Help! I’m paying £4.50 a month to a premium rate text service – and I don’t know how to stop it
Welcome to our new money advice column where we ask you to send in your questions - and we help provide the answers
WHEN I received a text message out of the blue saying I'd subscribed to something called "SecretSalesCodes" for £4.50 a month I thought it was a scam and ignored it.
I had no idea where they could have got my number from and certainly wouldn't have deliberately signed up to something like this.
The message said I could text back 'STOP' to the number 60031 in order to cancel, but I thought that if this was a dodgy company then replying would just confirm that my number is active and lead to more spam.
Soon afterwards I had another text with a discount code to give me 60 per cent off at TK MAXX, and again I ignored it.
Then came another text with a code for money off at Thomas Cook, but I thought that as the company is now called TUI, this was even more suspicious.
I have a pay-as-you-go deal with GiffGaff and when I checked my account I was shocked to discover it was £9 down.
The subscriptions may be for quizzes, competitions, gambling or even porn.
But every year the Phone-Paid Services Authority (PSA), which regulates this type of mobile charging, gets thousands of complaints from people who don't understand how they've racked up huge phone bills.
Of course companies are supposed to make it clear what you are signing up for, yet many people say they never knowingly agreed to text message subscriptions and want to know how it happened.
When I typed in the SecretSalesCodes number '60031' that you were receiving the texts from, it revealed the company sending the texts is called Mobtech and it is based in Germany.
The number checker tool also provided a UK phone number for SecretSalesCodes, a website and email address.
I contacted the company and it agreed to refund the money it had taken from you.
It says you joined the subscription service after you entered your details into a competition to win a £250 Amazon voucher.
After the competition page it says you were shown a screen telling you to enter your mobile phone number to "save money on your shopping with the latest voucher codes sent straight to your handset" at a cost of £4.50 a month.
Do you have a money problem that needs solving? Email Leah at Money@The-Sun.co.uk
It is a lot of money to pay for a couple of discount codes that weren't of any use to you, especially when there are plenty of free websites offering a similar service like Vouchercodes.co.uk.
When the PSA researched the online journey people go through to sign up for text message subscriptions, it found that it is quite possible for people to agree to expensive services without realising, particularly if it is linked to entering a competition.
You also raise a good point about whether or not you should reply "stop" to this type of message.
It's tricky to know which messages are a nuisance and which are an outright scam as our box explains.
Replying to scammers only confirms that your number is active and it may make the problem worse.
I think that in this case replying "stop" would have ended the charges, but I can see why you would be concerned about doing this.
An easy way around this dilemma is to phone your mobile provider and get it to block any further payments to the company.
A spokeswoman for SecretSalesCodes says: "We believe we have clearly informed Ms. Kiptiatu of the price of using our discount codes service, and we are sorry that she has not been satisfied.
"At no time has Ms Kiptiatu tried to contact us to resolve the issue.
"We are happy to refund the subscription fees in full as a gesture of goodwill."
Do you need our help with a customer service gripe or money dilemma? Email us at money@the-sun.co.uk and don't forget to include a daytime phone number. If you're complaining about a particular company, please include a line to say you give the firm in question permission to speak to The Sun about your case so that we can look into it for you. We cannot take any legal responsibility for the guidance given and it does not constitute financial advice.