29 June 2006
A company luring consumers to phone a premium rate line with misleading prize promotions has been stopped from continuing its activities.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) secured an injunction against the company called Sure to Win, which sent out over 1.1 million mailings to consumer suggesting they had won £10,000.
As a result, almost 204,000 calls were made to a premium rate number that charged callers £1.50 a minute. The average call time was over seven minutes, meaning some callers were charged over £10.
Any breach of the injunction could mean court action against the three men involved in the firm, which traded as The Prize Bank Consortium.
"These advertisements were very misleading and encouraged consumers to call a premium rate number in the belief that they would receive a £10,000 cash prize," said Christine Wade, OFT director of consumer regulation enforcement.
"The OFT will continue to crack down on promotions that make misleading claims."
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