NEWS Ofcom is to beef up the powers and penalties of the consumer watchdog for premium rate phone lines and make telcos more responsible for protecting consumers from rip-offs.
The regulator wants an increase in the £100,000 limit for fines that the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS) watchdog can levy.
And Ofcom wants telcos to hang on to consumers' cash for 30 days before handing it over to service providers. In the case of disputes, the telcos will be obliged to hang on to the cash for 90 days. They will also be obliged to make more checks on companies offering premium services.
An ICSTIS spokesman said: "We estimate that we will get 80,000 complaints about premium rate services this year and that is clearly unacceptable. We welcome the recommendations that Ofcom has made as the result of its review.
"We want to see the industry flourish and stop consumers being ripped off. You can make money very quickly and this has attracted some scams."
But getting the teeth to the watchdog will be a complicated series of procedures. ICSTIS will be consulting with Ofcom and the Department for Trade and Industry about making the changes to its code of practice. When these changes are agreed they will have to be submitted to the EU for a statutory three-month consultation period.
ICSTIS hopes to be ready to submit its new code to Brussels by the middle of next year and the the spokesman said: "We hope to get the new powers quickly, rather than slowly, so we can start cracking down."
Ofcom estimates that the premium line business in the UK is a £850m-a-year industry. ICSTIS calls it a £1bn-a-year industry. The ICSTIS spokesman said: "It's the only thing that we disagree with Ofcom on."
Comments
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1. Richard
Why has this taken so long?
At last, some welcome news, but why has OFCom been so slow?
This has been a serious problem for many, many months.
What good are these expensive, non-elected "regulators" if they consistently fail the customers?
2. Neil Postlethwaite
Why doesn't Ofcom require Premium Rate to be 'Opt In'. Most people don't use it as generally for Porn or voting for Z-List Celeb losers on TV.
Problem, by and large, solved as most people will have a Premium Rate Bar by default.
Why not, 'cos of money and big business. Screw you Joe Public !!
Also, have you ever tried to track down premium rate numbers. All Teleco's illegally hide behind the Data protection act and are obstructively unhelpful.
3. John Small
It seems a be a BT scam. They claim to pass the money on so fast that they can't refund it, so as far as I can see they are complicit in the transaction and don't want it stopped. It appears to be the only thing that they do quickly....
4. anonymous
"Rogue dialer" and the "entertainment provider" abroad is a red herring being used as an excuse by the UK premium rate industry to profit from the fraud.
BT and ICSTIS tell the customer they have purchased the service from abroad so have to chase and dispute the bill abroad. I recently contacted DTI and HM Tax and Excise to verify this. They couldn't.
DTI told me my agreement is with BT and I should dispute the bill with BT. Only a judge in a county court can decide. HM Tax told me standard telecomunication rules apply and the supplier and customer both belong in the UK. That's why the bill is subject to 17.5%VAT.(goods and services purchased in the UK). It appears the service had been bought in and sold on.
I asked ICSTIS to explain why we are being told to send utility bills and personal details to people abroad they already know are under investigation for fraud. The government advises the exact opposite to protect against identity theft. ICSTIS could not explain.
After I wrote to my MP ICSTIS finally gave me the identity of the UK telecom who were responsible for the premium rate numbers and who BT were billing for. It was Telecom One. I found on the ICSTIS web site a block of 10,000 numbers they had license to lease out(09099670000 to 09099679999). I found 36% under investigation(3600). Many for well over a year and they are still generating questionable profits.
ICSTIS claim BT were alerted to these numbers. For BT to claim ignorance is at the very best unbelievable PR rubbish.