Alert: Be careful sending text messages to special numbers

You may have seen those prompts to send a text message to a weird phone number in order to get some piece of information or enter a competition.

But be careful before you press send, as quite often you'll be signing up to spend money with them each day without knowing. 

Usually the company running the scheme posts the terms and conditions very obscurely, technically meeting their legal requirements. But most of the time you wouldn't notice the fine print or have time to read it. 

A Geraldton resident who recently received a surprisingly large phone bill warned people to watch out. Mary posted to Everything Geraldton:

"I received a hefty mobile phone bill this month and upon querying it was informed that a random text message put me onto the premium calls rate. Please encourage people to reply STOP to these random text messages lest they end up getting hammered too. The phone company has graciously blocked this source and credited my account with the extra amount but they might not do this in every case."