Mobile phone "subscription services" rip-offs continue unabated

national | consumer issues | opinion/analysis Wednesday February 21, 2007 10:09 by Jim O'Sullivan

Over the past few years operators have been allowed to exploit mobile phone owners by misleading them into "subscriptiopn servcies" where they are exploited. Its time to call a halt.

Over the past few years operators have been allowed to exploit mobile phone owners by misleading them into a "subscription service" which then allows the operator to systematically take money from the phone owners call credit. The most common has been the one where the phone owner orders a ringtone or a wallpaper unaware that a condition of sale is "memebrship" of a "subscription service" which will take money from their call credit at regular intervals.Young people and new phone owners are particularly targeted. RegTel have received many complaints yet the rip-off is allowed to continue and we see a variation of the ploy as phone owners wise up to the scams.

There is a promotion currently running by IVT which places ads in the Irish versions of the British red tops, TV3 and surprisingly, RTE. Each paper, magazine or TV ad offers a different prize such as Trips to New York, Trips to Premier League football games, Trips to the Algarve, 50" plasma TV's, Tickets for a Rugby match etc. All these prizes have been seperately advertised during the current month of Feb, yet only one will be drawn for and this is done without any independent observer present. So if you are a Mirror reader and you think you have entered a draw for a Premier League football game, your chances of winning such a prize is remote as this prize may not even be drawn for this month. When or indeed if ever such a prize will be drawn is entirely up to IVT, however to stay in the "game", IVT will take €2 every 4 days from your call credit.( That is €15 per draw and nowhere do the ads state the true cost of each entry) IVT neglect to say what prize will be drawn for in any particular month. In addition much of the text of the ads is misleading, one actually stating that great prizes can be won "every week" when in fact the draw is monthly.There is no controls in place to ensure that a fair percentage of the money taken in will be repaid out in prizes. It's a licence to print money in fact.

RegTel are supposed to be regulating the activities of these operators but instead of doing this they have spent the past year building barriers between themselves and phone owners. If you ring the number provided to make a complaint, you are routed to an answering service that can only advise that all complaints must be made in writting. And despite clear evidence that phone owners are being misled en-masse, RegTel confine their actions to each individual complaint.

Many suggestions have been forwarded to RegTel which would protect phone owners from exploitation, yet they continue to sit by and allow this situation to continue. The Minister for Communications has also washed his hands of the matter and hides behind the excuse that a "Regulator" is in place and it is his responsbility to act. The problem is of course that the said "Regulator" is part of the "self regulation" business that has flourished under the laissez-faire economic policies of the present government. This is part of the "everyman for himself" ethic that informs all this govermnments fiscal policies.

With an election around the corner, phone owners should seek assurrances from prospective candiddates that this preying on phone owners will stop and the best way to do that is to ensure that operators cannot take money from call credit unless the phone owner clearly agrees to the transaction on EACH AND EVERY occasion. Should a phone owner not reply to a prompt for payment then no money can be removed. There are many other simply ways that phone owners can be protected from these predators, it only requires the will to want to do so. At present all the rules favour the Operators and this must change. Phone owners are being duped out of thousands of euro every year . Surely its time to call a halt.