GMTV viewers spunking 45k a day in 'wasted' premium rate calls

‘It just runs and runs,’ commented Steve who sent me this link. I was reading about it today in the Telegraph. Deary me. The industry is getting the Panorama treatment, it really is. This time it’s Opera Telecom, not Eckokokoh, who are in the hot seat. More below……. I thought we’d got over this, I really did.

Link: BBC NEWS | UK | Viewers ‘lose millions’ to GMTV

Callers to premium-rate phone competitions on the GMTV breakfast show have been defrauded out of millions of pounds, a BBC investigation has found.

Panorama found a company working for GMTV had been finalising shortlists of potential winners “long before” phone lines closed, for the past four years.

GMTV has moved to suspend all phone-in quizzes, but said it was confident it had not breached regulators’ codes.

The phone operator, Opera Interactive Technology, denied any wrongdoing.

Panorama said tens of thousands of callers have been paying £1.80 a time to enter the competition – but as many as half had no chance of winning.

The programme estimated that since 2003 callers had wasted £45,000 a day – or £10m a year – entering competitions where Opera had finalised shortlists of potential winners before phone lines closed.