Doggers dogged over the dog and bone

Text alert service digs itself a hole

Posted in Mobile, 19th September 2007 15:02 GMT

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A text alert service for doggers has been fined £20,000 by regulator ICSTIS for breaches of the premium-rate code, including signing up punters without their knowledge and failing to respond to "stop" messages.

The "Dogger" service was run by Zamano Ltd and provided vital information for those wanting to watch, or be watched, having sex in public places.

But punters only found out they'd been signed up to the service when they received a reverse-charged SMS, at £1.50, letting them know where they should be to get in on the action.

Zamano argued it had taken on the service from another provider, and claimed to have sent out notifications (free) to all customers on the database. However, as it couldn't provide any call records, ICSTIS dismissed the argument.

Zamano was cleared of providing inappropriate information to minors as it was operating an "adult" short code (starting 89) and, perversely, was cleared of failing to provide contact information as that only applies to promotions, and a service which signs people up without their knowledge needs little promotion.

Register readers hoping to avail themselves of dogging alerts will be disappointed to hear the service was terminated before ICSTIS got involved, but Zamano still has to cough up the cash to compensate aggrieved non-doggers who received messages. ®

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