This looks like bad news for mobile phone users in the UK, could it be the start of the equvalent of email spam for mobile phones? Just imagine having 100+ spam text messages per day, it would render the sms system next to usless as nobody would bother reading their messages anymore.
A salesman for an Indian company offered details of telephone numbers of people without any proof they had given permission to receive texts — opening the way to them being bombarded with messages including ones enticing them to claim compensation for accidents or mis-sold financial products.
Experts last night warned that mobile numbers are being passed on from the records of Indian call centres which British customers telephone. Supplying numbers illegally from a call centre would be highly lucrative for Indian workers.
The disclosure comes after The Sunday Telegraph exposed how nuisance, or “spam”, texts are fuelling Britain’s burgeoning compensation culture. They are sent by firms which pass on responses to “claims farmers” who sell compensation claims to lawyers for up to £500 “referral fees”, leading to more claims and higher insurance premiums.
But the latest disclosure raises new concerns over the security of every British mobile telephone.
The offer of UK mobiles which had not “opted in” to receiving text messages came from a representative of RouteSMS Solutions, an Indian firm that sells software and messaging services.
Mohsin Khan, marketing manager for Mumbai-based RouteSMS, said they could supply raw telephone numbers. Asked “is there any certification to show opt-in”, he replied: “No.” Any British company using numbers without proof they were opted in would be breaking both the Data Protection Act and European privacy and electronic communications regulations. Mr Khan said he was willing to accept £3 for every thousand numbers and offered to supply more than one million numbers. He also offered to use his company’s text messaging service to send out messages on behalf of the investigators.
Confronted by The Sunday Telegraph he refused to say where the data came from. He said: “I can’t comment right now, I need to speak to my managers. We are a company that is into SMS messaging. We are strictly against spam and we will close the account of any one who is into spamming.”
Experts say the offer typifies the starting point for British phones being bombarded with spam texts. Mark Brill, chairman of the Mobile Council at the Direct Marketing Association, said: “We know data can leak out of the back door of call centres in India where employees can be paid a month’s wages for selling on confidential data.”
There have been a series of cases where confidential data belonging to customers of British companies, including banks like HSBC, have been illegally sold by call centre workers in India.Many major UK companies use call centres based in India, including BT, British Gas and major insurance firms — although there is no suggestion that their centres were being used by RouteSMS.
The trade in numbers is lucrative for all those involved.Last week The Sunday Telegraph revealed the £12 million-a-year Accident Advice Helpline, which sells the details of compensation claim cases onto law firms, made use unwittingly of information gathered by spam text messaging to find new business.
This paper has now established that the messages were sent by an Indian firm operating on behalf of an expat British businessman in Thailand.
He then sold on details of people who replied to a company in Newcastle, which passed potential claims to the Accident Advice Helpline.
The expat businessman, Gary McNeish, 24, runs a company called Tetrus, which until April this year was registered in Manchester, but has since moved its operations to Thailand. Mr McNeish said he purchased the numbers and personal information of 75,000 British mobile telephone customers from a call centre in India for just a few thousand pounds. He admitted that he failed to carry out checks on the data and took the seller’s word that it was opt-in data.
Using a service known as an SMS aggregator, which can send out millions of text messages in a single day, mobile telephone users were contacted with a message asking them to respond to a compensation claim.
Mr McNeish sold details of those that replied to RT Analytics, based in Newcastle, for between £5 and £20 each.
Under UK and European regulations selling personal data to third parties without permission is illegal.
Mr McNeish insisted this was the first time he had issued text messages to generate leads in this way. He said: “I bought 75,000 records from a call centre in India. I won’t tell you who as I want to use them again. I was told it was data that had been generated from opt-in telephone surveys and that is what it looked like. I didn’t do any other checks.”
RT Analytics said it forwarded the text message responses from Tetrus to its client the Accident Advice Helpline. RT Analytics said it started buying leads from Tetrus in May of this year and that Tetrus had signed a contract saying it complied with regulations. A spokesman said RT Analytics did not believe it had breached regulations.
The Accident Advice Helpline said it was investigating how non-compliant data may have been used to generate the leads it was following, for which it paid up to £500 each to RT Analytics.
Campaigners want to crack down on spam messaging and Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner, is investigating the companies behind the messages.
Sir Alan Beith, chair of the House of Commons Justice Committee, said: “Any UK company which is using Indian call centres needs to check on its security and to act decicively if there is any breach of that security. They owe that to their customers.”
