Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

The premium rate services regulator has launched an investigation into a company behind the Crazy Frog phenomenon, after complaints that children have been duped into signing up to an expensive subscription service.

During May, ringtone seller Jamster flooded TV commercial breaks with adverts that featured the animated amphibian in a leather motorcycle cap and goggles. Backed by a nauseating dance version of Harold Faltermeyer's 1980s hit Axel F, Crazy Frog drove viewers to distraction with his revving noises which became louder and louder in the ad.

The Advertising Standards Authority received the first complaints over the campaign, the cost of which has been estimated at over £10 million. A few argued that the ad was too irritating for TV; but irritation alone is not a breach of the advertising rules. Another 60 viewers complained about the visible Crazy Frog genitalia. The complaint was not upheld: the ASA decided that there was no sexual or inappropriate reference in the ad to the Frog's protrusion and no children had been upset by it.

Few will doubt the success of the campaign for Jamster, the UK subsidiary of Germany's iLove GmbH. The ads sold enough CD singles of the tune to take it to number one in the charts for three weeks; but the more lucrative ringtone sales were the really big hit, although total sales figures are unknown.

This is what drove complaints to ICSTIS, the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services. It has received over 100 complaints from people who thought they had bought the ringtone at a price of £3, only to find that they had also unwittingly signed up for a subscription service costing £3 per week.

Some subscribers – many of them children – only discovered the error when they received their phone bill.

Jamster's ringtone is sold through mobile service provider MBlox. MBlox, according to reports, is now under investigation by ICSTIS, for possible breach of the regulator’s Code of Practice. Reuters quotes an ICSITS spokesman who said: "If it's a subscription service, that has to be made perfectly clear."

ICSTIS has the power to fine companies and bar access to services if the Code is breached. It can also bar the individuals behind a company from running any other premium rate services under any company name on any telephone network for a defined period.

Increased fines for rogue diallers

Separately, ICSTIS and E-Commerce Minister Alun Michael announced yesterday that fines against firms that use premium rate numbers to connect unwitting computer users to the internet could rise from £100,000 to £250,000.

The move is in response to a surge of concern from consumers over rogue diallers – software that installs a premium rate number as the default dial-up number on a victim's computer without his knowledge, resulting in an unexpectedly expensive call every time the computer connects to the internet.

At present, such services could make significantly more money than the current maximum fine of £100,000.

"We all have the right to use the internet without the fear of being exploited by firms who prey on consumers,” said Mr Michael. “Customers have unwittingly run up hefty phone bills when their automatic dial ups get locked in to a premium rate number.”

The Government is consulting on the issue, and comments are required by 20th September.

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