Sunday, 7th February 2010 - 10:57CET

And €28,000 worth of calls later...

Christian Peregin

A young man racked up €28,000 worth of mobile phone calls before his local service provider could issue his first bill.

According to company sources, the man was a drug addict who set up a number of accounts on contract, receiving several free mobile phones in the process.

He sold the connected phones for around €200 each to other people, mostly African immigrants, to make some quick cash which he used to buy drugs. Since those who bought the phones could not be traced, they made an enormous number of international calls - mostly to African destinations - spending an average of 65c per minute during just one month.

By the time the mobile telephony company realised what was happening and shut down the man's accounts, the bill was already astronomical. The issue was eventually settled out of court and a private agreement was reached determining how the bill would be paid.

Company sources said credit control procedures were now in place to avoid a repeat of the incident, which took place last year. Customers are now being contacted when a certain call limit is exceeded.

Although the mobile phone operator preferred to remain anonymous, it said all companies were exposed to such 'abuse' when customers discovered loopholes in the system.

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Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Monday, September 6, 2010. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.

Comments

Peter Korsten(on 8/2/10)

"Strange that the such requirements are not imposed in Malta."

They are most definitely in place in Malta. There's such a thing as a credit limit, and for new customers it's not particularly high: we're talking tens of euros here, not tens of thousands of euros.

Why this system didn't kick in with this particular provider, I wouldn't dare speculate about.

Steve Sant(on 7/2/10)

And I say this to mobile service providers, a lot of providers are charging 'pay as you go users' extra calls on their mobile. I had a huge argument with a major local service provider, where I kept a strict count after I noticed a secondary phone i was not using and was switched off for almost 4 days a week, kept getting low very quick. This happened 3 times, after topping up with exactly 5 euro, the next 4 days, I would switch it on again find my credit down by almost half. I am saying this because I feel many users do not realise this. I have 3 different phones including an orange account, and out of all 3 find orange the cheapest, and I use it often to contact many of my clients in the UK.

Dave Alan Caruana(on 7/2/10)

I took out a contract with Vodafone UK about 2 years ago, and since I wasn't in UK long enough to prove my credit worthiness, I had to pay a deposit to get past that step (the deposit was refunded 6 months later). Also, I remember clearly that there was a limit imposed as to how far my phonebill could go. Strange that the such requirements are not imposed in Malta..

Charles Micallef(on 7/2/10)

Are they all so gullible or is it this just particular service provider? Being stunk for €28,000 is not such a small amount!

jimmy vella(on 7/2/10)

This gentleman has put a smile on many African illegal through his crimes but they don`t care either .