Large decrease in mobile phone scams

An industry regulator has announced figures which show a large drop in complaints regarding mobile ringtone, wallpaper and similar scams.

Comparing last month to July 2008, PhonepayPlus noted a decrease of 62% in the number of complaints, with only 746 grievances lodged in comparison to 1,981.

This follows the apparent success of an EU crackdown on websites which followed dodgy practices such as hidden terms and conditions, unclear pricing information, and declaring services “free” when the customer is actually tied into a subscription.

Of the 300 websites investigated by the EU, 54 were closed down and 159 were forced to rectify their ways.

EU Consumer Commissioner, Meglena Kuneva said: “This EU wide investigation was a direct response to hundreds of complaints coming in from parents and consumers from many different EU countries.”

“Young people should not have to fall victim to scams like misleading advertising that lure them into ringtone subscriptions they thought were free. And parents should not find nasty surprises in their phone bill.”

“These results show that EU wide enforcement co-operation can make a huge difference in cleaning up a market for consumers.”