PhonepayPlus: Torrent of filth customers happy to receive and pay for(apparently)

[El Gringo]

Torrent of filth from Bluestream Mobile
JANUARY 11, 2012

If you sent a sick text message like "Your SLUT of a mrs on webcam...haha!!" to someone at random, you'd rightly be *considered a pervert.

But text that message to thousands of people and you're an entrepreneur, apparently, like Jonathan Cresswell of Bluestream Mobile.

This sordid company made nearly £500,000 by sending messages like that to mobile numbers on a marketing list he'd bought.

Some of the names on the list hadn't given their consent to receive this filth - but Bluestream hadn't checked, according to the watchdog PhonepayPlus.

Cresswell's lawyers tell us that "our client was not running the company at the relevant time" - but since he was the sole director, we wonder what he was being paid to do.

Bluestream has just been fined £35,000 by PhonepayPlus and admits on its website: "We do occasionally get it wrong."
Occasionally? In 2008 we told how the company in Marlow, Bucks, aimed its Free 4 U premium-rate mobile phone service at magazines read by children, claiming there was "100 per cent free access" but still charging. The regulator called the company "willful, or at least reckless".

Later that year it sent unsolicited messages to potential customers offering adult videos. People who texted the reply "STOP" to opt out of this junk were charged £1.50 anyway. It was fined £25,000 with an extra £5,000 fine because of its appalling track record.

In 2010 PhonepayPlus received hundreds of complaints over another vile Bluestream venture billed as an "adult Facebook" - though it used a different four letter word
beginning with "F".

Victims told how it was impossible to click off the site and you ended up being charged even if you didn't download any images. This time the company was fined £50,000, one victim of the scam telling the watchdog that each attempt to exit the site simply resulted in him being sent another bill.

The victim said: "They have blatantly designed a site to mislead its users into being charged extortionate amounts of money which the consumer is not clear about, and take advantage of customers who may feel, owing to the site's contents, slightly more reserved in complaining.

"Having spoken to customer services I was told that there was nothing they could do, and that they were not interested and that they would not make any refund." Antiphony Ltd, another Cresswell operation, was fined £50,000 in 2009 over its "Adult Sex Exchange" which sent unwanted costly texts, and £75,000 in March 2010 for failing to put in place
safeguards to prevent further, similar problems.

Cresswell, 35, resigned from Bluestream in November, moving on to a firm called Mobjizz - slogan: "Monetise your adult mobile affiliate traffic today."

The firm's new directors are Australians Gregory McCann and Ian Rodwell and we asked them if Bluestream will be any cleaner under them, but had no reply.

So we'll quote from their website: "We are only human and with such a broad range of
services and advertising, not to mention the sheer volume of constantly shifting regulatory compliance, mistakes do very occasionally happen. That we put right and learn from these mistakes is the most important factor."

But that's the trouble - they never do seem to learn from their mistakes.

BACKGROUND

PhonepayPlus received 70 complaints from members of the public regarding an Adult WAP Pay-Per-Page service promoted on the shortcodes 69700 and 89995, of which 68 were received after 1 September 2011.

but people have been posting and complaining here for a number of years

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/69700
little miss
14 Feb 2009
disgusting rubish, i would never opt into anything like this who are they?
[]
sahel mahmood
11 Dec 2011
Ive been getting text from bluestream of pornwebsites and they have been taking my credit
Caller: bluestream

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/89995
kashif mughal
11 Dec 2010
This number has been txting and charging me and made my phone bill for £45.00 i want to know who it is please
[]
mine has stoped
22 Sep 2011
well i have had these messages they have took all my credit loads of times .trust me dont text STOP it doesnt work i just left it and they just stoped eventually i havent had any more mabye theyve been caught i hope THOSE F***ING S**T HEADS:P hope this helps
Caller: 89995
Call Type: SMS

Message logs received from the Level 2 provider on 26 October 2011 confirmed that 14 of these 16 mobile numbers had been marketed to since 1 September 2011 with the text messages referenced above.

The Executive focused on these 14 complainants in relation to this breach of the Code, while noting the potential that many of the other complainants’ mobile numbers, for which PhonepayPlus had not requested information from the Level 2 provider, may have formed part of the marketing list.

