phone spam

I have recently been the victim of Premium SMS Spam. It works this way, you enter a survey or competition (such as one run by these parasites) and in the fine print it mentions they'll start sending you premium SMSes that cost you $2 a pop. These are a significant problem in many countries a brief Google search will tell you.

Now I don't blame the SMS spammers. They are just doing what greedy people do the world over. It's the phone carriers who are driving me up the wall. The attitude of my carrier (Vodafone) is: Your problem. They are quite happy to bill me for this junk but they are unwilling to do anything about it. I was told by their customer service people that they cannot stop premium SMS being sent to my phone. Apparently that is not true - but if they stop premium SMS I also lose access to international numbers. As my family live in the UK, this is unacceptable.

I believe the other carriers aren't much better. They can create a zillion different (& confusing) billing plans but they can't (or won't) block Premium SMS. Cheers guys. Love your work.

1. I will happily give my business to an operator that will block premium SMS and also offer a comparable level of service at a comparable cost to the others. This is a deal breaker for me - do you understand? Can anyone suggest such an operator in Australia?
   
2. Given the proliferation of mobile devices & data services, we can expect more & more crap to hit us. Carriers seem to view this nightmare for consumers as a non-issue for them - in fact consumer frustration may be a moneymaker.
   

There is a business opportunity here for those able to take a more proactive approach.