Article Source and credit: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/8613335/For-sale-your-mobile-phone-number.html
Filed under News by on Jul 4th, 2011. 
http://mobile-phoneinsurance.co.uk says: This price rise is the last thing people want at the moment! Imagine how much this is goning to cost a family with 3 teenagers. If the 66% price hike reported below is true, maybe it is high time for them to be forced to share their network power a bit more as it seems like they are going to get a bit greedy now, just like the energy companies …
Mobile phone charges will rise by up to 66 per cent in a punishing new blow for consumers.
Millions of users signed to Orange and Vodafone will be hit with inflation-busting increases in contract and pay-as-you-go tariffs.
The moves appear to be a direct retaliation against attempts by watchdogs to crack down on rip-off pricing in the industry.
And they come as families are already suffering the biggest squeeze on living costs since the 1870s as price rises have outpaced increases in incomes for four years in a row.
Orange is putting up its minimum call charge for pay-as-you-go customers from 20p to 25p from Friday – a rise of 25 per cent.
Vodafone, meanwhile, is increasing the minimum call charge on some contracts from 15p to 25p – or 66 per cent. These charges apply to calls made outside of those allowed by a customer’s monthly contract.
Its pay-as-you-go users will see the cost of a text rise from 10p to 12p, while calls to mobiles and landlines will go up from 21p a minute to 25p.
The Vodafone increases take effect on July 14.
They are the latest in a series of increases by the major networks, who had vowed to recoup costs elsewhere if watchdogs in Britain and Europe curbed existing pricing structures.
Between them, Vodafone and Orange share just under half the market. Given their clout, the other providers such as O2 are likely to follow suit.
UK telecoms regulator Ofcom is forcing companies to reduce the amount they take from incoming calls to customers. Until earlier this year, the networks received 4.18p a minute from incoming calls through the so-called termination rate. That figure was cut to 2.66p a minute in April and will be further reduced.
Separately, the European Union is forcing down the cost of using mobiles when visiting other member states – so-called roaming rates.
The net effect of the fresh price rises is that, despite the promises of regulators, consumers are no better off.
Ernest Doku, of uSwitch.com, said: ‘In the face of other rising living costs these will be a slap in the face to pre-pay consumers who will be counting the cost of every single mobile call.
‘With both local calls and text prices increasing, pay-as-you-go users will probably have to do quite a bit more topping up for their credit to go as far.
‘These increases beg the question of whether a contract might be better value for money for some pre-pay users.
‘If you are spending more than £20 each month topping up your mobile, seriously consider opting for a pay monthly or SIM-only solution.
‘With lower call rates, free texts and data, as well as the option to get a free phone in many cases, a pay monthly contract can work out significantly cheaper in the long run.’
Vodafone blamed the price rise on Ofcom.
It said: ‘We believe we continue to offer great value for all pay-as-you-go customers compared with our competitors. This price rise comes after recent regulatory changes.
‘During our discussions with Ofcom over mobile termination rates, we stressed that if the rates came down rapidly and dramatically, the cost of pay-as-you-go was likely to rise as a consequence.’
Vodafone said customers who buy regular monthly top-ups of at least £10 can earn extra free calls and texts under a system it calls Freebees.
Orange said it remained ‘committed to providing the best value and services possible’.
It added that the price rises were offset by new perks such as an increase in the number of free texts that customers get with a £10 top-up.
Recent research suggested the average household will have to find almost another £900 this year just to stand still.
The price of a basket of food is rising at the fastest rate for two years, while at the same time car and household insurance bills are also rising.
Article From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2008868/Orange-Vodafone-users-hit-mobile-charges-soar-66-cent.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Filed under Phone Contracts by on Jul 3rd, 2011. Comment.
Want to play some games on your new Android phone, but do not know what to download first? Let this round-up guide you in your quest.
Girl Skip – An Anime-style cross between Minesweeper and Hopscotch, in which you have to clear the board of randomly placed 1s, 2s and As by pressing numbers on the keypad corresponding to the distance you want to cover with your next move. There is a handy helper mode that tells you all the available moves at any given point.
Further information on Mobile Phone Insurance
Filed under best mobile phone insurance by on Jul 3rd, 2011. Comment.
When you’re learning about how EMF and Microwave radiation can affect your health, you might be wondering what kind of mobile phone radiation effects you can face. The worrying thing is there are so many lists out there with different kinds of side effects, but not a lot of solutions to these problems. When considering different kinds of safeguards against them, you should take into account your lifestyle and your personal needs. In this article you’ll find the most common effects you’ll face, and how to counteract them.
