KEY POINTS:
Complaints about text message scams are on the rise, with young people the main target.
Many cons involve television advertisements promoting contests in which users enter by text message.
Once the initial text, costing 20c, is sent, the entrant receives numerous text messages from the promotion company, costing
them $3 a text.
Although the advertisements usually advise users they will face further costs, that information is often unclear or buried within the advertisement
The advertisements typically target the "text generation".
Consumers' Institute chief executive David Russell said that, for the first time, the number of complaints relating to text message advertising over the Christmas period outstripped every other complaint.
Complaints had been rising since the middle of last year, he said.
In September the Advertising Complaints Board upheld a complaint about an advertisement by TMG Asia Pacific which promoted a text competition to a video games console.
It ruled that while the advertisement mentioned users needed to answer five questions to enter, and that each text cost $3, it was still not clear entrants would have to pay $15 merely to enter the competition.
Mr Russell said the institute intended to lodge a complaint with the Commerce Commission about one of the most recent text message competitions.
In Britain, thousands of people became victims of scams involving millions of pounds.
They found they could be duped into accidentally subscribing to mobile phone services:
* By responding to an invitation to subscribe with "no thanks" or something the receiving computer could not decipher.
* By filling in a coupon in a magazine or newspaper and not realising they were also subscribing to a mobile phone service.
* By downloading free ring tones from websites with a condition users must also accept regular paid ring tones.
Users were charged up to £1.50 a text message ($4.28) until they managed to shut off the unwanted service.
Unsolicited text messages inviting users to chat were also common overseas.
In a recent case, a Chinese company duped about 400,000 people by creating the character of a young female nurse to solicit text messages and collect revenue from lonely men.
The Beijing-based company employed a team of 12 - mostly men - to act as "Wang Jing", a 22-year-old nurse who would invite mobile phone users to become "her" online boyfriend.
Mr Russell said while the institute would be do its bit to prevent the spread of text message scams users could also help.
His advice to people thinking about entering: "Just don't."
- NZPA
