Adult Chat lines - unsubscribing

[caveman]

Can you guys give me some help / advice. My son called an “adult chat� number before Xmas (dirty little sod). I pay the bill on the phone and today received a larger than normal bill. I queried it withy O2 and was given the dates and times of the follow up texts that he had received.
My lad admits to having made the first call in a moment of inebriation, but said that he texted STOP and is surprised of the additional texts that he received. He was not aware that each of these additional texts costing £1:28 and was really shocked when I told him that the CS at o2 said that some people had racked up bills of £1,000 or more.
I was given the telephone number of the main company – Opera Telecom – and another Media Plazza. I have contacted them by telephone and now been assured that the texts will stop. These operations are up front and feel quite happy to talk to you as though you have invited this scam by being the first to initiate it.
My question to you all is. Can these things happen even if you text STOP after receiving the first text. Do these people pass your mobile number to other similar companies and if you are unfortunate enough to get bills you cannot pay – what is your position.
Any other advice would be welcomed.

[Wicked_and_Crazy]

your son did uh huh

[Pia]

There will likely be a clause in their T&C's saying they are allowed to pass on the data to other companies etc.
I've heard of some who don't stop it when you send STOP because they have made their unsubscribe message something like STOP MSG though i didn't think they were allowed to do that anymore.

[handyman]

Hmm not heard of those companies, I would do some searching on google. One company that managed to get into me via a stupid message was sorted out sharpish when I managed to find the directors mobile number on his irish internet association registration. Only owed me £.xx but rounded it up to £10.00 for my inconvenience.

I'll be posting his details shortly (after my red wine head goes)

try STOP ALL

[Xaccers]

My gf and I get these messages even though we've never invited them.
Imagine her suprise when she recieved a text from "Sarah" thanking her for the passionate conversation the night before and asking to continue it...

[caveman]

Xaccers. Do you / her get billed for the message. what does your mobile phone company say when you say that you never contacted them first?

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by caveman

Xaccers. Do you / her get billed for the message. what does your mobile phone company say when you say that you never contacted them first?

As far as I know, for those initial ones we've not been charged, and we always reply STOP just to make sure.

On vodaphone, she was getting charged by 4 companies, even though she'd never replied to to the texts, just deleting them as spam.
She had to phone each company up and demand they stopped.
Still had to pay nearly £70 in charges though!

[caveman]

That is the problem apparently. You get charged for receiving them, by not responding with a STOP they continue. Though as I have said before thet my lad did text STOP and received some more at £1:28 a go.
I hope after the phone call it will finish but I fear that they pass the number to other companies. I don't know where we stand if that happened.
Any other info would be of value as I'm an old fart and this sort of thing is new to me. When we were young you just looked at the mags on the top shelf.

text STOP ALL
My dad subscribed to bolt blue and got ripped off by sending STOP. In the end he sourced help and was told to send STOP ALL and this worked so if its not sorted try this

[Pia]

My friend who was on Vodaphone was having problems with these once, so i rang them up for her as though i was her to complain that i owed £80 or whatever on these texts that i'd never known anything about, at first they said it's not their problem etc you need to pay- then the supervisor refunded some of the amount back to the account as a goodwill gesture...

Now, call me sceptical but i wouldn't be suprised if some mobile companies accidentally leaked some contract phone numbers to these compaines to make themsleves more money or get a cut of the profit...

[lauzjp]

it is one of the unfortunate effects of being on a contract with a mobile phone company - your number is more lucrative to people, whereas if you were on payt etc. then you could change sim...

[Halcyon]

One of the very reasons why I don't go on Contract. PAYG let's me know how much I spend and seeing I only top up with about £10 I have never any chance of paying more than that on a call or message as there isnt anything else on my account.