At the end of April I had a text message (89069) on my phone stating the following:


Being as I havent subscribed to anything I wondered if it was a 'scare' so you'd text stop and be charged a crazy amount for the text. That or they're spamming and by getting a reply they're confirming the number exists and is in use. I was just guessing though.

I called Orange who told me to text 'stop'. When I explained I hadnt subscribed though and mentioned the reasons above they agreed I should just ignore it.

During this month though I got the exact same message again. Out of curiosity I looked at my Orange bill and it turns out I have been charged £1.50 to receive this message! I called Orange who said they can confirm I havent subscribed and gave me the company details to demand a refund (Orange say its nothing to do with them). They gave the following details:

Company Name: Win
Number: 08451309911
Email: customerservices@winplc.com

I called them this morning and upon demanding a refund was transferred to another person who apologised and said it must be a mistake (yeah right!) and said the company will refund the money. Strangely though thats not him (who is he then??) and he gave me the following details:

Company Name: Fun Telecom
Number: 08431102500
Email: support@funtubes.co.uk

and also gave me his mobile number and name if I have any problems with the refund.

Its dodgy as hell if you ask me. I dont believe for one minute its a mistake and that they're simply signing people up themselves. The first guy I spoke to sounded like he was in a call centre and the second guy stood in a kitchen who then gave me the details of a third contact to call.

I'm not quite sure what's going on yet and I'm about to call the third company but thought I'd add some detail here in case anyone else gets spammed by these reverse charge texts.

Perhaps someone was subscribing and their number is similar to yours (and they made a mistake)?

Personally I despise these services (and the way they operate), but maybe that's just me.

The message has to be sent from the subscribers phone though.

I got though to the company just now (again it sounded like a 1 man operation) who was actually quite nice on the phone and said he'd send a postal order out for the full amount and remove my number from any of their lists.

Some arsewipe "friend" subscribed me to something 4 years ago in Oz. I tried the stop, no luck. Next came the calling only to be given the run around from one company to the next, to the next etc. With no luck there I complained to the provider who said they couldn't block the messages as they had been subscribed to, even though I told them everything I had done to unsubscribe. I changed provider and got a different number.

Why don't you try calling ofcom.