$250 damages for chap who’s number was broadcast accidentally

By on January 15, 2007 in News, Services

Link: BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Damages over China TV text gaffe

In China a man who received thousands of text messages when his mobile phone number was accidentally used in a TV series has been awarded compensation.

Chen Bing’s number had been read out slowly on a television series so another character could write it down.

His phone’s inbox was then flooded with thousands of nuisance text messages from strangers starting in July 2004.

Alex caught this one. Heh. Gosh, that must be a bit of an arse, eh?

What were TV viewers thinking? Why were they texting the number in the first place?

About Ewan

Ewan is Founder and Editor of Mobile Industry Review. He writes about a wide variety of industry issues and is usually active on Twitter most days. You can read more about him or reach him with these details.
View all posts by Ewan →

  • http://invalid.name Dan Lane

    In the 60′s the US started using the 555 prefix to indicate a fictional number, although now they actually do have a 555 number range (555-01 is still reserved for fictional use) which is confusing!

    In the UK we have a massive range of what Ofcom call “numbers for drama purposes” that you can see here: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/ioi/numbers/num_drama

    Apparently when filming 24 the producers used a real number in the show that goes to a mobile that is left around the set to be answered by whoever happens to be passing by (incidentally the set used for CTU in season one of 24 is now the offices of trendy MVNO AMP’D Mobile).

    I’m just full of useless information.

Switch to our mobile site