Payback time over prize scam

Payback time over prize scam

Two companies behind a premium rate number scam - exposed in March by Jobs & Money - have each been fined £20,000 and ordered to repay any consumer duped into calling the expensive phone line.

Hundreds of thousands of UK households received the personalised letters, including four "prize" cheques, from the Value Group earlier this year. The promotion was designed to leave the reader in no doubt that they had won a prize of at least £1,000 - possibly as much as £75,000. To claim the money the recipient had to call four premium rate numbers, note down a number and send it off to it off to a PO Box in Huddersfield.

The only problem was that the prizes didn't quite live up to the billing and had someone called each of the four numbers, they would have racked up a telephone bill of at least £42.

Following several complaints and two stories in J&M, the premium rate line regulator Icstis investigated and moved to close down each line. It has now fined the companies involved - the supplier of the UK service Manchester-based BCH Digital, and the Irish company behind the original mailing, Prime Media Services which is based in County Wicklow.

In its adjudication, Icstis said the promotional letter was misleading because it suggested that each of the mock cheques was worth a cash amount, which was not the case.

"The promotion incorrectly suggested that cash prizes started at £1,000 when the majority.....continued below

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of callers would be awarded less than £100, and potentially as little as £1.

"Callers would be less likely to call all of these numbers if they were fully aware that cash prizes started at £1," it said.

Icstis also noted that the promotional material failed to detail the cost of calling the premium rate numbers with sufficient prominence - the terms and conditions were displayed at the back of the promotion "in such a way that they were not immediately apparent".

A spokeswoman for Icstis confirmed that the fine has been paid by BCH, but no money had so far been forthcoming from Prime Media Services.

She also said that anyone who was duped into calling the number should contact the firms.

They will be required to pay back the cost of calling any of the four premium rate lines, although she conceded that Icstis doesn't currently have the power to force the companies to do so.

· BCH Digital's address is: 13th Floor, 111, Piccadilly, Manchester M1 2HY. Prime Media Services trades at 6 Herbert Road, Bray, Co Wicklow, Ireland.

Neither firm was available for comment.

m.brignall@guardian.co.uk

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