Premium Service Loophole could Sign Up Anyone, Without Their Consent

A loophole has been discovered which means mobile customers could be signed up to premium-pay mobile services by third parties, without their consent.

After finding he had been signed-up to a premium rate service without every opting in, consultant Mark Hole told the BBC he discovered that any mobile number could be signed-up to fortune-telling services, provided by Buongiorno.

The loophole has apparently since been closed by Buongiorno, but the mobile services company has not currently responded to our requests for comment.

Neil Cook, chief technology officer at Cloudmark, thinks this kind of security flaw could prove a wider issue for the development of the industry. "The future of mobile marketing could be jeopardised by a growing sense of distrust in the end-user," says Cook, "who might not only be put off by the volume and content of the messages they receive, but could also be subject to charges that they had never signed up for in the first place. If consumers refuse to engage, brands could stand to lose a useful, immediately responsive marketing channel. And operators could miss out on the opportunity to build new revenue models as global marketers explore new marketing channels which place them straight in the palms of consumers."