In responding to the Executive’s preliminary enquiries, the Level 2 provider had confirmed the following:

· The marketing list contained 115,000 numbers;

· The Level 2 provider had not obtained opt-in evidence from Broadcast Systems, but this was to be made available on request;

· The Level 2 provider was provided with information purporting to be evidence of opt-in on various occasions during the investigation of this case. Evidence in relation to six consumers was subsequently checked by the Mobile Network Operator, Orange, which confirmed that the evidence was not valid;

· Evidence purporting to demonstrate opt-in by another consumer was also confirmed as invalid, as the consumer’s own telephone bill showed that no opt-in text message had been sent;

· The Level 2 provider stated that;

“Our attempt to validate the data is not conclusive as it represents a small proportion of the actual database and complainant MSISDNs provided in the case letter. However, we acknowledge that the initial results suggest that the validity of the database is without merit”.

so the PhonepayPlus 'investigation' involved 115,000 numbers being marketed to from 1 September 2011 and only relates to this period.

SANCTIONS

The Tribunal determined the following initial severity rating for each breach:

· Rule 2.4.2 (Privacy): Serious

· Rule 2.5.1 (Avoidance of Harm): Serious

One of the criteria considered by the Tribunal in determining the severity rating for each breach was the revenue generated by the service. The revenue generated from consumers whose details were provided to the Level 2 provider from the marketing list was within the lower end of Band 5 (£5,000 - £50,000). The revenue in relation to the service as a whole was in the high end of Band 2 (£250,000 - £500,000). The Tribunal concluded that, for the purpose of assessing the severity of the above breaches, it would not place much emphasis on the level of revenue, as consumers who were offended were unlikely to have engaged with the service and so were unlikely to have contributed to the revenue generated.

Absolute bullshit and a complete misreading to give a false understanding of the real 'consumer harm' done and the legitimate revenue(if any)this service generated.

Having regard to the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal decided to impose the following sanctions:

· A Formal Reprimand; and

· A fine of £35,000.

so the 'fine' appears to relate to the amount of revenue taken from the 'customers' who complained

[Hamlet]

More entrepreneurs can be found here
http://company-director-check.co.uk/director/915533136
and here
http://company-director-check.co.uk/director/911268848

Can anybody tell me more about other members of that nice british family?

And don't forget taking a look on Ian Rodwell

I have archived that name in connection to skill2thrill.com in 2009, but cannot remember, why...
http://markets.ft.com/research/Marke...ings?s=MKB:DEU

Mr. Ian Michael Rodwell serves as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Executive Director of Moko.Mobi Ltd. He is the founder of MOKO.mobi Limited. He has over 20 years experience in corporate and consumer design and multimedia and has owned and operated several businesses specialising in this field. He has worked in Australia, Singapore, UK and the US, managing projects for many international companies including McKinsey, BMW, UniLever, and MTV. In the consumer area, Mr Rodwell led projects for several of the world’s biggest names in sport including Manchester United FC; The All Blacks; Adidas; and several top tennis stars such as Anna Kournikova and Lleyton Hewitt. His role includes the oversight of all MOKO.mobi Limited’s product development and strategic planning.

Is it the same person? One could doubt, but...

Mr. Gregory Ronald McCann serves as Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Moko.Mobi Ltd. Greg McCann is currently the Managing Director and principal of the Excentor Group of companies, an independent software and consulting services supplier to the Asia Pacific region with 25 years of experience. Greg was previously a partner with Deloitte for 24 years and has held a number of senior leadership roles, including Managing Director for Deloitte Consulting/ICS in Australia, a systems integrator specialising in the implementation of enterprise applications. Greg is also Chairman of Tel.Pacific, a Non-executive Director of NBN Tasmania Limited, and on the Board of the law firm, Landers and Rogers. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Mirror should take a look at it again.

[Hamlet]

Ah, I found it:
The new entrepreneurs quite as filthy?
http://www.ktipp.ch/onlineartikel/1036972/H
(From Switzerland, in German)

http://forum.computerbetrug.de/threa...3/#post-289573
(from my German colleagues... time to say Hello again!!!)

Penman, sharpen your pen, man!