What Are Mobile Phone Radiation Effects?
Further information on Mobile Phone Insurance
Filed under best mobile phone insurance by on Jul 2nd, 2011. Comment.
Now you have purchased a new mobile phone and committed yourself for the next 18 to 24 months to your phone network, you will probably want to get some insurance in place to protect your new investment. As you probably know, your mobile phone was only given to you free by your retailer, as you have promised them with a guarantee of your business for the term of your contract. That is a guaranteed income supply for them for the next 24 months.
As you have assured them of guaranteed income over the coming months, they are more than happy to give you a free mobile phone, to reward your custom, as well as to attract you to the offer in the first place. But where would you stand if you lost your new phone? Well basically, you would have to stand the replacement bill, unless, you had some valid insurance in place for your phone. The replacement cost of phones will vary from make and model, but a rule of thumb price would be around the 300 GBP area, with the latest iPhone being in the higher price bracket of around 650 GBP.
Further information on Mobile Phone Insurance
Filed under best mobile phone insurance by on Jul 1st, 2011. Comment.
It is not easy to trace a mobile phone number unlike landlines. You cannot simply dial Information and inquire about a mobile phone number as they are usually not listed in directories. Lately, you can call and ask a company for a trace of a phone number but a fee will be charged for the service or search. However, not much information can be given. Many methods can be used at the moment to trace a mobile phone number for free.
Simple Search on the Internet – This is the simplest way to trace a mobile phone number for free. The mobile phone number is entered on the search site and some information about the mobile number will be obtained for free. The internet is a storage of vast information and the mobile phone number could be listed for many reasons thus it is likely to work well. People may forget or not know for what reason their number is listed on the web and it might be on any site such as a network site or a business site.
Further information on Mobile Phone Insurance
Filed under cheap mobile phone insurance by on Jun 30th, 2011. Comment.
If you are looking to buy a used mobile home, you are not alone. With the cost of living rising and home prices dropping, it might not be a bad time to save on the real estate end of your budget and think about buying a used manufactured home.
Today’s manufactured homes can be just as spacious and attractive as a regular home. There are new and used manufactured homes that feature amenities like wall-to-wall carpeting, central heating and air conditioning, whirlpool tubs and much more. The cost of a used mobile home can range from affordable to extravagant. Factors that will affect the price are location, size, quality and age of the home.
Further information on Mobile Phone Insurance
Filed under cheap mobile phone insurance by on Jun 29th, 2011. Comment.
Micro-max, as its name tells its whole story. Get maximum features at low price is Micromax. The company is promising to its customers to give high tech features in low price without compromising in the quality of the product. Micromax has already gained enough popularity in the market and gives the strong competition to its co brands like Karbonn, Wynn, Gee Pee, G five etc. as well as the prominent mobile brands also such as Nokia, Samsung, LG etc. Indian mobile market is flooded with the handsets of Micromax mobile. It’s focusing not only the entry level people but also attracting the youth by its looks and designs.
To fulfill the need of Indian consumers Micromax mobile has released many dual sim mobile phones at very reasonable and affordable price. Recently the company has launched Micromax GC360 mobile phone. It is the candy bar style phone and weighting around 105 gm with the dimensions of 111 mm x 48 mm x 14.8 mm. Micromax GC360 mobile comes with dual sim option (GSM + CDMA) but the phone is lack in QWERTY keypad. Good for the music lovers.
Further information on Mobile Phone Insurance
Filed under cheap mobile phone insurance by on Jun 28th, 2011. Comment.
iPhone insurance is not an easy product to find in the marketplace today. Over 90% of the policies taken out within the UK are assigned by the high street provider, and they offer extortionate prices per month.
For example, the new iPhone 3Gs costs £15 per month to insure, when the monthly tariff is only £35! Of course they don’t want the consumer to know that there are much better products available!
Further information on Mobile Phone Insurance
Filed under cheap mobile phone insurance by on Jun 27th, 2011. Comment.
iPhone insurance is not an easy product to find in the marketplace today. Over 90% of the policies taken out within the UK are assigned by the high street provider, and they offer extortionate prices per month.
For example, the new iPhone 3Gs costs £15 per month to insure, when the monthly tariff is only £35! Of course they don’t want the consumer to know that there are much better products available!
Further information on Mobile Phone Insurance
Filed under cheap mobile phone insurance by on Jun 26th, 2011. Comment.
