How do you know they have your details? Looks like a scam to me. 

The prefix 075513 is allocated to Vodafone, although this individual number may have been ported away. It could be worth reporting this to Vodafone.


Another thing is that some providers operate a SMS text number for forwarding spam to. Vodafone users can forward the message to 87726 (VSPAM) and Orange and O2 users can text to 7726 (SPAM).

Hi there!

I know for a fact that that 87726 (VSPAM) for Vodafone is free, so I would presume that the other number is free as well.

James Bond

the 2 short codes given for spam text's

paulbrighton2010 wrote on Apr 13^th, 2010 at 7:18am:

It is free for 7726 and 87726 on Orange and Vodafone, respectively.

Orange information is here
Vodafone information is here


I've not found out the cost of texting or calling 7726 to O2 users.

I haven't found out whether T-Mobile or Virgin Mobile have a similar number for forwarding spam to. Pages that mention SMS spam don't mention a text number like the ones with the other providers.


paulbrighton2010 wrote on Apr 13^th, 2010 at 7:18am:

If they only have your number, then you have nothing to worry about. I think it is likely that they just sent the message to blocks of numbers, so it isn't so much a case of them "having" your number.

Unless you're going to respond with some more information, for example, your name, then a number is just a number. I would not even respond with STOP; not because I don't think it would do anything, but because they may well send you more as you were deceived into thinking it was real.

NGMsGhost wrote on Apr 13^th, 2010 at 10:19pm:

Even more unfortunately, the present government made such a mess of implementing the EU Privacy Directive in 2003 that this matter is not the responsibility of Ofcom, but of the Office of the Information Commissioner.

There is however comfort for Ofcom-haters in the manifesto of the party most likely to form the next government - abolition of all quangos, except for those exercising technical functions. If this commitment were to be fulfilled, it would leave Ofcom as a shadow of its former self, managing technical things like radio frequencies and perhaps telephone number ranges. (It may be that telephone numbers would not be considered "technical", and that we should be free to have whatever telephone number we want, rather than being told what to do by "nanny state".)

Most of the current staff of the Information Commissioner's Office would also be looking for more productive work that contributes to the economy, such as running state-funded private schools. It is proposed that the attention of the Information Commissioner be focused purely on giving citizens access to government. Any necessary regulation, i.e. that which does not stifle enterprise, would be carried out directly by government ministers, but only if it could be shown that a greater regulatory burden were being lifted at the same time.

We await the outcome of the general election to elect the members of a new parliament. Once that parliament sits, we will see what manifesto commitments are able to be implemented. Any revision to the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, or Ofcom's duties and powers under the Communications Act (both of 2003) would require the approval of parliament. The champagne to toast the demise of Ofcom is perhaps best kept on ice for a while.

Whilst the regulations that are alleged to have led to a sense of national decline are still in place, the relevant red tape and bureaucracy is undertaken by the Information Commissioner's Office. As there appears to be a clear breach of the PECR, those who have received these unsolicited messages should present formal complaints there. I get relatively little SMS spam, so it could be that registration of mobile numbers with the TPS is worthwhile.

---

Before it is proposed that this forum be registered as a virtual "active neighbourhood group"  with membership restricted to those who either are, or not not, (I cannot quite work this out) supporters of the party in question, I must formally declare my non-aligned status in respect of political parties. I offer my own observations and comments on these complex matters from a truly independent perspective.

For the record, it is my understanding that all the major political parties have declared themselves as being against regulation in principle. There are however differences according not to the nature of the regulation, but where it originates, e.g. The Hague, Brussels, Whitehall, Holyrood etc., City Hall, the Town Hall, Quangos, populist measures such as petitions.

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Apr 14^th, 2010 at 7:23am:


But have you also comprehensively declared your list of commercial alignments in carrying out any work on behalf of any governmental bodies or commercial organisations in the UK that are responsible for operating and earning revenue share from call centres.

Also does your political non alignment mean that you never exercise your democratic right to vote and hence have little reason to complain about any governmental policy that may then be imposed upon you?  Or are you saying that you do vote but you frequently change your allegiance between the parties from election to election according to the policies that they are espousing on that occasion?