John Savage <rookswood@suburbian.com.au> wrote:

> A friend received six unsolicited SMS adverts over a three week
> period. Each SMS showed its sender as 19966664 and invited the
> recipient to reply, but she has been warned about scams so deleted
> each without replying.

> Subsequently, her Vodafone bill shows she was charged $6 for each of
> the received SMSs. On ringing Vodafone she was told she has to text
> the word STOP to the originating number, viz., 19966664, in order to
> have the advertiser desist, and as far as trying to get a refund of
> her $36 she will have to ring 1300737728 and ask them.

> Something seems wrong with this picture. Presumably Vodafone has a
> business agreement allowing them to collect fee for service on behalf
> of another company. It seems, then, that this company must be
> misrepresenting having provided a service, in order for Vodafone to
> be collecting a $6 fee.

> Shouldn't it be the responsibility of Vodafone to go after the scammer?

Nope, but it certainly is to remove those fees if she never signed up for those SMSs.