David Brent

There are a lot of SMS rip-offs these days, one I fell into just a few months ago.

There was a large advertisement in a magazine over here promising great prizes to be won by answering a film question. Prizes on offer included a laptop and the latest iTouch phone.
All you had to do was SMS a number with the answer. Right at the bottom of the ad in very tiny words was a message that "Terms and conditions" for the competition were available at some obscure website.

I entered the competition with an SMS call (at the normal rate). I then received a message back to say that my answer was correct and that I could now go into the next round of questions. For this I would receive five further questions which I had to answer individually.
Next second I receive another text asking me another film question. It was followed with a line saying "If you do not wish to answer further questions please text STOP now".
I suddenly realised that I was part of a scam. I quickly returned a STOP message.

I then found the web page where the terms and conditions were listed and found that after my first text answer I had been charged $5 for each text message I'd received and sent. In a matter of seconds I'd lost $15.
If I had continued in the competition I would have lost a lot more money.
I also found that the competition was rigged in such a way that it was almost impossible for someone to win any of the prizes on offer.

I was angered by the blatant rip-off and contacted the Australian Consumer Affairs Association about it. I was told that such "competitions" are legal because it is up to consumers to read the terms and conditions before entering.

The company that placed the original magazine advertisement are now placing commercials on TV with the same scam - so it must be a lucrative business.
The TV commercials are done in such a way that it appears that the channel may be promoting the competition - but of course they are not.
I especially feel sorry for the young kids who are caught by scams like this. I suppose their parents have to bail them out.
Seems the authorities are not prepared to act against these rip-off merchants.

So please be warned. Always check the phone and SMS charges first before entering anything being promoted.
There are a lot of devious bast**ds out there.

Dave.

wadsy

Theres now one prevalent in WA. & NSW. where the recipient of the SMS is told that they

will be killed if they dont send $5000 to a mystery person in Thailand. Probably

some ingrate's idea of a practical joke.

Steve Crook

I believe you do have regulators in Australia, report it to them.
Are SMS based competitions covered by the Australian Communications and Media Authority
The people promoting the competition should make the charges (minimum charges and potential maximum charges) clear on all ads.

The tricky thing about SMS in Oz is that it's hard to tell which ones are charged the premium on the messages that you send in to the competition and which charge the premium on the messages they send back to you. Both types of premium message are available in Oz

Steve

Chevyman

Sad reading Dave. Thanks for the heads up.

I've got into the habit of not replying to anything if I'm in any way unsure of the originator.........even if it purports to come from my mobile server.

There are some to$$ers out there for sure

"One appears to have dropped one's monocle in the soufflee"

Why not visit the Festive Fayre section?

David Brent

As mentioned before Steve I have been in touch with different authorities over here about this SMS promotion but keep getting the same reply.
All the promoter has to do (over here anyway) is to list the full terms and conditions for the competition in the public domain.
The conditions do not even have to be listed with the companies advertising.
All they have to do is refer consumers to an obscure web page and that is good enough for the authorities.
It is up to consumers to check out the full details of the competition.

I really do not think that is good enough but at the moment here in Oz that is how the law stands.

Dave.