FACUA (Consumers in Action) warns of the growing number of abuses and frauds that are occurring in services provided through the sending or receiving of SMS.
FACUA criticizes that the ministries responsible for telecommunications and consumer protection -those of Industry and Health-, and the autonomous communities are not carrying out sufficient controls or forceful sanctioning measures against the frauds that are committed in this sector, which gives rise to increases.
The responses of the administrations to the complaints raised by FACUA take months or more than a year. To top it off, sometimes Industry is limited to withdrawing the numbering of companies, without applying sanctions, so they register new numbers and continue to commit similar irregularities.
The complaints are occurring especially in relation to subscription services, for which users receive messages that cost them up to 1.42 euros each offering them different types of content, without in many cases being clarified how many will reach them each month and even ignoring that they had registered in them since their advertising did not clarify it.
These subscription services are often camouflaged in surveys and contests through social networks, in which the user is offered the possibility of receiving the answer if he enters his mobile on a website. Fraud occurs when it is not clarified that the user will begin to receive paid messages to download different types of content.
The extreme cases are those of users who propose that they have been registered in a service of receiving paid messages but not as a result of misleading advertising, but unilaterally by a company to which they had never sent an SMS.
What and how to claim
FACUA warns consumers that they can claim the full refund of the amounts they have been billed for the services provided through SMS if there has been fraud in their advertising, they were required to send more than one message, the content has not been received or was different from the one offered.
In subscription services, users do not have to pay if it was not clarified that they were signing up or were not told how many paid messages they would receive each day, week or month.
Users must submit complaints, on their own or through their consumer association, to both the provider company and the mobile company. If there is no satisfactory solution, the facts must be reported to the competent bodies of the Ministry of Industry and the Autonomous Communities.
Analysis of magazine ads
Information about the price of services provided via SMS is only highlighted in 8% of ads, so consumers should look for it in the fine print. This is evidenced by an analysis carried out by FACUA in national magazines on thirty-eight announcements of additional pricing services based on the sending of messages.
Almost all ads, 97%, provide the company's mailing address. But 24% do not indicate in the advertising the company's customer service phone. 26% do not mention the advertiser's website, the same percentage that does not give an email address.
Thus, it becomes difficult for the user to access more information about the services offered if he does not use them.
They must clearly inform about the price, the company's data and how to unsubscribe
FACUA warns that the regulations that regulate these services, Order ITC/308/2008, of January 31, obliges the companies that provide them to send their customers their name or corporate name, the telephone number of customer service and the total price they will have to pay.
The legislation prohibits the sending of more than one message to complete the service offered. However, there are companies that do not comply with the regulations and demand that the user send up to five messages.
If the SMS is sent to vote or participate in a contest, the company will have to answer the user with an informative message about the result of the same.
If it is a subscription service, at the time of registration, the user must receive a message clarifying how he can unsubscribe and information about the price. FACUA warns that if the amount that will have to be paid periodically is not indicated, the lending company is committing fraud.
Prices
SMS sent to five-digit numbers starting with 25, 27 or 280 and to six-digit numbers starting with 29 are priced at up to 1.42 euros (1.20 plus 18% VAT).
Those that correspond to five-digit numbers that begin with 37 or 37 and six digits that begin with 39 are always above 1.42 euros and can cost a maximum of 7.08 euros (6 plus VAT).
The six-digit ones that begin with 995 and 997 and the seven that begin with 999 are classified as exclusive services for adults and have a price of up to 7.08 euros.
In the case of subscription services, they involve the payment of up to 1.42 euros (1.20 plus VAT) for each SMS received by the user. They are offered through six-digit numberings beginning with 795 or 797 and seven whose first three are 799.
Source: Facua.org
