Mobile Entertainment Group told recipients that they had won
either £1,000 cash or a £5,000 reward and urged them to call a
£1.50 per minute number to make a claim, said premium rate
regulator, ICSTIS.
The regulator used Emergency Procedure powers to shut the
service down after receiving 10 complaints over the unsolicited
calls.
ICSTIS also barred the company from operating any prize claim
lines for the next two years.
“These services are simply unacceptable and further undermine
trust in premium rate services,” said ICSTIS Director George Kidd.
“These recorded messages are intrusive, misleading and almost
certainly illegal. We have acted fast to stop this harm but we
realise that we need to remain vigilant and use all our powers to
stamp out this sort of behaviour.”
Kidd hinted that figures for the first half of the year, due to
be released this week, will show that complaints about premium rate
services are generally going down.
The regulator has taken a number of steps this year to increase
its powers in tackling scammers.
In March ICSTIS warned premium rate service providers that it
would be making more frequent use of the Emergency Procedure in the
ICSTIS Code of Practice. The Emergency Procedure – as shown by this
case – allows the regulator to remove or bar access to a service
that is in serious breach of the Code of Practice.
In September, ICSTIS also introduced new measures to impose a
slowdown in the transfer of money between phone networks and those
running premium rate services.
These require phone networks not to make payments to their
premium rate service providers for at least 30 calendar days after
calls have been made, giving ICSTIS time to identify breaches of
its Code and, where appropriate, order networks to withhold all
payments pending the outcome of investigations.
