Regulator spanks quiz line with record £800k fine
Kept eldsters hanging on the line at premium rates
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UK premium-line regulator PhonepayPlus has slapped Churchcastle Limited with the largest fine it has dished to date, ruling the phone-quiz host guilty of misleading and bamboozling callers with impenetrable terms and conditions.
After it received 15 complaints, PhonepayPlus found Churchcastle guilty of targeting the elderly, keeping them hanging on the line at up to £1.53 a minute, inducing them to call back without explaining the costs properly, and then providing cheap prizes, all of which mounts up to a £800,000 fine and refunds to anyone who asks for one.
Churchcastle advertised its quiz line in various national papers, requiring players to complete a word search over the phone, but according to the regulator that call was just the hook with which marks were snagged.
Next up was a letter, explaining that a prize was in the offing but offering the chance to win more just by calling in, which is where the really expensive charges came in, after which the customers were sent poor-quality jewellery.
Churchcastle is no stranger to controversy. The company was rebuked in 2006 by the Office of Fair Trading (which regulated this stuff before PhonepayPlus) for mailing people to say they had won a prize. This lured 56,000 victims into calling a premium-rate number in the hope of collecting their winnings - which turned out to be derisory coupon books.
Prizewordsearch.com, the site run by Churchcastle Limited, is still in operation, and the company tells us that it may request a review of the findings as:
"There was not a shred of evidence to undermine our belief that over 99% of callers both fully understood and enjoyed entering the competitions concerned."
The company insists it's always happy to refund anyone who feels otherwise. ®
COMMENTS
Not enough
The company here didn't make mistakes or errors that resulted in those callers facing massive bills. This was an organised and premeditated action.
It seems to me that this company was running a scam under the guise of a competition and all they face is a fine. This company should be shut down, it's directors banned from ever running a similar business again, perhaps even imprisoned for a short time. All the company's assets should seized and the victims fully recompensed with any remaining assets put into the public purse.
A nice little earner
> all of which mounts up to a £800,000 fine and refunds to anyone who asks for one.
Just call our premium rate number to apply
Why aren't premium-rate numbers an "opt-in" feature ?
Funny, all the talk from government about making 18+ content on t'web opt-in, but no-one has ever had the balls to call for these phone lines to be an opt in feature.
Personally I resent having to *pay* per month to block premium numbers. But we had to when our son started trying to call the premium numbers some games companies have.
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