Earlier last month I was investigating downloading ringtones on my phone, just because I'd never tried it before. I found a 'free' ringtone and downloaded it. Not having entered any payment information I thought this was a fairly safe thing to do. How wrong could I be; nothing is ever free.

Every Friday over the past three weeks I've received three spam text messages. I thought they were just advertising messages or even links to paid-for-ringtones, which I promply deleted without reading. I can normally handle being sent spam in various forms but when I received my bill this week I noticed that each message was costing me £1.28 and I was getting three of them a week! I don't remember authorising this. How can they get away with this?

On contacting my operator it turns out you can stop this by texting 'STOP' or 'STOP ALL' to the number from which these messages are originating. Seems to have worked so far. If you find yourself in the same situation check out GrumbleText for more information.

Don't think I'll be downloading any more free ringtones and it certainly pays to keep an eye on your bill.