Service providers hit with over £400,000 in fines from UK watchdog

ICSTIS is the Independent Commission for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services. Five of its fines, amounting to £315,000, were imposed on service providers that were judged to have installed a default dial-up number on users' computers that called a premium rate number without the consent or knowledge of users.

Practices involving such rogue diallers are the subject of a clampdown by the regulator at the moment, following a recent surge in complaints from members of the public who have found themselves with excessively high phone bills after falling foul of the scam.

The adjudications published yesterday include one company, B&B Services LLC, which was fined £100,000, with access to its service being barred for two years and another, Edvan Solutions, which was fined £75,000, and access again barred for two years. All of the firms were instructed to offer full refunds to all complainants.

ICSTIS has also taken action against a number of companies that have been sending unsolicited marketing messages – in the form of e-mails, faxes, phone calls or text messages – to consumers, encouraging them to connect to a premium rate dial-up service.

The sending of such messages is now in breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, which oblige businesses to gain prior consent before sending unsolicited advertising e-mail to individuals, except where there is an existing customer relationship.

One of the companies targeted by ICSTIS, New York outfit BW Telecom, was fined £75,000 by the regulator in February this year, and access to the service was barred for 12 months. According to the recent adjudication, BW Telecom has not complied with the terms of the ruling and has now been fined a further £100,000. Access to the service has now been barred for two years.