Emelie, 18, wins phone battle over sex texts
A young woman from Borås in western Sweden has won a battle to avoid paying for pornographic text messages erroneously charged to her mobile phone account.
Emelie Magnusson, 18, was bombarded with text messages of an explicit nature over a three day period at the end of May, newspaper Borås Tidning reports.
"They said something about big-breasted 18-year-olds and that it would cost 20 kronor. But I didn't dwell on it, I just deleted all the messages. Then the bill came," she told the paper.
Magnusson was charged for pornographic material amounting to 1,660 kronor ($220).
Stunned, she contacted her phone operator Three to explain that there must have been a misunderstanding since she had never requested the content for which she was asked to pay.
"But customer service just told me that I had to pay for what I had ordered," Magnusson told Borås Tidning.
Three suggested that she contact Stratus, the UK-based company that had delivered pornographic images to her phone.
But her search for answers proved fruitless and instead she receive a fresh batch of images in mid-July, resulting in a further 1,170 kronor in additional charges. In all, she receive 122 pornographic texts.
When Magnusson refused to pay, Three deferred to its procedures and terminated her subscription.
But pressure from local media eventually brought results as Three agreed on Thursday to cancel her debt and compensate her for the period during which she was unable to use her phone.
"It feels really good. This just shows that you should never give up. You have to dare to question things. I'm just really happy right now," she told Borås Tidning.
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Emelie Magnusson, 18, was bombarded with text messages of an explicit nature over a three day period at the end of May, newspaper Borås Tidning reports.
"They said something about big-breasted 18-year-olds and that it would cost 20 kronor. But I didn't dwell on it, I just deleted all the messages. Then the bill came," she told the paper.
Magnusson was charged for pornographic material amounting to 1,660 kronor ($220).
Stunned, she contacted her phone operator Three to explain that there must have been a misunderstanding since she had never requested the content for which she was asked to pay.
"But customer service just told me that I had to pay for what I had ordered," Magnusson told Borås Tidning.
Three suggested that she contact Stratus, the UK-based company that had delivered pornographic images to her phone.
But her search for answers proved fruitless and instead she receive a fresh batch of images in mid-July, resulting in a further 1,170 kronor in additional charges. In all, she receive 122 pornographic texts.
When Magnusson refused to pay, Three deferred to its procedures and terminated her subscription.
But pressure from local media eventually brought results as Three agreed on Thursday to cancel her debt and compensate her for the period during which she was unable to use her phone.
"It feels really good. This just shows that you should never give up. You have to dare to question things. I'm just really happy right now," she told Borås Tidning.
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