Facsimile complaints soar

ICSTIS received nearly 900 complaints about so-called junk faxes last year

Complaints about premium rate facsimile lines have soared, according to the premium-rate phone line watchdog ICSTIS.

The number of complaints about premium rate facsimile services, ranging from joke lines to opinion polls about Louise Woodward and Myra Hindley, shot up last year from 62 to 899.

The annual report from ICSTIS, the industry body which regulates premium rate phone and 'fax' lines, says complaints about them are now dominating their workload, and outstrip complaints about other premium rate phone services.

One company was fined £20,000 after inviting hoteliers to send over details of their premises for inclusion in a new guide, without warning that it would cost £1.50 a minute to dial the 0991 number.

Another was fined £1,000 for sending unauthorised facsimiles to random numbers asking people to vote by return fax for the "correct" verdict on the Louise Woodward case.

Another company was criticised for a facsimile poll on whether Myra Hindley should be released, with their promotional literature deemed to be in poor taste and sensationalist.

ICSTIS is also concerned about 'junk faxes'. The report says some companies are capable of sending more than two million promotional packages every month.

The government is already planning a crackdown on unsolicited junk faxes, and could force companies to get the permission of the receiver before they send material.

Changes to phone codes will also make it easier to work out which are expensive premium rate lines. From July 1999 all premium rate services will have to switch to an 090 code. At the moment more than 50 different codes are used.

Overall, the number of complaints received by ICSTIS rose 9% last year to 4,004.

In comparison to the 899 complaints about fax services, 726 were received about competitions involving ringing a premium rate number, 549 about information lines such as weather forecasts or horoscopes, and 447 about chat lines.

ICSTIS Chairwoman, Baroness Dean, said this had to be set against 220 million calls made to premium numbers, showing problems remained infrequent.

The premium rate industry is now worth more than £160m a year with about 20,000 services, including some based in Hong Kong and Guyana, currently in operation.