ACCC Chairman Graeme Samuel has fired a clear message across the bows of Australian mobile service providers:  Do something about the premium SMS problem or ACCC will do something about you.

We reported ACCC’s increasing hostility to SMS scams last November, when Enforcement Commissioner Sarah Court told an audience that ACCC was ‘getting very cranky’ about them.

Writing in The Age online, the Chairman now says: ‘Australia’s telecommunications sector has become so riddled with rogue operators, deceitful behaviour and scams, it can no longer be ignored.  Unless the industry … acts decisively to correct [the problem] it may find change forced upon it by the courts, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and its disgruntled customers.’

According to Samuel, service providers, publishers and carriers have turned a blind eye while taking a slice of the profits.  He needs to be careful to distinguish the position of many resellers and MVNOs further down the food chain, who have no real power over premium SMS and dislike it as much as consumers do.  It makes them no money and causes huge headaches when customers refuse to pay entire bills because of an inflated premium SMS pass-through component.

ACCC has issued a follow up media statement.