The Northern Ireland Advisory Committee on Telecommunications (NIACT) has issued a set off guidelines that aims to protect Northern Ireland consumers from receiving what is known as 'premium-rate reverse-billed SMS'.

NIACT have said they are issuing the guidelines because of the recent surge in past year whereby the customer is charged for receiving an unsolicited premium-rate text message from an advertiser.

Five years ago, targeting mobile phone customers would have been unheard of, but in the past year complaints regarding this kind of text message have soared as advertisers focus on the mobile arena.

NIACT have received numerous complaints from consumers who have received such messages. If a consumer does receive a premium-rate reverse-billed SMS without knowing, NIACT have advised consumers to:

• write down the telephone number of message sent
• contact the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS), who are the regulatory body for premium-rate telecoms services, and report a complaint which will investigated further
• contact your mobile network provider and make a complaint
• delete the message from your mobile phone.

NIACT Director Frank Hewitt said: “NIACT is concerned for many NI consumers who are receiving unwanted text messages.

"NIACT is working within their power, in conjunction with other organisations such as ICSTIS, to ensure that appropriate regulation of the premium-rate SMS market is in place.

"The message is clear – if you don’t recognise a message on your phone you should delete it but whatever you do don’t respond.”

(MB)