they cant get through. Still no call back. So he rings again this morning. They are still refusing to tell him what he subscribed to . So then she says she did call my number twice on the 4th..... He only gave them my number on the 5th ...... LYING THIEVES>>>>

So then he lost the plot & they have refused to deal with him & told him he is to contact RegTel for any further dealings.
He is contemplating going in to their offices & not budging till he gets an answer... Complete nonsense at this stage ....
Anyone else dealing with the lovely Zamano?????

As for my issue - Still waiting on my call back.....

colrow

---

Irish government funding criminality

It seems that our friends at "The Scream" have been silenced and all the evidencethat posters there had uncovered of Zamanos activities and an investigation into the connection between Zamano and the Irish govenment have been removed from the site.

just briefly Zamano/Blink are provided with offices by the Irish government from which to run their operations in the UK in the Digital Hub, Dublin, Ireland.

http://www.thedigitalhub.com/digital_hub/board.php

Zamano/Blink have been fined approx €130,000 in total for illiegally sending reverse billed texts to mobile phone users in the UK. Although the fines are a pittance compared to the massive amounts that they are making and are widely viewed to be be merely window dressing to show that some action is being taken , it does show that the value that the government places on morality and compliance with the law.

http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/consumers/adjudications/default.asp?AD=08%2F04%2F2008&SP=Zamano+Ltd&ST=&SpLookup=Search&Keywords=&cmd=2

.

Last edited by monroe on 22:49 24/04/08; edited 1 time in total


monroe
20:11 15/02/08
Posts: 10
Zamano caught selling porn to children

---

Irish Taxpayers continue to subsidize Zamanos criminal activities

http://www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/t25727.html

http://www.giagia.co.uk/?p=118


monroe
20:06 15/02/08
Posts: 10
Zamano dogging

---

Zamano was fined £20,000 for signing up mobile phone owners without their knowledge or consent and failing to respond to "stop" messages for one of their sex services.

The "Dogger" run by Zamano provides iinformation for those who want to watch, or be watched, having sex in public places.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/19/doggers_dogged/

Last edited by monroe on 2:21 24/06/08; edited 1 time in total


monroe
14:10 15/02/08
Posts: 10
Zamano caught selling porn to children

---

Zamano caught selling porn to children

In November 2007 Zamano bought mobile porn company Red Circle whose most profitable services include Porn Manager, Kama Sutra, Sex Tips, and the Chippendales for €24.3 million. On 20 December they were fined and reprimanded by PhonePayPlus for targeting Red Circle products at children by advertising them in magazines aimed at children ( Bliss and Sugar) (although purchasers of Zamano’s porn had to confirm that they were over 16)


paulaxx
8:44 12/10/07
Posts: 1
ZAMANO - GOLDEFORD?

---

The other night 2 amounts of £1.50 were taken from my mobile - I phoned 02 who said it was Zamano, she said that they had sent me 2 texts before taking the money - these I never received, but they took the money anyway. I phoned them - they said I needed to contact a company called Goldeford - I asked why as Zamano had taken the money from my phone - answer given I didn't understand ! so,I phoned Goldeford - they said that in September ( date and exact time given ) they text me and I had immediately text back to them "RUN" - this is NOT so ! On receipt of their text, I moved the number to block, this blocking I discovered doesnt work hence I didnt receive the 2 text sent the other day. I denied texting back RUN as I would NEVER do this to a company I had never heard of and had no idea what they were selling !!
I then phoned 02 again - they also confirmed that a text was sent back to this number 86888 ( which is the Zamano number ??? ) - I have looked on other peoples comments on Goldeford which say the same, i.e. they never text back but money was taken from their phones - my conclusion being that Goldeford could probably have some sort of software that once a text is opened by receipient - a text is automatically sent back to them without our knowledge - this is only a guess as I am not a computer expert but do know my stuff ! I have contacted ICSTIS but as yet have no reply - anyone any ideas on this as people are losing far more than I have - we should all be refunded - this is ridiculous and illegal in my mind.
Once again I have to say that never, ever would i have text back to this unknown company - something is definately wrong here big time.
I will forward this to Watchdog also as someone else suggested - maybe if we all did this something would be done about this company to stop innocent people being robbed.
Thanks, Paula

lucy2010

colrow wrote: »

