I've only just noticed this thread. I posted the following in another thread but it looks more appropriate here, and I think it might answer the mystery of how people are supposedly signing up for this stuff....
Like many of you, I have been stung by these premium texts costing in the region of €2.50 a time. It happened a few times in the past but I never took any notice of it but I saw over 6 euro worth in a short space of time during March. I've just found out that my wife has been similarly stung to the tune of over €14 last month.
The myth put out by the Mobile operators is that we must have somehow signed ourselves up for some promotion and that is how we are getting these text charges.
Zamano, when I rung them, told be the Date/Time and the "partner" that signed me up. But here is the interesting bit. The Date/Time was 1pm on Sunday the 22nd March. Now there is no way that I signed up for anything because I was suffering from a hangover from celebrating Ireland's Grand Slam victory the night before, and I wasn't doing any internet surfing. Also, I don't enter competitions through the phone except the very odd Late Late Show on a Friday night.
So this was a mystery.....until I checked my phone records for that day. There were no phone calls made, however there were two entries relating to Data Usage. one for 14Kb and one for 1kb. Once in a blue moon would I check anything on the net through my phone because I don't have it as an add-on package. I definitely didn't use the net on my phone that day.
And then the penny dropped. Amongst the raised buttons on my SE K800i phone are the Internet button and the select button. I've noticed in the past that on some occasion when I hadn't locked my phone before putting it into my trouser pocket, it has an internet page up in the Mobile screen when I take it out the next time, and I wouldn't have navigated my way there.
Almost always there is some banner ad on the first page of my providers site (saying Click Me or something like that), and with the raised keys touching the coins/keys in your pocket, it is eminently possible to connect to the net and select your way into a competition screen. As I have said, I have seen my mobile delve into a number of internet levels, having been in my pocket.
On my wife's phone, if she doesn't lock her phone and something presses against the Zero button, it shortkeys into the Internet as well.
Being a computer programmer, I know you can position the cursor anywhere on the screen. In this case, when the DEFAULT internet page starts on the mobile, it is positioned on the first item which is an ad ! And lo & behold, when you go into the ad page, it mentions "Weekly subscriptions for Tarot reading etc" and the infamous 57030 number to stop the service.
But by clicking through HERE, you sign up for the service, which they don't alert you about. You only see it on your statement, if you check your statement (most don't - why would you ?). It isn't that you sent a text that YOU create, it is all done by selecting a button on the mobile and as I said the flow of the age setup is done in such a way that it is easily done if the unlocked phone is hitting coins/keys etc in your pocket or bag.
I am stating here and now that this stinks from the Mobile operator to this Web intermediary company to Zamano to the Regulator. I have no doubt in my mind that the Mobile Operator knows and is complicit in what is going on, in fact they all know. Probably even Comreg. This carryon (I want to use a stronger word but legally it may be best not to) could be raking millions of euro in.
How many Prepay users check their online call details ? A fraction of the Postpay users, I would guess. Because I was alerted to check my call details by the Liveline program on this subject, I also checked my wife's who happens to be Prepay. That when I discovered she had 7 charges for €2.07 each time from Zamano.
My mobile operator tried to make out that I MUST have entered one of the mobile competitions. Zamano played dumb and just referred to some web partner. Comreg ? Well I have complained and have heard nothing from them.
Oh, and I asked my Mobile operator to disable the shortkey Internet button on my K800i phone but the girl said that it couldn't be done. Well that is a lie because it can, and I've done it. I am so angry that this was done to me and so many others, but I'm livid that they are still getting away with it.