Case Studies

I spend loads of time on-line chatting to friends and surfing new sites. One time I found this website that asked me to fill in all my details so I could join a new group for friends. It sounded really cool and the form was so easy to fill in I did it in a couple of minutes and emailed it off. I could fill in my friend’s email addresses and send it to them. I thought they’d enjoy it too so just put them down as well.

Straight away I started getting billed through my phone. It cost 50p to receive the texts and they kept coming. One day I got 9 messages so it cost me £4.50!

My friends kept got loads of emails about the friends group but I told them not to give out their phone numbers.

I couldn’t remember the name of the website and I had no idea how to stop getting billed. It was so unfair because I thought it was free but it wasn’t. Eventually I told my parents what had happened and learnt I could stop the service by sending ‘STOP’ back to the person sending it to me.

I never found the friend’s website again so I don’t know if it explained the price and I missed it or if it didn’t give the information. What I do know is that I won’t give out my phone number again so easily! I want to stay in control.

Dan, Year 8.