---

Irish government funding criminality

It seems that our friends at "The Scream" have been silenced and all the evidencethat posters there had uncovered of Zamanos activities and an investigation into the connection between Zamano and the Irish govenment have been removed from the site.

just briefly Zamano/Blink are provided with offices by the Irish government from which to run their operations in the UK in the Digital Hub, Dublin, Ireland.

http://www.thedigitalhub.com/digital_hub/board.php

Zamano/Blink have been fined approx €130,000 in total for illiegally sending reverse billed texts to mobile phone users in the UK. Although the fines are a pittance compared to the massive amounts that they are making and are widely viewed to be be merely window dressing to show that some action is being taken , it does show that the value that the government places on morality and compliance with the law.

http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/consumers/adjudications/default.asp?AD=08%2F04%2F2008&SP=Zamano+Ltd&ST=&SpLookup=Search&Keywords=&cmd=2

.

Last edited by monroe on 22:49 24/04/08; edited 1 time in total


monroe
20:11 15/02/08
Posts: 10
Zamano caught selling porn to children

---

Irish Taxpayers continue to subsidize Zamanos criminal activities

http://www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/t25727.html

http://www.giagia.co.uk/?p=118


monroe
20:06 15/02/08
Posts: 10
Zamano dogging

---

Zamano was fined £20,000 for signing up mobile phone owners without their knowledge or consent and failing to respond to "stop" messages for one of their sex services.

The "Dogger" run by Zamano provides iinformation for those who want to watch, or be watched, having sex in public places.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/19/doggers_dogged/

Last edited by monroe on 2:21 24/06/08; edited 1 time in total


monroe
14:10 15/02/08
Posts: 10
Zamano caught selling porn to children

---

Zamano caught selling porn to children

In November 2007 Zamano bought mobile porn company Red Circle whose most profitable services include Porn Manager, Kama Sutra, Sex Tips, and the Chippendales for €24.3 million. On 20 December they were fined and reprimanded by PhonePayPlus for targeting Red Circle products at children by advertising them in magazines aimed at children ( Bliss and Sugar) (although purchasers of Zamano’s porn had to confirm that they were over 16)


paulaxx
8:44 12/10/07
Posts: 1
ZAMANO - GOLDEFORD?

---

The other night 2 amounts of £1.50 were taken from my mobile - I phoned 02 who said it was Zamano, she said that they had sent me 2 texts before taking the money - these I never received, but they took the money anyway. I phoned them - they said I needed to contact a company called Goldeford - I asked why as Zamano had taken the money from my phone - answer given I didn't understand ! so,I phoned Goldeford - they said that in September ( date and exact time given ) they text me and I had immediately text back to them "RUN" - this is NOT so ! On receipt of their text, I moved the number to block, this blocking I discovered doesnt work hence I didnt receive the 2 text sent the other day. I denied texting back RUN as I would NEVER do this to a company I had never heard of and had no idea what they were selling !!
I then phoned 02 again - they also confirmed that a text was sent back to this number 86888 ( which is the Zamano number ??? ) - I have looked on other peoples comments on Goldeford which say the same, i.e. they never text back but money was taken from their phones - my conclusion being that Goldeford could probably have some sort of software that once a text is opened by receipient - a text is automatically sent back to them without our knowledge - this is only a guess as I am not a computer expert but do know my stuff ! I have contacted ICSTIS but as yet have no reply - anyone any ideas on this as people are losing far more than I have - we should all be refunded - this is ridiculous and illegal in my mind.
Once again I have to say that never, ever would i have text back to this unknown company - something is definately wrong here big time.
I will forward this to Watchdog also as someone else suggested - maybe if we all did this something would be done about this company to stop innocent people being robbed.
Thanks, Paula

Thanks Paula, The fact Enterprise Ireland have a stake in Zamano is shocking. He at this moment is threatening to go in there with a film crew & film the whole schebang. Problem here is so many people will just say its €2.50 ah well But between us its €240. How many millions have they made from people like us .....

foggy_lad

lucy2010 wrote: »

Thanks Paula, The fact Enterprise Ireland have a stake in Zamano is shocking. He at this moment is threatening to go in there with a film crew & film the whole schebang. Problem here is so many people will just say its €2.50 ah well But between us its €240. How many millions have they made from people like us .....

contact RegTel as they are the regulators of all premium rate services. tell them you have been unable to get any response from zamano and also what they have claimed about the ambulance service and dates when they claim to have rang your friends number even before thay were given this number!

