A MOTHER-of-two who ran up a £187 bill after getting caught by a mobile phone scam now looks set to get all her money back.Tina Cawdron made just seven phone calls – and never even got to speak to a person.

A MOTHER-of-two who ran up a £187 bill after getting caught by a mobile phone scam now looks set to get all her money back.

Tina Cawdron made just seven phone calls - and never even got to speak to a person.

But after she contacted The Evening Star, her network provider T-Mobile was able to put Mrs Cawdron from Grange Road, Felixstowe in touch with operator Zero9, which manages the phone line being used in the premium call scam.

Zero9, which was unwittingly caught up in the situation by a company using one of its phone lines for a texting service, has now offered to refund the cost of all the calls.

Mrs Cawdron's husband David, a Felixstowe town councillor, said: "The response from Zero9 has been brilliant - they just said send us the bill and we will sort it out.

"We haven't got to pay a penny.

"We are just so relieved because this was a huge sum to us and I was furious because it wasn't our fault - we were not told it was a premium rate number we were calling and had no idea we were running up such a huge bill."

A spokesman for Zero9, which operates the phone line but did not send out the text message, said the scam was discovered within 24 hours and fortunately not too many people had been caught.

He said: "We caught it pretty early and so switched it off and pulled all the lines. Most carriers now have anti-fraud systems so these scams are getting rarer and we can deal with them quickly," he said.

"Our policy is 100 per cent refunds and all those affected need to do is send us their bills."

What do you think? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail EveningStarLetters@eveningstar.co.uk

HOW THE NIGHTMARE BEGAN

PROBLEMS started when Mrs Cawdron, 42, received a text message thanking her for ordering a ringtone and logo service at a cost of £4 a week.

She had not ordered it, and so called the number in the text to unsubscribe - not knowing it was a premium rate call.

Throughout the weekend she kept trying the number because she had not been able to speak to a person.

Every time she phoned she either got a message saying there was heavy traffic or was invited to leave a message.

At this time she did not realise she would be paying for the call.

Later BT alerted them after noticing the family had clocked up £187 on seven calls to a premium rate number.