The latest internet scam - IQ tests

Kiwis' IQs are being tested by an internet scam duping people into paying money through their mobile phone bills.

Online IQ and love compatibility tests, which require participants to enter their mobile phone numbers to obtain the results, have caught out Waikato internet users, including the managing director of IT company Houston Technology Group.

Alan Chew was on a thesaurus site with his daughter Mei-Lin, 8, when a banner appeared offering to test their IQ. The pair did the test but to obtain their results the site asked them to enter a mobile phone number.

Once he was subscribed Mr Chew started receiving text messages which he found cost him $3.50 a pop.

"It's in the fine print but if you ask me it's just a scam," Mr Chew said.

"If it can happen to me, and I consider myself fairly alert coming from a computer background, it can happen to anyone."

Mr Chew said he called the 0800 number associated with the site to be unsubscribed but got an extremely harassed call centre from "God knows where".

"Their first sentence was did you read the terms and conditions before you enter your pin?"

Mr Chew was not the only person caught out. Hamilton woman Dellyn Mortleman completed the IQ test link on Facebook, giving her mobile number to obtain her results.

She was charged $30 for text messages she received. Telecom has since reversed the charges for her.

Commerce Commission director of fair trading Adrian Sparrow said the commission received a number of complaints about text subscription services that originated from such websites and urged people to read the fine print.

"If you want to check your IQ, the first test you should pass is knowing to read the terms and conditions and fully understand what you are entering into," Mr Sparrow said.

The commission will not be taking any action at this time against any of the websites as they had not breached the Fair Trading Act.

If further complaints were made indicating unsolicited subscription or failure to comply with the terms and conditions, the commission would reconsider, he said.

- NICOLA BOYES/Waikato Times