RegTel should then take control of this and should get your money back

all the ranting will get you nowhere and people are sick of hearing people ranting when they do not even try to help themselves.

lucy2010

"all the ranting will get you nowhere and people are sick of hearing people ranting when they do not even try to help themselves."

Regtel have had this issue for a week. RegTel keep asking what the message said we recieved - yet we have explained over & over again we have never recieved a txt thats the whole point .Regtel have yet to return a phone call. Now Regtel want an email off us to officially make the complaint. RegTel got this email last Monday when we officially made the complaint. They also got copies of all the bills with the full breakdown.RegTel promised to call back within 24 hours during each of the 9 calls we made to them. Its 8 days later & not one call back .Regtel also have a full list of the dates of the phone calls as well as times as well as a breakdown of all conversations. Regtel will also receive tonight the voice recording of all these calls to Zamano. TRY TO HELP OURSELVES.. Anything else we should do to try to help ourselves ??????

DrumSteve

lucy2010 wrote: »

"all the ranting will get you nowhere and people are sick of hearing people ranting when they do not even try to help themselves."

Regtel have had this issue for a week. RegTel keep asking what the message said we recieved - yet we have explained over & over again we have never recieved a txt thats the whole point .Regtel have yet to return a phone call. Now Regtel want an email off us to officially make the complaint. RegTel got this email last Monday when we officially made the complaint. They also got copies of all the bills with the full breakdown.RegTel promised to call back within 24 hours during each of the 9 calls we made to them. Its 8 days later & not one call back .Regtel also have a full list of the dates of the phone calls as well as times as well as a breakdown of all conversations. Regtel will also receive tonight the voice recording of all these calls to Zamano. TRY TO HELP OURSELVES.. Anything else we should do to try to help ourselves ??????

As far as i was made awarwe regtel are being amalgamated into comreg (im open to correection on this...)

Your best bet may be to contact comreg and advise them of the issues your having with regtel.

www.comreg.ie

lucy2010

Hi Drumsteve

thanks for that. I rang Comreg initially & they said no regtel only deal with that. Still no further on TBH. Still waiting on regtel to ring back with 24 hrs lol.....

As I said to the girl in O2 whilst giggling the other day... " Ive a great idea for a new company " She says do you ? I said " I have .. Im gonna set up a company send people out txts , take millons off them in payment for these txt & get the Government to invest in my company with taxpayers money " She said " well when you say it like that ......."

DrumSteve

lucy2010 wrote: »

Hi Drumsteve

thanks for that. I rang Comreg initially & they said no regtel only deal with that. Still no further on TBH. Still waiting on regtel to ring back with 24 hrs lol.....

As I said to the girl in O2 whilst giggling the other day... " Ive a great idea for a new company " She says do you ? I said " I have .. Im gonna set up a company send people out txts , take millons off them in payment for these txt & get the Government to invest in my company with taxpayers money " She said " well when you say it like that ......."

tbh lucy i wouldnt get angry with the guys in O2. from experience there is not much they can do as zamano would view your account with them as seperate to O2 and would invoke Data Protection legislation should they try and contact them on your behalf. Have you tried to contact the digital hub itself?

lucy2010

DrumSteve wrote: »

tbh lucy i wouldnt get angry with the guys in O2. from experience there is not much they can do as zamano would view your account with them as seperate to O2 and would invoke Data Protection legislation should they try and contact them on your behalf. Have you tried to contact the digital hub itself?

