Reporting Unacceptable Use

Over 20 years of trading, our customers have shown us repeatedly that they are happy with our service and willing to abide by our General Terms and Conditions.

However very occasionally a customer may use our service in a way that constitutes Unacceptable Use or Fraud Traffic.

This page sets out our definitions of Unacceptable Use and Fraud Traffic and what to do if you wish to report any such behaviour by a dmClub service user.

Unacceptable Use is defined as:

• Any use of the Service Package that causes degradation of our Services to the user or any of our other customers;
• Any use of the Service Package to disseminate unsolicited marketing or advertising material;
• Any use of the Service Package to impersonate or give others cause to believe the user is associated with any individual, business or other organisation where they cannot upon request provide reasonable proof of such identity or association;
• Any use of the Service Package that is in breach of third party's Intellectual Property Rights;
• Any use of the Service Package to provide, attempt to provide or claim to provide any service or product for which a licence is required, without the appropriate licence being held by you in the country in which the user is providing, attempting to provide or claiming to provide that service or product;
• Any use of the Service Package to participate in the transmission or storage of material that is pornographic and/or obscene, defamatory or menacing and/or offensive or which would result in the breach of any third party's Intellectual Property Rights, confidential information or privacy;
• Any use of the Service Package that is in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 or any amendments thereof;
• Any use of the Service Package that causes congestion, disruption or overload of Our Network or Our Chosen Carrier's network;
• Any use of the Service Package that contravenes Ofcom or PhonePayPlus regulations.

Fraud Traffic is defined as:

• Any traffic which any telecommunications carrier that transmits traffic to Our Network is unable to bill or collect;
• Any traffic where there is a reasonable expectation that the end user is not likely to pay their telephone bill because the calls are disputed as not originating from the telephone line for which the respective end user is responsible;
• Any traffic where calls are being made to inflate payments due from us or Our Chosen Carriers (known as Artificially Inflated Traffic, or AIT);
• Any traffic where there is repeated calling from the same number, by repeated the parties mean continual or sporadic, or habitual, where it is proven there is a repeated pattern of an origination number dialling a premium rate number; or
• Any traffic which is electronically generated by a computer or some other electronic software, or continually dialled from a human operated call centre.

What to do if you are a victim of Unacceptable Use or Fraud Traffic from a dmClub service user

In order to ensure your report is dealt with quickly and efficiently, we encourage you to contact us initially in writing or by email (support @ dmclub.net) with a clear and factual statement of the abuse you wish to report.

What to include in your report message

Please include as much information as possible about yourself and the circumstances of the abuse, including

• Your name
• Your location
• Your contact telephone number and email
• The telephone or fax number you wish to report
• A detailed description of the behaviour you wish to report
• Any other information that could help us in our enquiries.

We will respond to your message within one working day of receiving it. In the event of a service user being in breach of our Terms we and will investigate fully and take appropriate action.

How you can help us help you

We recognise that phone and fax spam may be irritating or distressing to you. We would like to remind you that such behaviour does not originate with us and that we take misuse of our products and services extremely seriously.

We will make all reasonable efforts to ensure appropriate action is taken. Please help us to help you by providing clear, factual, detailed information about the Unacceptable Use or Fraud Traffic and by refraining from threatening, emotive, abusive or otherwise unacceptable language during your communications with our Support staff.

FAQ

I am receiving spam messages from a number that appears to be yours. What are you going to do about it?

We do not operate an outbound calling or fax service. It is likely that the messages you are receiving are the result of an individual impersonating our caller ID.

Unfortunately we are not in a position to prevent this but appreciate your informing us of the situation.

Can you give me the contact details of the person who's spamming me?

We cannot release information such as the contact details of an individual service user to the public. However if your complaint is valid we are entitled to pass on the contact details of individuals engaging in illegal activities to the police or other enforcement agencies.

Do 070 numbers generate a payout for the user?

No.

Useful links

dmClub General Terms and Conditions

PhonePayPlus - premium number regulatory body

Ofcom - general regulatory body for UK telecommunications

Action Fraud - UK fraud reporting service

Consumer Direct - UK Government consumer protection body