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Watchdog deals £450,000 fine to mobile scammers
Missed calls and SMS spam land six in hot water

By Jo Best

Published: Tuesday 25 May 2004

Premium rate watchdog Icstis (Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services) has levied fines of almost half a million pounds on several companies found to have been sending out SMS spam and engaging in other dodgy tricks.

Mobile users received messages from the six scamming companies telling them they'd won a prize and giving them a number to call to get their winnings. The prize lines turned out to be premium rate numbers with no prize at the end or what Icstis called booty that was "woefully below what was promised".

Other mobile subscribers found mysterious missed calls on their phones. The more curious rung back and found the call wasn't from an old mate but, you've guessed it, a premium rate number costing the unlucky punters up to £1.50 a minute.

Icstis was singularly unimpressed with the companies it found running the racket and has given them a £75,000 penalty each and barred the firms from operating again.

The six companies in question are all based overseas but had the same firm acting as their agent in the UK – Smile Telecom. The agent responded to Icstis' demands that consumers be reimbursed with the rebuttal that they couldn't hand out any refunds until the six instructed them to do so.

Regulator Ofcom and the police are investigating the scammers further.