Hey Steve - No ive been cool calm & collected with o2. I worked there for years so I was giggling with the girls over it. ( we googled one of the numbers & he found it was a bustybabe.mob) so we were in stitches.

I have to say the 2nd girl I got in o2. I never got her name so im actually gonna ring back & get it & send a letter in. She was super. I got transferred to business by accident & she was excellent. Spent ages adding all the amount & breaking the whole thing down as we giggled. Noone ever says well done for good service but are 1st to complain if not happy so im gonna send a letter to Tony Hanway & get her put up in lights - Fair play to her. Ill look into digital hub later.

turbot

One of my friends was subscribed to a Zamano's service without his consent.

He was sent a message stating he'd been subscribed to their service, and if he wanted to unsubscribe, to dial a number - so he dialed to unsubscribe and subsequently ended up subscribed - costing about 70 over the next month.

What a SCAM!

This happened in September, and led to all kinds of complications...

It's worth noting Zamano's investment activities:

http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.co.uk/2009/12/zamano-close-to-share-placement.html

As organised by NCB:

http://www.ncb.ie/corporate_finance/fundraising.htm

This made me wonder - if there are multiple cases of Zamanos signing people up with tactics like my friend experienced, then it's possible that could skew and distort their userbase / revenue fiigures... I wonder how much transparency there existed around this to their investors... ?????

BumbleB

I've been caught by themn (zamano) at least 5 times . Regtel are usually ok to deal with but you won't get your money back .They are gangsters , scum . According to the girl in regtel ,kids are the ones who get caught by this scam. Its just not right and I believe we should lobby our politicians.

I believe they are owned by a well known irish rugby star and they are doing very well for themselves.

I haven't got one in ages as I told my subscriber that if I recieved one more , I would move provider as I had enough of that bs. It seems to have worked.:)

Amalgam

The vague nature of my post is intentional.

There are links with a certain broadcaster and that entering their cash quiz questions runs a risk of your number falling victim to an SMS scam later..

I remember seeing coverage where victims of the SMS scamming, seemingly, all entered cash quiz type rubbish (Paris is the capital of France, true or false etc..) linked with a broadcaster in this country.

lucy2010

We are now what ,,3 weeks on... Regtel have yet to return any phone calls. Unfortunately we have had a death in the family so priorities have been elsewhere.. But ill be back like a red rag to a bull after them next week ....

opinion guy

Amalgam wrote: »

The vague nature of my post is intentional.

There are links with a certain broadcaster and that entering their cash quiz questions runs a risk of your number falling victim to an SMS scam later..

I remember seeing coverage where victims of the SMS scamming, seemingly, all entered cash quiz type rubbish (Paris is the capital of France, true or false etc..) linked with a broadcaster in this country.

YESSSSSSSS !!!!!!!!!! This happened to me. The station were doing a themed song section and wanted suggestions regarding a song. I sent in a suggestion, first time I've ever contacted a station like this (AND the last!). Anyhow over the next few weeks got a few random spam type messages. Didn't think anything of it. Saw my next bill and there was 6 EUR in premium services. Rang O2 and they coudln;t really explain it. But I was relatively cranky and they blocked premium services for me. But they coldn't give me money back. I cna't remember now if they told me it was zamano or if i went thru regtel. Anyhow I didn't bother pursuing it since they were only into me for 10EUR max.

This is outrageous though. Can we do something about these guys ?

meercat

Had these exact problems with these exact companies.to make long story short after ringing regtel zamano and o2 numerous times and getting the runaround i got onto 02 and told them i was changing my provider as they took my money without my approval and it was up to them to get it back for me.i was with them since they started and paid over 120euro per month on bill pay.they agreed to credit a refund of the premium services to me as a gesture .thats the route i would go.
also i spoke to a customer service agent in zamano and told them i would be on joe duffy show if no one got back to me with a response to my request for a refund and within 1 hr they were back to me and promised a refund .i got a sterling cheque within 1 week so in fact i was re-funded twice but i kept it for all the grief
just a footnote
the procedure to complain is so complicated that im sure most people just stop the service and dont try for a refund.thats what these companies rely on .regtel me arse