Tesco vouchers used to lure thousands into mobile phone scam

A very puzzling one that raises questions as to why any service exists that enables the sender of texts to charge the recipient. This is such a harmful service that does no one any good I can't see any good reason why it should exist and it's one reason why I would never use anything but a PAYG service for my mobile phone. Otherwise it's too tempting for scammers to get direct access to your bank account.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tesco-vouchers-being-used-lure-7865568?

29 APR 2016

Tesco vouchers being used to lure thousands of shoppers into mobile phone scam

An online scam that offers shoppers £500 worth of Tesco vouchers in a prize draw, is fleecing thousands with rip-off phone charges.

The con lures in players with a chance to bag cash to spend at the supermarket by tapping their mobile phone number onto a mock-up of a Tesco Clubcard.

But punters are being tricked into signing up for a premium text service which then blitzes them with a range of shopping questions and charges them £3.75 per text whether they reply or not.

I am also a little puzzled by this comment from Tesco

Tesco distanced itself from the scam and a spokesperson said: “This voucher competition is not something we are involved in and it is not something we are advertising. We are not associated with it or Moonlight Mobile in any way.”

The problem being that this scam completely ruins the bona fide promotional scheme and I would have expected Tesco to shut down any unauthorised bodies using their name.

The deal allowed Moonlight Mobile to charge £4.50 per text

What's to stop any company just loading up mobile numbers randomly, even those who have never heard of this scheme ?

This comment from the article is delightfully oblique

The deal allowed Moonlight Mobile to charge £4.50 per text with unsuspecting customers paying it £3.75 and Vodafone receiving a cut for use of its network.

How would it be using the network ? Isn't it the case that what they're paying for is access to account holders debit cards ? It is a very worrying concern when effectively access to your account is being hired out to organisations you know noting about.

Such a system is wide-open to abuse and fraud and should never exist. Just imagine if banks tried it too.

An example of another scam affecting mobile phone users in the UK

http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/14463540.The_phone_scam_that_could_leave_you_with_a___300_bill_for_a_call_you_didn_t_make/?

30 April 2016

The phone scam that could leave you with a £300 bill for a call you didn't make

OFCOM is warning of a scam that could leave you with a £300 bill for a phone call you don't know you've made.

In the scam, customers receive calls from an 0845 or 0843 number, but ignore it.

Then weeks later their mobile phone bill shows they called that number back and racked up a huge bill for calls lasting between three and 12 hours.

Customers from Vodafone, EE and O2 customers have all reported the scam to Money Mail. Often they say they don't even remember missing the original call or ignored it because they didn't know the number.

The basic point is that any organisation that has access to your bank account is under a legal obligation to protect that access. Unfortunately mobile phone service providers have arrangements whereby they operate revenue sharing schemes with third parties and it is very tempting for unscrupulous third parties to find ways to take advantage of it.

On the basis that no one would perpetrate this type of scam without deriving a financial benefit, then it should be quite easy to see who is benefitting from it.

If those responsible cannot quickly be identified then the solution is to block these revenue sharing activities.

Personally I would never give a third party such access to my bank account and I only use PAYG which wouldn't be very attractive to anyone trying the scam on me.