Someone forgot to turn off Telecom's $10 credits

By RENEE KIRIONA

A loophole in a Telecom mobile phone promotion could have cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars within two hours.

When 91ZM Auckland radio host Ian Stables took a call from a listener on his live-to-air show on Wednesday, he thought the man was a prankster.

"He said that people with a Telecom mobile account who texted 123456 to 2004 would get a $10 credit added to their account within seven days, each time they did it.

"We thought he was playing around until our phone lines started ringing hot from listeners who said it worked."

Stables' show has an estimated audience of up to 600,000, and he believed a significant number would have held a contract with Telecom.

"We weren't encouraging listeners to defraud Telecom, we just wanted to see if it worked. Some people were calling in saying they had tolled up between $500 to $900 worth of credit."

But the fun did not last. At 4.40pm - 80 minutes after the revelation - the station was asked by Telecom to stop talking about the promotion.

Telecom spokeswoman Katrina King confirmed that the promotion was real but should have been turned off on June 19 when it ended.

"The short-code, which enables those who text the number to receive a reply message, had not been turned off. It was just an oversight," she said. The number has now been shut down.

Ms King said no one had been credited since Wednesday, and staff would check the database to ensure those who texted the number would receive a maximum of $10 credit on their account.

The promotion ran during the Fieldays at Mystery Creek last month.