Looking for a place where I could send an SMS from the web I came across a site called www.boltblue.com.
This London based company (?) offer ringtones, SMS communications to and from the UK, Ireland, Australia, USA and Canada, blogs, dating and more of that sort of stuff.

In case you thought "Sounds interesting", forget it and avoid this company like the plague as it is a real scam.
Yesterday I wanted to send an SMS and a box opened which was going to let me do that.
It said "Send your message here", and underneath the box it said: "Boltblue Club is a weekly subscription service with an introductory first download at no extra cost or SMS allowance when you join for £4.50 per week until you send STOP to 85233. ". I decided to fill in the text, entered the recipient's number and my mobile phone number and clicked "Send".
All of a sudden SMSes started to arrive on my mobile phone that I had sent a text, a charge was taken for that (although it said this SMS was free) and all of a sudden another £ 4.95 was taken from my credit balance (I use Pay as you go) for a weekly membership.
In other words, they just stole some of my credit of my phone, as I had never given my consent for them to take anything, also the text underneath the message box did not mention that sending a message automatically made you join for membership, and nowhere on the page did I see a sentence like "I agree to the terms and conditions" or something similar.
I would go so far as to call this common theft.
I then emailed the company immediately but did not get any reply yet (not that I am expecting one).
I will now get in touch with Trading Standards, and if anyone has any idea what other paths I can take to help stopping this scam, please post a reply.

Fact of the matter is: BEWARE OF BOLTBLUE!!!!!
The amount of £ 4.95 might not be much, but I am talking about the principle of them just taking money off your credit, meaning they have access to your mobile phone and its credit at any time.

If anyone can, please help me stop this scam.

Mr. Dee.

 

 

 

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Well technically they did tell you this was going to happen, though i agree that it doesnt state that by sending an sms you jin the service but im sure in their ToS and such it does say this.

I would still agree its a scam but i think the best thing you can do is spread the bad word about the website, if their visitors go down then they will have to do smething, and with any luck they will withdraw!

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Nowhere does that statement say they will automatically sign you up, or by sending a message you agree to become a member. Go to trading standards and see what they can do. If not, approch the Citizens' Advice Bureau and ask for help and advice concerning taking them to a small claims court. This might cost a bit initially, and takes some time, but it is unlikely they will show up, so you will win the case by default (and they will most likely be forced to pay you your costs). Its even possible that they will be shut down and told to stop trading - another great advantage and a way to help others.

Ofcom are another organisation you could approach for help, to see if they can help you out or point you in the right direction. Of course, your other option is to reveal them to the nation on Watchdog - its usually quite an effective way of getting them bad publicity and getting your money back

 

 

 

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Thank you for the advice.
You can rest assured I am not going to leave it at that.
I also want to save others from things like that happening to them.

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I've seen programs like this advertised on television. They say to text JOKE or something to a five digit number. In small print on the bottom, it says they charge you $23.xx for the service. Who would want to pay so much money for jokes on their phone? I consider it a scam since they charge so much for something so easy to get online for free.

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Exactly, it's a ripoff and they always use small fonts so it's hard to read.

UNFORTUNATELY it's not a "scam", they'll simply tell you "the text is clearly on the page / tv / whatever, there's nothing we've done wrong."
Bah - Scammers / Money Lying cheaters Go away!!

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I guess this is just another one of those too good to be real kind of deals, the best thing to do would be to stay away from them. I will now stay away from websites which offer free messaging. They dont cost much to be worth it anyways. Good luck with your case, hopefully you can cancel your "membership" with them.

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This is where its says they will charge you:

(WHEN YOU JOIN FOR �4.50 PER WEEK)..you agreed & joined when you sent the text.

-donnya

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My daughter got a text from boltblue which just said Freemsg text OK to join our club, she replied and was instantly charged �4.95!

I phoned them up to complain that she is only 10 years old, and had no idea that she would be charged. They have agreed to refund her in 5 weeks time!!!

Beware of Boltblue.

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Hey, my names jason and I just went onto boltblue and being tired.. thought I could have taken advantage of the free text.. I put in my number and recipients,clicked send, then got a text saying put this number in for free text.. put that number in..... however.. in my account details, it says I have not registered yet and I have not put any details on there except for my mobile phone number.. does this mean that they will still be charging me ?? I am quite concerned seeming I didn't start reading any of the forums on the website until after I used the site.. silly me... p.s my phone had no credit on it to start with, but I'm worried about toping it up now.. any help would be greatly appreciated..

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