A few days ago i started getting texts from Top Deals. I was quiet surprised as it was something that i hadn’t requested. I am also very careful when filling out forms to tick or un-tick box to ensure my details aren’t passed on to third parties or, that further promotions aren’t sent on.
The first message looked like this:
FREEMSG: Top Deals Alert – reminder that new deals are online now, visit teletxt.co.uk now, on phone or pc. Enjoy. Help? 08432894020.
As the second text came in it stated the following:
FREEMSG: Just confirming that TopDeals membership is live, continue getting Topdeals costs just £1.50 / month To cancel text STOP to 88101 Help? 08432894020
I thought about this and figured it was probably a scam. I searched on the Internet and only came up with their web site, which was very poor.
I sent an email to the address on the web site asking them to remove me as i was concerned that texting ‘stop’ to 88101 would be expensive. Predictably there was no response so I contacted my phone provider to try and find out more and the costs.
I had already been charged £1.50 for the first month and I was told this charge could not be reversed and that I would have to call the number provided. I asked what the cost of calling this number would be and I was told it would be a whopping 35 pence per minute.
I bit the bullet and texted stop to 88101 at a cost of 10 pence.
The point is, they have probably done this to thousands of people claiming there £1.50’s. As far as i can see this is almost certainly illegal due to the fact that i have not entered into a contract for this service.
If you get these text message my advice is to immediately text stop to 88101, you may get away with the £1.50 charge and don’t call the the number provided.
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