Growing numbers of consumers, particularly young people, are becoming the victims of swindles via email, text messaging and fax, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said today.
Unscrupulous firms often use bogus prize draws and special offers to entice recipients to reply, it said, and as the popularity of text messaging grows among children, this group is likely to be heavily targeted.
Millions of promotional text messages are now being sent every week, and phone owners can currently do little to avoid receiving them, according to premium rate regulator Icstis (Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services).
In one case dealt with by Icstis, mobile phone owners received the message "I fancy you." It then invited the person to call a premium rate number without making clear the call charges. In another scam, hotel and restaurant owners were asked to fax copies of their brochures and menus to a potential client. The fax number turned out to be a premium rate line.
The problem was highlighted two months back by the Guardian's Jobs & Money section. Jobs & Money drew particular attention to one scam under investigation by Icstsis from a firm known as MobyMonkey.
MobyMonkey operates on a two-part basis. The first text message tells the mobile phone user: "Urgent u've been chosen 2 receive a guaranteed £500 mystery award awaiting collection." The second, arriving days later, says: "Urgent ur £500 guaranteed award is still unclaimed!"
Some consumers told Icstis that they have received the message up to 40 times in one day alone. Others say their children, as young as 11, are repeatedly receiving the message.
Today's DTI warning is designed to coincide with the launch of National Consumer Week. Consumer minister Melanie Johnson said: "Every day, people throughout the UK open their mail, turn on their computers or switch on their mobile phones to learn that they've won "an exciting prize" in a draw, lottery or some other promotion. While much of the marketing conducted in this way is legitimate, unfortunately it also includes examples which are misleading or untrue. All too often those people taken in by scams make the mistake of being too trusting and lose money as a result."
Icstis advises consumers that all premium rate services should begin with the numbers 090. Premium rate text messages where the recipient is asked to reply usually contain a four or five digit number.
A European directive which came into force in the UK in August was designed to combat unwanted emails sent by companies - commonly known as "spams". Messages should make it clear in the title what they are so recipients can delete them straight away if they wish.
