On saturday I received a spam text from number 66 111 with the words:
"http://russian-amateurs.com and enjoy your hot babe videos. Help? 02035981581"
This I forwarded to the O2 spam reporting text number 7726 along with the originating number.
Today I checked my bill and found a premium service charge of £2.50 with the same originating number 66111. I rang O2 customer services to complain and they informed me that I "must have clicked on some link" and that the only way of resolving the problem was for me to call the originator's Help number 02035981581 to cancel my "subscription", of which I have no knowledge. They said, also that even with a block on premium services on my account, it could still have further charges made to it regardless.
The O2 adviser said that the company is London based "Global Awareness Content Servers" and I have found a website for them with the same contact number: http://global-awareness.co.uk/contact.php
I rang the number and spoke to a polite and pleasant "Amber" of the Customer Service department who said that someone will call me back within 24hrs to cancel whatever account they seem to have for me. I will report back when I have heard or if I do not.
I am obviously very concerned that without any approval from me, my mobile phone account has been charged and O2 say they are powereless to prevent further such charges, even though I have bought nothing from this company - I am extremely careful about any additional mobile phone charges, let alone this kind of premium service ****** spam. It looks and feels like I've been scammed - this is little short of fraud in my opinion.
Has anyone else been hit with this kind of scam? I am not at all impressed by O2's handling of it and I think the whole thing, apart from being a waste of my time, is likely to catch out others who may be less able to deal with it.
