John,

These are revenue share short codes. All the Regulator has to do is 'follow the money' to discover who is behind this fraud.

Ofcom allocated the short code block 60000 - 60999 to Orange. The short code 60999 was given to txtNation.

http://www.txtnation.com/

txtNation uses it to run numerous campaigns on behalf of their clients.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22txtNation%2260999&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

Phonepayplus should ask them.

It appears from comments made on the internet referring to other problems that MX telecom is the company that 'owns' 60999.

Txtnation is just one of a number of resellers. These are revenue share short codes. MX telecom must know which reseller they are passing the revenue to for this premium rate 'service'. In turn that reseller must know which client is using which keyword/code in order to pass on the revenue.

Under the Phonepayplus code the revenue should be withheld (by the network/presumably MX telecom in this case) for 28 days before being passed on. This was introduced supposedly to stop this type of fraud. It obviously has not. The fact that this withheld revenue is used to pay any fines that Phonepayplus may decide to impose on the scammer possibly explains this.

Of course if this type of fraud was reported to the police nobody in the revenue chain (including Phonepayplus) would be allowed to touch any of that money.