Yerrinbool resident Peter Hellyer was charged $50 for services provided by Sol Mobile, which charges for free SMS quizzes, mobile phone ringtones and SMS chat.

Mr Hellyer first noticed charges for eight separate calls to Sol Mobile on his Telstra bill, listed under “separate purchases”.

A check of his previous bill revealed two further charges from Sol Mobile, at $5 a pop.

Since Mr Hellyer uses his mobile phone solely for business purposes and mostly to receive messages, he is adamant that he did not make the calls.

According to time and dates shown on the bill, Mr Hellyer somehow found a way to make two calls simultaneously from the same mobile phone on each occasion,

After taking the matter up with Telstra, the police and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, Mr Hellyer managed to arrange a refund.

However, he warned that mobile phone users should keep an eye out for unauthorised entries on their phone bill.

People who have been charged for services to which they did not subscribe can ask for the charges to be stopped by contacting 1300 767 306.

The Department of Fair Trading has received three complaints about Sol Mobile in relation to relaying of charges for a premium service and subscriptions that do not appear to have been entered into willingly or knowingly by the person charged.

The complaints have come from consumers in Narrabeen, Eastwood and Goulburn.

For the full story see the Southern Highland News, Monday, March 2